While cows were more multi-purpose beasts, kept for meat, milk and work. Eating habits of the area changed as urban growth increased the demand for dairy products. Nowadays, the area is a source of a huge variety of cow's milk cheeses, from fresh to cured catering broadly for palate and price. Among them, cheeses from Benasque , the Valle de Aran , l'Alt Urgell - Cerdanya and Llivia and Selva . Island Cheeses Off the Mediterranean coast of mainland Spain lie the Balearic Islands.
Dairy farming is one of the main occupations of the island.
Mah n cheese is made all over the island. It is eaten both fresh and aged with the rind either left natural or oiled with paprika. The island of Mallorca produces its own cheese, similar to Mah n, known as Malorqu n , which was originally a pure ewes' milk cheese, also molded in a fogasser. The whole archipelago is a big cheese producer and consumer of goat's milk. In the case of the Gu a , they use cow's milk mixed with sheep's milk.