West Africa · Side
Queijo de Fogo (Raw Aged Goat Milk Cheese)
Semi-hard artisan raw goat cheese from volcanic pastures, balancing intense grassy brininess with a creamy, firm, sliceable paste.
The story
Hailing from the fertile volcanic slopes of Ilha do Fogo, this heritage cheese is consumed daily at breakfast with hot doche de goiaba or freshly baked bread. Local pastoralists rely on the rich, mineral-dense milk of goats grazing on wild aromatic shrubs around Pico do Fogo. The traditional curd-setting technique uses artisanal vegetable or animal rennet and requires manual pressing in perforated tin moulds before a slow cellar curing.
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