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Queijo do Pico

Matured cheese produced by slow draining of curd after coagulation of raw cow's milk using a coagulant of animal origin. Shaped like a flat cylinder (dish), rounded and regular, bulging at edges. Yellow crust, 16 to 17 cm in diameter, 2 to 3 cm high and weighing between 650 and 800 g., soft, pasty consistency, yellowish-white colour, intense, salty flavour and pleasant, strong, characteristic smell. Irregular texture, with 'eyes', friable and very creamy. Fat content between 45 and 49% and water content between 67 and 71%. 
Given the sensory characteristics of the product, the soil and climatic conditions required to produce the milk and process and ripen the cheese and the methods used in accordance with long-standing local traditions of genuineness to produce the raw material and to process and ripen the cheese known as Queijo do Pico, the geographical area of production and processing is naturally restricted to Ilha do Pico in the Azores. 
Queijo do Pico can only be produced in authorised processing facilities located in Ilha do Pico processing milk from the region's dairy cows reared according to the open-herding system and grazed on natural or improved pastures where the main grasses are Italian rye-grass, cocksfoot, clover, wild mint, dock, ferns and mock orange. The combination of the feeding system and the other husbandry techniques, the know-how of the inhabitants and the climatic and soil conditions guarantee and circumscribe the geographical origin of the product. 
The milk obtained from animals of the bovine species reared and fed in accordance with traditional methods is transported to dairies, where it is filtered and stabilised at 26 to 27C. Before it is added to the milk, the coagulant is diluted in water and stirred with a tablespoon of cooking salt. Coagulation occurs 45 to 60 minutes after the coagulant is added. Empirical tests are carried out to see whether the curd is of the right consistency. The curd is cut up with a spatula or a curd-rack for around four minutes to obtain small cubes. After the whey has run off by itself (4 to 5 minutes), the curd is turned out on the table and placed inside a piece of fine cloth so the whey can drain away. The curd is then placed in cheese-presses and pressed and shaped by the 'cold' hands of the cheesemakers, so each cheese has a smooth 'face'. The cheeses are rubbed with (around 21g) salt on each side to dry them. After salting, the cheeses are left on draining boards for the night and then put in a maturing room (at a temperature of around 17C and a relative controlled humidity of 75 to 80%) or a maturing chamber (at a temperature of around 15C and a relative controlled controlled humidity of 80 to 85%), where they stay for 17 to 30 days. During the maturing phase, the cheeses are turned over twice a day and the edges are smoothed out on the third or fourth day. 
From time immemorial, Ilha do Pico has demonstrated a significant dairy livestock production capacity, one of the pillars of the fragile local economy. The harshness of the climate and the poor communications have made cheesemaking a necessity as a way of preserving milk and building up strategic food and economic reserves. 
The relative isolation of the island's inhabitants means that even today traditional cheesemaking techniques have been kept alive, modernised solely from the hygiene and health viewpoints. The production of Queijo Pico continues as a supplementary activity to farming, the family structure still largely dominating manufacture and marketing. The first written references to the production of Queijo do Pico date from 1867 and 1877 and in both cases they bear witness to the economic importance and long-standing production of this cheese.