Cavalleria Nova

At Cavalleria Nova we take care of our land with care and tenacity. Basically with what they generate we make all our products, in an artisanal way and following the traditional techniques inherited from our ancestors. We are proud that our cheeses, of exceptional quality, are the most awarded among all the artisanal cheese factories registered in the D. O. P. Mahón-Menorca in the last twenty years, thus seeing our work and dedication rewarded day after day.

Description

Artisan Semi-cured cheese made from raw cow's milk

This is the cheese with the shortest curing time, between 2 and 5 months. Therefore, it has a milder flavor and is easy to cut. It is the perfect cheese to combine with any dish and that adapts to all palates.

Artisan Cured cheese

It is the intermediate cheese as far as the curing process is concerned. It ranges between 5 and 12 months of curing. As it has more maturation time, it has a more compact dough and a somewhat more intense flavour.

Artisan Old cheese

This is the product with the longest curing time, from 12 months. After that long curing time, we obtain a cheese of lower weight and greater compactness, making it somewhat more complicated to cut. It is the cheese where its flavour is maximised.

Semi-cured cheese with Fine Herbs, artisan (this cheese is not subject to the D. O. P.)

Prepared in a similar way to the semi-cured one with the addition of a careful selection of aromatic herbs, with the aromas of the typical spices of the gastronomy of our land.

Semi-cured cheese with Black Pepper, artisan (this cheese is not subject to the D. O. P.)

Irresistible for lovers of this spice.

Image of Cavalleria Nova cover of cheese selection

Image of traditional Cavalleria Nova cheeses

Our history - Cavalleria Nova

From Cavalleria Nova, a small family farm, we have been producing artisanal cheese since 1899. After the last generational change in 2006, we began to market our products under the brand that today gives its name to our family business.

Our farm produces authentic artisanal cheese, made following the centuries-old and traditional Menorcan techniques. With them, we manually form the piece of cheese with a cloth that gives it the shape and wrinkles characteristic of its rind, and identifies it as Mahón-Menorca Artisan cheese.

The best of this land - Cavalleria Nova

The cheese is made with the milk produced by our own cows, which are basically fed on the natural pastures of our farm, Cavalleria Nova. With this we seek to transmit all the characteristics of a freshly obtained raw milk to our cheeses that thus treasure all the aromas and flavors of a milk of the highest quality.

Tòfol and Joana, with the help of other workers, take care of the pastures daily, which are so important in the quality of our product, and the cows, who have been receiving all their care, affection and passion for years. They are the ones who, with the fresh milk they obtain from daily milkings, make the pieces manually and take care of them, one by one, throughout the curing process.

Artisanal process - Cavalleria Nova

Our facilities have the latest milking techniques and the most rigorous sanitary inspections, which ensure total hygienic control of all our products. The cows are milked in a modern, automated and highly sanitized milking parlor.

Step 1

Every day, at dawn and dusk, the cows that are in production and graze on the fields of Cavallería Nova are collected to obtain milk by automatic milking. During this process the milk is stored in refrigerated tanks.

Step 2

From the refrigerated tanks, the fresh milk is poured into the “Dutch vat”, to which the rennet is added. Once the cheese paste is formed, it is cut and separated from the whey.

Step 3

The master cheesemaker distributes the cut cheese paste on the cotton cloths (known as "fogassers") and manually shapes, one by one, the pieces of cheese ("fogasses").

Step 4

The "fogasses" are hung for a few minutes to drain the whey. Subsequently, each of them is tied with a string that prevents them from losing their shape during pressing.

Step 5

The finished pieces of cheese go to the individual presses, where they will remain for 12 hours, losing the rest of the whey they contain and thus adopting their final shape.

Step 6

Once pressed, they are immersed for 24 hours in brine. From there, they go to the drying chamber, where they remain for several days until they reach their optimal humidity level.

Step 7

From the drying chamber they are transferred to the maturation chamber, where, depending on the type of cheese to be obtained, they will rest for the remaining months of curing.

Step 8

During the curing process, the parts are periodically turned and smeared manually. To do this, olive oil is used to give the rind its final appearance.