{{Short description|Basque-Hispanic cheese}} {{Infobox prepared food | name = Cuajada | image = Cuajada.jpg | image_size = 300px | caption = | alternate_name = | country = Spain | region = | creator = | type = milk curd | served = | main_ingredient = Ewe's milk or cow's milk | variations = | calories = | other = }}

'''Cuajada''' (milk curd) is a dairy product traditionally made from sheep's milk, but now it is more often made industrially from cow's milk. It is popular in the northern regions of Spain (Asturias, Cantabria, Basque Country, Navarre, Aragon, Castile and Leon, and La Rioja). In Latin America it is popular in Colombia, Venezuela, and in the Central American countries of El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and in the northern region of Costa Rica. <ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.nicaliving.com/node/1092 |title=How to Make Cuajada &#124; Nicaragua Living |accessdate=2014-01-31 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20140202094510/http://www.nicaliving.com/node/1092 |archivedate=2014-02-02 }}{{full citation needed|date=June 2016}}</ref>

Raw warmed milk is mixed with rennet or plant extracts and left to curdle. It was traditionally made in a wooden vessel called ''kaiku'' and heated with a red-hot poker, giving it a distinct faintly burned taste. Commercial individual servings of cuajada are sold refrigerated in earthenware pots, but modernly plastic containers such as those of yogurt are also sold. {{lang|es-ES|Cuajada}} means "curdled" in Spanish. In Basque, it is called {{lang|eu|mami}}.<ref name="OEH">{{cite book |title=Orotariko Euskal Hiztegia |url=https://www.euskaltzaindia.eus/index.php?option=com_oehberria&task=bilaketa&Itemid=413&lang=eu-ES&definizioak=0&query=mami&mota=sarrera#azpiadiera-1.3 |access-date=14 October 2025 |language=es |chapter=mami}}</ref>

Cuajada is usually served as dessert with honey and walnuts or sometimes sugar, and less often, for breakfast with fruit or honey. In Colombia, it is typically served with ''melado'', a thick syrup made of ''panela''. In Nicaragua, salt is usually added to the cuajada, which is eaten with ''güirilas'' and other dishes{{Cn|date=February 2025}}

==Coalhada== A similar product named ''coalhada'' (Portuguese for "curdled") is found mostly in Brazil, and its consumption is widespread in Northeastern Brazil and rural areas in other regions, where traditional recipes are more common. It is made from raw milk, which is let to curd by adding whey from previous ''coalhadas''. It is usually eaten alone or with yuca flour, sweetened with sugar, honey or molasses.{{Cn|date=February 2025}}

==See also== *List of Brazilian dishes *List of dairy products *Junket

==References== {{reflist}}

Category:Dairy products Category:Basque cuisine Category:Brazilian desserts Category:Nicaraguan cuisine Category:Salvadoran cuisine Category:Honduran cuisine

{{Brazil-cuisine-stub}} {{Spain-cuisine-stub}} {{ElSalvador-cuisine-stub}} {{Honduras-cuisine-stub}} {{Nicaragua-cuisine-stub}}