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São Jorge Cheese ((ポルトガル語:Queijo São Jorge)) is a semi-hard to hard cheese, produced on the island of São Jorge, in the Portuguese archipelago of the Azores, certified as a ''Região Demarcada do Queijo de São Jorge'' (''Demarcated Region of the Cheese of São Jorge'') and regulated as a registered ''Denominação de Origem Protegida'' (''Denomination of Protected Origin''). ==History== The beginning of the cheese sector began at the time of the islands' settlement, with transport of domesticated cattle. The historian Gaspar Frutuoso, noted that after colonization on São Jorge, ''"On it was dairy cattle, sheep and goats, from which they make many cheeses all year, which is the best of all the islands of the Azores, because of the pastures..."''〔Gaspar Frutuoso, ''Saudades da Terra'' (Book VI, Chapter 33, ''Da Descrição da Ilha de S. Jorge'')〕 The connection between the quality of the cheese and the pasture-lands was confirmed over history, by studies by agronomists. The climatic conditions and their affect on pasture-lands meant that the there was more milk production then was needed for a subsistence economy. The inhabitants, therefore, resorted to the manufacture of cheese as a food reserve and manner of using excess milk production. Moreover, the cheeses of São Jorge (beyond the skill and knowledge of Jorgense cheese-makers) was attributed to the natural intercropping of grasses and legumes, that characterized the middle altitude areas.〔Henrique de Sampaio e Castro Pereira da Cunha da Silveira, ''Subsídios para o Estudo das Pastagens da Ilha de São Jorge'', relatórios de licenciatura, Instituto Superior de Agronomia, Lisboa, 1952.〕 Over the course of settlement, though, the presence of Flems (among the first settlers, captained by Willem van der Haegen) influenced the direction that cheese production advanced. These colonist found that the higher altitude similar to their former lands, which were used for cattle-raising and dairy grazing.〔José Leal Armas, ''Contribuição para a História da Produção de Leite e Lacticínios nos Açores'', separata do ''Boletim do Instituto Histórico da Ilha Terceira'', volume XLIV, Angra do Heroísmo, 1986.〕 José Pereira da Cunha da Silveira e Sousa Júnior]], an agronomer and one of the largest producers of cheeses in the 19th century wrote (1887) that: :''In São Jorge, nicknamed the land of cheese, is where, for more than a century, they have handily manufactured milk, has in fact, well multiplied the number of manufacturers.''〔José Pereira da Cunha da Silveira e Sousa Júnior, ''Os lacticínios na Região Açoriana Ocidental'', Angra do Heroísmo, 1887.〕 This implied, witnessed by the municipal records and the island's monasteries,〔José Cândido da Silveira Avelar, ''Ilha de S. Jorge (Açores) - Apontamentos para a sua História'', Horta, 1902.〕 that by the middle of the 18th century, the production of cheese had expanded significantly, exporting to the rest of the islands in the archipelago and abroad, that included the ''queijo da terra'' (the embryonic ''Queijo São Jorge''), that was similar to the Flemish cheese at the time. This distinction evolved, under the influence of the Cunha da Silveira family, great property-owners and producers of cheese, introduced a few improvement in technology, with the introduction of new techniques from abroad. It was this way that: ''São Jorge received in this epoch a visit from a Hamburg profession...Fernand Ranchel, who established in the fields of Loural, alongside the settlement of Toledo, where he dedicated a factory to the production of a hard cheese, certainly the model for the ''Queijo de São Jorge'', known as the ''Queijo da Terra'', that substituted the first types of soft and semi-hard hitherto used by the cottage industry. This fact dated to the beginning of the last century.〔José da Cunha Silveira, ''A Indústria dos Lacticínios nos Açores'', separata do ''Boletim AGROS'', Lisboa, 1927.〕 The cheese acquired its current shape by the end of the 18th century; it was a cylindrical, volumous, "wheel"-shaped cheese, with some produced in special formats (at the sizes and weights that were necessary for transport). Ernesto Rebelo, referred to a cheese for a gift, of enormous proportions, that the nobleman Jorge da Cunha had ordered in São Jorge for his friend D. José Pegado de Azevedo, Bishop of Angra, when he visited the island of Faial.〔Ernesto Rebelo, ''Notas Açoreanas'', volume IV, in ''Arquivo dos Açores'', Ponta Delgada.〕 The ''Queijo são Jorge'' was, because of its historical importance, was protected in 1986 with the creation of the ''Região Demarcada do Queijo de São Jorge'' (''Demarcated Region of the Cheese of São Jorge'') and regulated as a registered ''Denominação de Origem Protegida'' (DOP), attributed to the brand ''Queijo São Jorge''.〔 About 1800 tonnes of cheese are produced annually, from 800 producers among nine milk processing cooperatives. This means that the Cheese of São Jorge is one of the pillars of the island economy, despite the constant management problems that have affected the industry. In 1991, a confraternity, named the ''Confraria do Queijo de São Jorge'', whose role was sampling of cheeses for certification, by the Uniqueijo Cooperative. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「São Jorge cheese」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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