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Terrincho sheep cheese DOP - Trás-os-Montes

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Terrincho sheep cheese DOP - Trás-os-Montes

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Produced with churra sheep's milk from “Hot Land” (Trás-os-Montes), it is a cured cheese, with maturation between 30 and 90 days.

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"You are strong because you are close to the creature's origin. You're nutritious because you keep the best of milk. You're hot because you're fat..."
Hippocrates - 450 a.C.
According to legend, cheese was discovered by one of Apollo's sons, Aristeu, King of Capcasa.
While many details of the exact origins of this food are ignored, history confirms its antiquity.
Indeed, it is admitted that it was invented before butter. The Assyrians, the Caldeans and the Egyptians, and later the Grecos and Romans enjoyed cheese, from which they made numerous varieties and whose virtues they knew, as they used it in the food of soldiers and athletes.

Cheese industry is based on three fundamental discoveries:

1- the use of milk as food by man, more than 10,000 years ago, since the idea of milking animals to consume their milk came up;

2- then the influence of temperature did not go unnoticed: in the cellars, due to fire and heat, milk coalesced rapidly, producing a white and consistent paste (the curd, which is still produced by the same process today);

3- the discovery of the workion, a digestive enzyme extracted from the stomach of the goats.

Cheese trade was born in Rome, where cheese arrived from all the Italic Peninsula, but also from more distant provinces of the empire, such as Nîmes, Saboya and regions now of Switzerland.

http://www.gastronomias.com/queijos/inicio.htm

PORTUGUESE CHEESE CULTURE

The consumption of cheese has been gaining importance in the gastronomic habits of the Portuguese people. Tourism, Erasmus+ programme and the internationalisation of economy, have certainly had a huge weight in this change.

For breakfast and snack, we consume mainly Portuguese cheeses, with bread; foreign cheeses (until recently mainly Italian and French) are appreciated on other occasions, together with Portuguese cheeses.

As the beginning of an informal meal, especially at lunch, a fresh cheese is accepted with pleasure, accompanied by slices of industrial or rustic bread. Salt or salt flower and pepper should be available on the table. The same cheese can be previously seasoned with a strand of a good olive oil, sprinkled with a few drops of vinegar and flavoured with chives or oregons. A fresh salad may be the complement.

If the meal is more formal, it’s common practice to precede it with an aperitif, which includes traditional sausages and cheese, arranged on a table apart with a basket with slices of bread, mini toasts or biscuits with little flavour; wine, salads and fruits are also have relief papers.

We must not forget here the “friend meals”, evenings or cheese dinners, which include several cheese boards of all families, carefully presented: from fresh to natural or in pastes worked with aromatic herbs, to very strong ones. Bread and wines, of which at least two or three varieties are served, are indispensable; salads and fruits are indispensable.

I’m an old teacher J and I never forget the delicious “merendas”, in the middle of the afternoon, we had in my grand mother’s balcony, in Trás-os-Montes, made of wheat and rye bread, muscatel grapes we had just harvested in the vineyard and regional cured cheese. It was in the sixties/seventies of the 20th century! Unforgettable!!!

PORTUGUESE CHEESES ORIGIN

In this map we may see the most famous cheeses made in Portugal and their land of origin!

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São Miguel Island cow cheese DOP - Azores, 9-month cure 

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São Miguel Island cow cheese DOP - Azores, 9-month cure 

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Firm texture, sometimes brittle and yellowish in colour. The aroma and flavour is characterized by a strong bouquet, clean and spicy, which are accentuated with its aging.

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Portugal hasn't good pastures, especially for big cattle... Due to soil poverty, pastoralism has always been present in Portuguese economy as a very old way of families subsistence, with the rearing of goat and sheep.

And in herd land, cheese is made, in this case goat's, sheep's, or from the mixture of the two milks. Only in Azores islands, with humid climate, the grass abounds and abound dairy cows  as well.

Making cheese by hand is an art. In the families of shepherds, knowledge passes from generation to generation, paying attention to details: to the temperature of the hand, to the time of the work, to the turning and the change of the straps, to the pasture of broom or other grasses of altitude that greatly influence the flavor of the final product.

The best known cheeses in Portugal are Alcains, Azeitão , Cabra Serrano, Castelo Branco, Évora, Idanha-a-Nova, Nisa, Ovelha Amanteigado, Pico, Rabaçal, Serpa, Serra da Estrela, S. Jorge, Sto. Isidro, Terrincho, and Tomar. Some of them are very similar, others are rather different from the others.

Let's caracherize some of them!

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Produced from selected sheep's milk. It has a straw yellow tone, with buttery semi soft paste and soft and thin cover, resulting from a shorter curing time, which give it a unique flavour.

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If I were a cheese I would be a Gamoneu cheese.

Origin: It's a typical cheese from Asturias  in the north of spain, it is originally from "Cangas de Onis", and it's one of the moust famous cheeses in the zone.

Production: It's made of cow, sheep and goat milk, The milk is heated and then the rennet is added. In the past the curd was put into wooden molds but nowadays plastic molds are used instead. Salt is added to cheese and three days later the cheese will be smoked for 10 to 20 days. Finally the cheese repose between 2 to 5 months in a cave.

Sensory Description:  Gamoneu is a semi-hard cheese, white to light yellow-colored and mild in flavor. It has a slightly smoky and little spicy taste with clean and sharp notes and buttery and nutty aromas.

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If I were a cheese I would be a traditional D.O.P. Manchego Cheese

Origin: It’s a typical spanish product deeply rooted in our nation’s history. It’s made in the heart of Castilla La Mancha, in the region named ‘’Comarca de la Mancha’’, a part of the Spanish plateau.

Production: It's a cheese made of sheep’s milk, traditionally pressed on esparto baskets, although now molds with similar patterns as the original weavings of the baskets are used. After being pressed, it’s salted and then aged, with time ranging from a month to 2 years, where it’s flavor evolves and changes.

Sensory Description: It’s a very robust looking cheese, with a hard crust with a buttery, creamy interior with a flavor reminiscent of sheep’s milk. It also has a very beautiful presentation, with the crust marked with a zigzagging pattern. It can be presented with many different ages, as it ages and gets cured, its flavour gets stronger and sharper with age, getting nutty flavors and even some spiciness after months of aging.

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Produced in the lands of Lanhoso - Minho, with milk from alpine goats, animal rennet, dairy crops and salt, despite being a handmade product, is slow coagulation, which gives it a creamy appearance, being therefore a suitable product to bar, not resembling, however, melted cheese.

It is ideal as an aperitif.

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We have chosen this cheese as it is one of the best-known cheeses of the Canary Islands, and Flor, one of the components of the group was born in the Canary Islands, so we will show you a little of its cheese culture.

ORIGIN:
Isla la palma, Canarias.

MILK TYPE:
Whole, raw milk from goats of the Palmera breed.

PROCESSING METHOD:

The goats are carefully milked manually or by machine in hygienic conditions to hold back microbe development. After filtering, the milk is coagulated by adding natural rennet or using other starters authorized by the Regulatory Council. For the coagulation process, the milk must be kept at 27-33ºC for approximately 45 minutes.
The resulting curds are cut into small sizes and then transferred into ring-shaped molds where they are pressed and placed on square-mesh plastic sheets to drain.
Then the cheeses are salted, usually using, sea salt from the island’s salt pans.

If is salting  by immersion, the brine must be at a maximum concentration of 20º Beaumé, and immersion must last no more than 24 hours.
After salting, the cheeses are smoked, using different sources of smoke, like almond shells (Prunus dulcis), prickly pears (Opuntia ficus indica) or Canary pine (Pinus canariensis).
Ripening is carried out in caves or special storage facilities. During the process, the cheeses are turned and can be rubbed with olive oil, cornmeal or flour to protect them.

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If I were a cheese I would like to be Cabrales because Its strong flavour and soft taste reminds us of our strong personality and soft character.

ORIGIN: Cabrales is a blue cheese which is made in Principado de Asturias in Spain, in particular in the county Cabrales and Peñamellera Alta, in the middle of Picos de Europa.

CHARACTERISTICS: It’s a semi-soft blue cheese that usually gets darker as time goes by. It's a fatty cheese with mixed curdling. Its maturation is between 3 and 5 months. The penicillium mold grows naturally in  maturation caves, with a particular temperature, humidity and airing out. This gives to this cheese dark bluish-greenish veins and a spicy flavour.

Characteristics at the end of maturation:

Cylindrical shape, about 7 and 15 cm height, diameter with variable weight.

Soft, thin, unctuous rind of gray color with yellowish-reddish areas.

With a semi-soft texture on the paste.

Fatty substances are never less than 45%.

MILK TYPE: Raw of cow, sheep and goat.

PRODUCTION: In order to prepare Cabrales cheese, first hit the milk and add the curdling agent. When the curd is ready, it is crumbled, then let it stand and the whey is removed. Next put it into cylindrical moulds without pressing, let it dry, then remove it from the mould and add salt. Then starts the maturation process, in natural mountain caves (between 2-4 months). In these caves the relative humidity is 90% and the temperature is between 8-12º C.

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Torta del Casar D.O.P.

If I were a cheese, I would be Torta del Casar because it is made by sheep raw milk.

Origin:

Its origin dates back to transhumant shepherd, who elaborated this cheese when their animals gave birth. This way they could store it and eat it the rest of the year. Sometimes, the cheese, instead of staying hard, it transformed soft, staying convex, so the shepherd thought it was ruined and they threw it out, until one of them tasted it and liked it. The geographic area of production is Cáceres, at Extremadura Autonomous Region, in Spain.

Production:

This cheese is elaborated by traditional methods from sheep raw milk, which coagulation is made by vegetable rennet coming from the thistle, which scientist name is Cynara cardunculus. The cheese ripening will be at least for 60 days. What makes the different from a hard cheese to a soft one is the protein break down (proteolysis) during the ripening process.

Sensory description:

The thistle rennet produces a characteristic soil flavor, and, in the end, a soft bitterness. The curd is very soft and tasty, with scents that remember the dry hay. Its colour is white or yellowish and can have some holes from the ripening. The texture presents moderate or high creaminess, oily nature, flux and soft granularity.

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If I were a cheese, I would be the Zamorano cheese because it is a mature cheese but not in excess. The first impression can be dry and strong, like me, but when you know, it is pleasant and with a lot of nuances. It doesn't need to be as well-known as Manchego to be delicious, and people who really like it wouldn't trade it for anything.
Source:

It is made exclusively in the province of Zamora, one of the largest producers of sheep's milk in Spain.  The production is done at the same season that the wine, so they are two strongly licked products.

Frequently compared with the Manchego cheese (due made of pressed pasta and have the same format), Zamorano D.O., artisan or industrial, is made exclusively with raw / pasteurized sheep's milk from the Churra or Castellana species.

Characteristics:
This cheese has a cylindrical format, bat with different sizes: the diameter can be 9 to 24 cm. Also, it has a defined rind and can be marked with patrons, depending on the production process.

Types of milk:

The Designation of Origin allows the use of pasteurized or raw sheep milk of the Churra or Castellana species. It is made with sheep's milk with 45% dry extract.

Elaboration process:
It is a cured cheese. It is prepared with the pressed paste method using the whole milk.  This paste is coagulated by an enzymatic process curdled with animal rennet.

The process has a minimum maturation of 100 days for cheeses weighing more than 1.5 kg and a minimum of 60 days for cheeses weighing less than 1.5 kg.

Sensory description:

Hard rind, yellow, brown or dark-brown.

The texture is firm, compact elastic. The pasta can become rougher with maturation. Some small eyes erratic distributed in the paste. It has a hard and acidic flavor with a fatty texture.

The acrid smell it will make you think about sheep's milk. Dried fruits and spicy notes appear in aged cheeses. The spicy appear slowly. In the older ones, this sensation is more persistent.