Cheese Database

Oaxaca vs Queso de mano

Oaxaca, field guide plate
Oaxaca, photographed

Oaxaca

Facts

Milk
Cow
Texture
Semi-soft
Type
Stretched curd
Rind
No rind
Country
Mexico
Place
Oaxaca

Queso Oaxaca is a Mexican stretched-curd cheese from the state of Oaxaca, wound into a ball of strings. In Oaxaca it is often called quesillo.

Queso de mano

Facts

Texture
Soft
Type
Stretched curd
Rind
No rind
Country
Venezuela

Queso de mano is a soft white cheese from Venezuela. The name means cheese of the hand, because makers stretch and shape the curd by hand. The paste is moist, pale, and folded into soft layers. It tastes mild and a little salty, closer to a fresh stretched cheese than to a sharp aged wheel. Venezuelans use it as a filling and as a side, not as a block meant for long storage.