Mixed milks cheeses
Cheeses made from two or three milks together: Feta, Halloumi, La Tur and many farm cheeses.
Many cheeses are made from more than one milk. Shepherds have always run mixed flocks of sheep and goats, and a farm with a few cows and a few goats made one cheese from both. Feta allows up to 30 per cent goat's milk with sheep's milk, halloumi blends sheep's, goat's and cow's milk, and Spain's Cabrales and Picón and Italy's La Tur and Robiola di Roccaverano bring two or three milks together.
Why blend
Each milk brings something of its own. Sheep's milk adds richness and body, goat's milk brightness and a white colour, and cow's milk volume and a mild, supple paste. Blends also follow the farm year: as goats and ewes dry off before kidding and lambing, cow's milk fills the vat, so the share of each milk in some cheeses changes with the season. Protected cheeses often fix a range. Cabrales, for example, may be made from cow's milk alone or blended with goat's and sheep's milk.
Eastern Mediterranean
Halloumi, registered as a protected name in the European Union in 2021, is made from sheep's or goat's milk or both, and cow's milk is allowed alongside them. Greek kasseri is sheep's milk with a little goat's milk, and feta itself is a blend in most of its makers' hands. In Lebanon and Syria, shanklish and many village cheeses are made from whatever milk the household has. Turkish tulum and Cypriot anari are made from the milk or whey of mixed flocks.
Farm and mountain cheeses
Small farms around the world make mixed-milk cheeses for their own tables, from the Pyrenees to the Atlas, the Caucasus and the Andes. Portugal's Rabaçal blends sheep's and goat's milk, and Picón Bejes-Tresviso, a blue of Cantabria, may combine cow's, sheep's and goat's milk. In the Himalaya, churpi may combine yak and cow's milk, and the milk of the dzo or chauri, a cross of yak and cattle, is a kind of blend in itself.
Worth knowing
- Feta: Sheep's milk with up to 30 per cent goat's milk
- Halloumi: Sheep's and goat's milk, with cow's milk allowed
- La Tur: Piedmontese cheese of cow's, sheep's and goat's milk
- Robiola di Roccaverano: Goat's milk cheese that may include cow's or sheep's
- Cabrales: Asturian blue of one, two or three milks
- Picón Bejes-Tresviso: Cantabrian blue of mixed milks
- Kasseri: Greek sheep's milk cheese with some goat's milk
Good to know
- Labels on protected cheeses state the milks; farm cheeses may vary from batch to batch.
- Mixed-milk cheeses suit people who find pure goat or sheep cheese too strong.
Sources and further reading
Original text by the EveryCheese desk, written with AI assistance and checked against the sources above. Customs are described as tradition, not as advice. If we have something wrong, tell us.
Mixed on EveryCheese
The cheeses written up so far, best known first.
🇪🇸 SpainCabralesqueso de Cabrales
A pungent blue cheese from the Picos de Europa mountains of Asturias, Spain.Mixed · Blue · Sharp and tangy-aged
🇸🇰 SlovakiaParenica
A semi-firm Slovak cheese made from steamed curds, often smoked and woven into spirals.Sheep · Semi-hard · Savoury and brothy
🇬🇷 Greece and 5 moreWhey cheese
A dairy product made from the liquid remaining after curds are separated during cheesemaking.Mixed · Whey · Sweet and caramel
🇵🇹 PortugalCastelo BrancoQueijo de Castelo Branco
A soft Portuguese cheese from the Beira Baixa district, made with goat or sheep milk.Mixed · Semi-soft · Savoury and brothy
🇪🇸 SpainGamonéuQueso de Gamonéu
A lightly smoked, mixed-milk cheese from the mountains of Asturias with a moulded rind.Mixed · Smoked · Savoury and brothy
🇮🇹 ItalyFormaggio di fossa
A sharp Italian cheese aged in sealed underground pits for a distinct anaerobic fermentation.Cow · Semi-hard · Sharp and tangy-aged
🇮🇹 ItalyRobiola
A soft-ripened Italian cheese from Piedmont and Lombardy, made from cow, goat, or sheep milk.Cow · Bloomy rind · Sweet and caramel
🇬🇷 GreeceXynotyro
A hard, sour whey cheese from Greece made with sheep or goat milk.Mixed · Hard · Tangy and lactic
🇷🇺 RussiaKorallКоралл
A pink, shrimp-flavoured processed cheese made in Russia with fish paste and spices.Mixed · Processed · Savoury and brothy
🇪🇸 SpainCampo de Montalban
A semi-firm Spanish cheese from La Mancha made with a blend of cow, sheep and goat milk.Mixed · Semi-hard · Savoury and brothy
🇧🇦 Bosnia and HerzegovinaBosnian smoked cheeseSuhi dimljeni sir
A very dry, piquant low-fat smoked cheese from Bosnia and Herzegovina.Mixed · Smoked · Piquant and spicy
🇳🇵 NepalTibetan cheese
A family of dairy products from Tibet, ranging from fresh curds to extra-hard aged blocks.Mixed · Fresh · Savoury and brothy
Photo credits on this page
The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.
- Cabrales: PDPhoto.org, Public domain, source
- Gamonéu: Jrfdiaz, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Formaggio di fossa: Zeugma fr ( talk ) (Antoine FLEURY-GOBERT), CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Castelo Branco: Adriao, Public domain, source
- Whey cheese: Illustratedjc, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Parenica: Stanislav Doronenko, Public domain, source
- Robiola: Andrea Marchisio, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Bosnian smoked cheese: Security.cyber, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Tibetan cheese: Alpha, CC BY-SA 2.0, source