Queso Flor de Guía (Gran Canaria Cheese)

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •6 to 8L stainless steel pot with lid
• •Instant-read thermometer
• •Kitchen scale accurate to 1g
• •Mortar and pestle
• •Fine cheesecloth or butter muslin
• •12 to 14cm cheese mold with follower
• •Long curd knife
• •Small cheese press or clean weights
• •Ripening box with draining mat
• •Wine fridge or cool cellar held at 10 to 12°C

Instructions

1. 1

   Steep the flower

   Scald or sanitize the pot, mold, follower, cloth, knife, ladle, and thermometer; cheese is patient food, not dirty food. Pull 8g of purple florets from the dried cardoon heads, pound them in a mortar with 2g salt, then stir in 120ml warm non-chlorinated water. Leave 30 minutes, strain through a scalded cloth or coffee filter, and squeeze hard. You want a clear tea-coloured infusion with no flower dust left to make the cheese bitter.

   Cardoon strength changes from harvest to harvest. Use 8g for the first wheel and write down the set time; more flower is not a shortcut, it is bitterness.
2. 2

   Warm the milk

   Combine the sheep milk and cow milk in a 6 to 8L stainless steel pot and warm slowly to 31°C, stirring from the bottom so no hot pocket forms. Stir in the diluted calcium chloride. Sprinkle the mesophilic culture over the surface, wait 3 minutes for it to hydrate, then stir gently for 1 minute. Cover and hold the milk at 31°C for 30 minutes.

3. 3

   Set with cardoon

   Measure 100ml of the strained cardoon infusion, topping up with non-chlorinated water if you have less. Stir it into the milk for 45 seconds with slow up-and-down strokes, then stop the milk, cover the pot, and hold it at 30 to 32°C for 60 to 90 minutes. Cardoon sets softly, not with the snap of animal rennet. The curd is ready when a knife lifts a soft clean break and pale whey gathers at the edge.

   If the curd is still loose at 90 minutes, warm the pot back to 31°C and wait 20 minutes more. Do not add a second full dose of cardoon; that bitterness stays.
4. 4

   Cut the curd

   Cut the curd into 2cm cubes with a long knife, first straight down, then at an angle as best you can. Let it rest 10 minutes so the cut faces firm. Stir with your hand or a ladle for 5 minutes, barely moving it, until the curds shrink a little and the whey turns yellow-green. Keep the pot around 30°C. Rough stirring makes paste, and paste does not become Flor de Guía.

5. 5

   Mold and drain

   Line a 12 to 14cm cheese mold with damp butter muslin and set it over a tray. Ladle in the curds gently, letting whey run through before adding the next spoonful. Fold the cloth over the top, set the follower on, and let it drain under its own weight for 20 minutes. The curd should settle into one mass but still look tender.

6. 6

   Press lightly

   Press with 1kg for 30 minutes, then unwrap, flip, and rewrap the cheese. Press with 2kg for 1 hour, flip again, then press with 3kg for 4 hours. The wheel should knit at the edge but still give under your fingers. If the whey runs milky white under pressure, back off; you're pushing out fat, not just whey.

7. 7

   Salt by weight

   Weigh the drained wheel. Rub it all over with fine sea salt equal to 2 percent of its weight, usually 16 to 20g for this size. Pésalo, no lo adivines. Set it on a draining mat in a ripening box at 10 to 12°C for 12 hours, turning once. The salt draws off surface whey and begins the rind without drying the paste hard.

8. 8

   Age young

   Age the cheese 15 to 21 days at 10 to 12°C with about 85 percent humidity. Turn it daily for the first week, then every other day. Keep the rind barely tacky, not wet; crack the box lid if moisture beads heavily, and close it more if the rind dries. Wipe stray blue or black mold with a cloth dipped in 3 percent brine, 3g salt in 100ml water, then dry the surface. If the cheese swells, smells rotten, or turns sharply ammoniacal, discard it.

9. 9

   Serve simply

   Take the cheese from the refrigerator 1 hour before serving so the paste softens. Cut it into wedges and spoon miel de palma beside it or let a little run over the cut face. Add plain country bread if you like. No jam parade, no hot pepper jelly. The flower and the milk have already done the work.

Chef Tips

• •If you can buy a DOP wheel from Gran Canaria, buy it and serve it simply. If you are making it far away, the closest path is the milk ratio and the cardoon set, not decoration around the plate.
• •Milk decides this cheese. Use non-UHT sheep milk for at least 60 percent of the pot; cow milk softens the paste. If you replace all the sheep milk with cow milk, you can make a pleasant cheese, but it won't have the same fat, scent, or grip.
• •Buy dried Cynara cardunculus flowers or a liquid thistle coagulant sold for cheesemaking. Artichoke leaves and ornamental thistle heads are not the same; some are sprayed and some will not set milk. This is not a place to be clever.
• •Traditional wheels depend on fresh local milk. For a first home wheel far from Gran Canaria, pasteurized non-UHT milk, calcium chloride, and a tiny dose of mesophilic culture are the steadier path. If you use legal raw milk from a dairy you trust, skip the calcium chloride and culture only if you know how that milk behaves.
• •Palm honey, miel de palma, is Canarian palm syrup, not bee honey. If you cannot get it, use a dark cane syrup before a perfumed flower honey; what changes is the cooked, faintly bitter depth that makes the pairing so good.
• •A small wine fridge set to 10 to 12°C with a lidded ripening box is the easiest home cellar. Keep a thermometer and hygrometer inside. Guesswork is for people who enjoy throwing milk away.
• •Serve with a dry Malvasía Volcánica or a light Listán Blanco from the Canaries. The wine should clean the cream from your mouth, not fight the cardoon bitterness.

Advance Preparation

• •Start this cheese 16 to 22 days before you plan to serve it: one day for making, salting, and settling, then 15 to 21 days for a young, creamy age.
• •Make the cardoon infusion fresh while the milk warms. The dried flowers keep for months in a sealed jar away from light, but the strained infusion loses strength and cleanliness if it sits around.
• •Once aged, wrap the cheese in waxed cheese paper and refrigerate for up to 7 days. Bring it out 1 hour before serving so the paste softens and the cardoon edge comes through.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 110g)