Meet queso Menonita: A superb melting cheese made by Mennonites in Mexico.
Growing up near the Amish and Mennonite communities in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, I could find a variety of fresh goods at markets every Monday through Saturday: pastries, cheeses, and jams. It wasn’t until graduate school that I learned about the arduous Mennonite migration to Mexico. Queso Menonita—a mild, semi-firm cow’s milk cheese from northern Mexico—was a tool of sustainability and survival for Mennonite colonies. My fascination with this story came full circle when I met my partner, whose family is from Durango, which is the home of Quesería Holanda, one of the most famous queso Menonita factories.
Beginnings: The North American Cheese Route
About 180 miles southwest of El Paso, Texas, lies Nuevo Casas Grandes, a rural town in Chihuahua, Mexico. Rich in cultural history, it became the incubator for a well-known staple in Mexican and Mexican-American cuisine. After an invitation from Mexican President Álvaro Obregón in 1921, the first Mennonites of the Old Colony—including the Manitoba Colony, Swift Current Colony, and Hague-Osler—settled in this region. It’s known today as Cuauhtémoc, and it eventually became the central hub of Mexican Mennonite life.
The road to Durango was winding. The community’s origins began in Canada, where Mennonites were exempt from military service and mandated schooling due to their Anabaptist Christian beliefs. However, around World War I, the Canadian government no longer allowed military exemption. Conservative Mennonites looked to settle elsewhere, and the search ultimately led south.
Mexico offered Mennonites open land for farming, military exemption, and religious freedom. Most importantly, it allowed for autonomous, self-sustained farming and agriculture. By 1923, there were 47 villages established in northern Mexico. By 1926, over 6,000 Mennonites had started new homes.
The first few years after the migration were difficult. Mexican land was more barren than expected, forcing the community to reinvent how it would survive. “The reality is that, during the first few years, they failed,” says historian Jesús Vargas. “They wanted to plant wheat, and it didn’t work out.”
The Road to English-Style Cheese Production in Mexico
Enter Peter G. Friesen. Friesen left the Manotiba Mennonite Colony in 1929 in search of work, eventually settling in a Mormon community in Nuevo Casas Grandes in northern Mexico. He worked as an apprentice under the direction of an American cheesemaker, and after two years, he returned to the Manotiba Colony. Without capital, Friesen had to rely on two Mennonite dairy farmers in Cuauhtémoc—Peter Blatz and Abram P. Martens—to support the first quesería, or cheese factory. While the cheese was initially sold through wholesalers, demand later warranted selling directly to consumers.
Five years later, queso Menonita sales were soaring. With statewide recognition, the pressure was on to maintain consistent texture, quality, and taste. In order to avoid milk spoilage, there was one cheese factory for every three to four villages. By 1935, cheesemaking had spread to the Hague-Osler Colony in Durango, where the town of Nuevo Ideal responded enthusiastically—especially after the introduction of Holstein Friesian cattle, a breed that produces larger volumes of high-quality milk. By 1942, Mexican-Mennonite cheesemaking had spread even further, with a cheese factory popping up in the Santa Clara Colony.
The Mennonites were economical, too. They made butter (mantequilla Menonita) from leftover cream and, on religious holidays, produced cottage cheese for wareneki, a traditional Mennonite comfort food of stuffed dumplings. Eventually, farmers replaced horses with tractors to save land and provide more feed for their cows. While field crops only produce revenue once a year, dairy farmers and cheese factories could sustain themselves year-round. This new industry created jobs, invigorating the Mennonite community with income and demonstrating the viability of their culture within the Mexican agricultural economy.
For years, queso Menonita was a product of survival and trade routes. What began as a need to sustain communities transformed into a network of cooperatives and partnerships operated by multiple family farms and dairies.
What is Queso Menonita?
Queso Menonita is incredibly sought-after in Northern Mexican and Mexican-American kitchens. It is commonly known as queso Chihuahua, and sometimes campesino Menonita or queso Chester. The make process is similar to cheddaring, with curds pressed overnight, then left to mature in paraffin wax. Aging times range from a minimum of 48 hours to no longer than three months, however most wheels are aged around 15 days, so it’s considered a fresh cheese. The result is a yellow round with a semisoft texture, buttery flavor, and superb melting quality—similar to mozzarella.
Queso Menonita is ideal for melting in quesadillas, chiles rellenos, rajas con queso, crema de queso Chihuahua, Chihuahua-style potato soup, and queso fundido. There’s also the famous Mennonite pizza—a unique pie topped with shredded queso Menonita and pickled jalapeños, found in Chihuahua and Durango.
The Politics of Queso Menonita
Synonymous with the state of Chihuahua, queso Menonita is an agricultural staple that embodies Mennonite tradition and the terroir of Mexico. Yet, like most North American cheeses, it lacks protected status—in part due to its non-standardized process. There are only three cheeses in Mexico with Denominación de Origen status: Cotija, Queso de Bola de Ocosingo, and Queso de Poro de Balancán. While there is academic and community support for protected status, Mennonite producers want to avoid government intervention whenever possible.
While queso Menonita is regionally known as queso Chihuahua, not all queso Chihuahua is queso Menonita. The variation on Chihuahua cheesemaking means there are no designated sensory characteristics that describe the category. By definition, queso Chihuahua requires a maximum of 45 percent moisture and 3 percent salt, and a minimum of 22 percent protein and 25 percent fat. This is further complicated by the milk used in production. For example, Mennonite producers are known for feeding their dairy cows oats, which lend a distinct profile from the fatty acids in the grains.
As queso Menonita has grown in popularity and distinction, questions of authenticity have followed. Some in Mexico argue that real Chihuahua cheese traces back to the region’s ranching ancestors—rancheros—while traditional queso Menonita reflects European-style cheesemaking. In recent years, the proliferation of additional cheeses produced in Mennonite queserías has further blurred the category, making it increasingly difficult to identify queso Menonita on store shelves.
Mennonite colonies have preserved the art of making queso Menonita by hand despite industrialization. Outside of northern Mexico, queso Menonita is often misinterpreted, mislabeled, or misunderstood, pushed into broad categories that muddy its origin and flavor altogether. Clarity in naming is vital to market recognition for those less familiar with the colloquial name of queso Chihuahua. By acknowledging its cultural roots in Chihuahua and historical techniques in Mennonite colonies, its name recognizes the unique blend of people and place behind the cheese. This preserves its role in Mexico’s vast cheese landscape without proper protected status.
Finding Genuine Queso Menonita
My mother-in-law describes queso Menonita as “closer to Munster” than a soft cheddar. Often, it’s stuffed into gorditas de frijoles, thick, stuffed pockets of corn masa. Mexican chef and TV personality Pati Jinich thinks the cheese resembles Monterey Jack. When my partner and I enjoyed it on a tlayuda—a traditionally large tostada (or toasted tortilla) from Oaxaca—in Mexico City, it was salty, creamy, and tangy. So what differentiates queso Menonita from queso Chihuahua?
There are many cheeses on the market that resemble queso Chihuahua. But for those seeking authentic queso Menonita, a few markers matter. The cheese should be produced by Mennonite communities in Mexico—ideally in the state of Chihuahua, though Durango and neighboring northern states can yield a similar flavor profile. Look for “100 percent milk” on the label and a paste marked by small, irregular holes. Authentic queso Menonita also carries a slight tang—a hallmark of its raw-milk origins—and is shaped into rectangular bricks, or “ruedas,” with a signature stamp from the quesería.
My father-in-law recalls vendors selling queso Menonita on the side of the road. It eventually became so popular it is now nationally distributed via community networks. A product of North American migration and trade, queso Menonita is made by a handful of the estimated 100,000 Mennonites in Mexico today.
Conversely, queso Chihuahua—sometimes called ranchero queso Chihuahua, and not to be confused with ranchero queso fresco—is made by rancheros, or those who are not part of the Mennonite community but are from Chihuahua. This cheese will likely have a different flavor and texture than queso Menonita.
These two cheeses can be found in well-stocked Mexican grocery stores and markets, but the best way to taste them is to visit northern Mexico. If you venture to Cuauhtémoc, you can trace the history in the Museo Menonita and visit the famous farms and queserías—Quesería Pampas, Sierra Verde Quesería, and Quesería Holanda—where queso Menonita is produced.
Keep your eyes peeled for imitations: Cheeses labeled “Chihuahua-style” but are made outside of Chihuahua, Mexico, may not be made with 100 percent milk, but rather milk derivatives such as caseinate or other additives to cut costs.
Gabrielle Lenart
Gabrielle Lenart is a writer, creative strategist, and queer food advocate whose work bridges cultures and food. Her writing has appeared in publications like Tasting Table, Business Insider, Delish, and Esquire. She co-founded the Queer Food Foundation in 2020 and later launched Pantry Magazine. A Penn State food science alum and NYU food studies graduate, Lenart is a tenacious storyteller who wants to leave the food system better than she found it.
