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© 2008 Kirk Samuels
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Sheep's Milk Archives
Here's how I remember that Manchego, most famous of Spanish cheeses, is made from sheep's milk:
Manchego comes from the Spanish region of La Mancha of Don Quixote fame. Don Quixote through some form of senility or madness confused the windmills and flocks of sheep of his home with giants and armies. These sheep are where the famous cheese comes from.
It may seem a long way to go to remember two things, a name and an animal, but despite the fact or maybe even because I know so many things, I often need to figure out ways to remember new information. But knowing Manchego = sheep's milk and knowing what that cheese tastes like, I can use it as a basis for tasting other cheeses and figuring out if they too are made from the milk of sheep and if they are as good as this very good Spanish cheese.
Often I see sheep's milk cheese labled as "ewe's milk". I do not say ewe's milk as I do not say "nanny's milk" when talking of goats or "she-cow's milk" when talking of cows. A ewe is a female sheep and therefore the obvious producer. If it has horns it is a ram and do not try to milk it.
Manchego is often labled to indicate its age. "Fresco" is fresh, "curado" is three to six months old, and "viejo" is at least a year. I could not find what Manchego that is between six months and a year old is called. I assume it is not allowed to show itself in public.
Manchego viejo has a white baked-potato-like color surrounded by a dark wheat-ear patterned rind. The flavor is subtle but lovely. I love to shave it over salads.
Name: Manchego
Type of Milk: Sheep, pasteurized
Type: hard
Produced in:
Date Produced: Unknown
Date Purchased: 11/9/2006
Date Eaten: 11/14/2006
Purchased Where: United States, North Carolina, Raleigh, Whole Foods
Price: $13.99/lb.
Sa Canova is a Spanish cheese from the Balearic Island of Minorca. At first glance the orange rind and pale center may cause one to mistake the cheese for Port Salut. They are however quite different. Sa Canova like the best Spanish cheeses is made from sheep's milk. The cheese is less soft, easier to crumble apart that Port Salut. The rind of Port Salut is thick and plastic. Sa Canova's is easier on the palate.
Other than that I don't have much to say about it. If you were serving a cheese plate of Spanish cheeses you could include Sa Canova and not be disappointed as long as the other cheeses were really great.
Name: Sa Canova
Type of Milk: Sheep, Pasteurized
Type: semi-soft
Produced in:
Date Produced: Unknown
Date Purchased: 11/09/2006
Date Eaten: 11/15/2006
Purchased Where: United States, North Carolina, Raleigh, Whole Foods
Price: $10.99/lb.
I searched through every book I have on cheese but couldn't find any reference to Rocastin or Berger or any form of Le Berger de Rocastin. That is telling.
Berger means "shepherd" in French. Rocastin is made from sheep's milk, creamy smooth, and sold in neat little triangles. Other than that it is not really an interesting cheese. The flavor is not strong and the texture seems too processed, maybe too pasteurized. Not awful but I don't think I will buy it again.
Name: Berger de Rocastin
Type of Milk: Sheep, Pasteurized
Type: soft
Produced in: France
Date Produced: Unknown
Date Purchased: 11/17/2006
Date Eaten: 11/18/2006
Purchased Where: United States, North Carolina, Raleigh, Whole Foods
Price: $16.99/lb.
No, not "ricotta salad", as I first thought. "Ricotta salata" means "salted ricotta" or literally "salted re-cooked". Ricotta is the cooked down whey left over from the curd ("curds and whey") that went into making some other cheese. Often this is fresh and sweet and sold in small tubs to be used in lasagna, calzones or cheese dips. Ricotta salata is salted and pressed to form a firm, crumbly, death-white disk of cheese.
By itself ricotta salata is a little too salty to eat as is. Its saltiness pairs well with fresh fruit though and makes it a great ingredient in pasta dishes. In a traditional recipe of Orrechiette with Tomatoes, Garlic and Basil, ricotta salata is crumbled over the finished dish to add the cheesy components of salt and creaminess and a little sheepy tang.
Name: Ricotta Salata
Type of Milk: Sheep, Pasteurized
Type: semi-soft
Produced in:
Date Purchased: 11/23/2006
Date Eaten: 11/23/2006
Purchased Where: United States, North Carolina, Raleigh, Whole Foods
Price: $5.99/lb.
Pecorino Romano is one of the gratable, hard sheep's milk cheeses of Italy. Pecorino is devrived from "pecora", the Italin word for sheep. My go-to Italian sheep's milk cheese for pasta is Pecarino Locatelli, but the Romano stands up to it. The cheese has a nice sheep's milk flavor. It is a little more moist than Locatelli, but that may be the age of this particular piece. Its flavor is not as salty, not as sharp. The color is a paler shade of white. A good cheese. By the real thing. Buy it whole, never grated.
Name: Pecorino Romano
Type of Milk: Sheep, Pasteurized
Type: hard
Produced in: Italy
Date Purchased: 10/23/2006
Date Eaten: 10/24/2006
Purchased Where: United States, North Carolina, Raleigh, Whole Foods
Price: $6.99/lb.
Locatelli is a brand of Pecorini Romano cheese distinguished by its dark brown rind, pale yellow color and sharp, salty flavor. It is my go-to grating cheese and one of two kinds I almost always have in the house (Parmigiano Reggiano the other). I almost always use it in combination with Parmigiano.
Name: Locatelli Pecorino Romano
Type of Milk: Sheep, Unpasteurized
Type: semi-soft
Produced in:
Date Purchased: 11/25/2006
Date Eaten: 11/28/2006
Purchased Where: United States, North Carolina, Raleigh, A Southern Season
Price: $10.99/lb.
Though it looks a little like a roast pork loin, Smoked Ricotta Crotonesa, is a smoked sheep's milk log from the Italian town of Crotone. Smoked cheeses almost all have the same flavor, smoke, so one has to look for other features, mainly texture, to distinguish them. The smoking process has not completely dried out this cheese. It still has a fairly moist texture but will not keep long . The ends of the log, dark from the smoking process, are a little dry and as Fleming says , "are to be avoided".
It is a very inexpensive cheese and for the price, worth checking out.
Name: Smoked Ricotta Crotonesa
Type of Milk: Sheep, Pasteurized
Type: semi-soft
Produced in: Italy
Date Purchased: 11/25/2006
Date Eaten: 11/28/2006
Purchased Where: United States, North Carolina, Raleigh, A Southern Season
Price: $3.99/lb.
Cacio de Roma is a solid, all-purpose, every-day sheeps milk cheese. It's good for sandwiches or munching. "Cacio" means cheese in regional Italian. This cheese of Rome has athe texture of a young provolone and clear flavors of sheep's milk. Though not the best cheese in Italy, it gets a solid B/B+ in my grade book. Still better than Sargento any day
Name: Cacio de Roma
Type of Milk: Sheep, Pasteurized
Type: semi-hard
Produced in: Italy
Date Purchased: 12/04/2006
Date Eaten: 12/05/2006
Purchased Where: United States, North Carolina, Raleigh, Whole Foods
Price: $8.99/lb.
Plassas is an odd cheese. It is either very new to the cheese world or not highly thought of, since I found not a single mention of it in any of the cheese books I own nor did the Internet turn up much other than a photo of the cheese on the manufacturer's web site. If the cheese is not well thought of I understand why.
First off Plassas is the opposite of salty, which mainly means "bland". It taste like some kind of cheese that was specially designed to be good for you, possibly made out of yoghurt or tofo, but the label assures us it is made from normal pasteurized cow's milk. The texture is dry and chewy. I really didn't like this cheese. If it was made to be healthy it won't help since I don't plan on eating it again. Maybe that was the intent.
Name: Plassas
Type of Milk: Sheep, Pasteurized
Type: semi-hard
Produced in: Italy, Santa Marina Formaggi
Date Purchased: 12/8/2006
Date Eaten: 12/9/2006
Purchased Where: United States, North Carolina, Raleigh, A Southern Season
Price: $12.99/lb.
Put down your Manchego. Yes, Zorro may not have been carving his initial into his foes but that "Z" may have been for one of the finest of Spanish cheese, Zamorano. Zamorano is delicious or as Fleming put it, "a darned good cheese. Wow, a great @%$& cheese!" I guess "nutty" is a good description of the flavor.
It looks a lot like Manchego. White, baked-potato color with a brownish, wheat marked rind.
If you have an occassion where you would normally serve Manchego, ask for Zamorano and give it a try.
Name: Zamorano
Type of Milk: sheep, unpasteurized
Type: hard
Produced in: Spain, Zamorano
Date Purchased: 12/08/2006
Date Eaten: 12/09/2006
Purchased Where: United States, North Carolina, Chapel Hill, A Southern Season
Price: $18.99/lb.
Twenty-seven dollars and ninety-nine cents per pound! Costing as much as some aged prime rib, Piacentinu had better be a spectacular cheese. Sadly it is not. The high price is due in part to one of its ingredients, wild saffron, one of the world's most expensive spices. Saffron gives this pecorino a rich golden yellow color and whole peppercorns add the Dalmatian-like speckles. Basically this is bright yellow pecorino cheese from Sicily. The taste is not greatly improved by the pepper or crocus stigma. I can't think of a reason to buy it again.
Name: Piacentinu or Piacentino
Type of Milk: sheep's, unpasteurized
Type: semi-hard
Produced in: Italy, Sicily
Date Purchased: 12/27/2006
Date Eaten: 12/31/2006
Purchased Where: United States, North Carolina, Chapel Hill, A Southern Season
Price: $27.99/lb.
A major difference between Idiazábal and other Spanish cheeses like Manchego and Zamorano is a hint of smoke. Idiazábal (pronounce the "zá" like a strong lispy "THA") is lightly smoked over cherry wood or beech which darkens the rind but does not permeate to the heart of the cheese. The cheese is nutty with a salty grana. Delicious.
Name: Idiazábal or Queso Idiazábal or Idiazabal
Type of Milk: sheep's, unpasteurized
Type: semi-hard
Produced in: Spain
Date Purchased: 12/27/2006
Date Eaten: 12/31/2006
Purchased Where: United States, North Carolina, Chapel Hill, A Southern Season
Price: $21.99/lb.
A pecorino that tastes like a parmesan, Granitu is a delightful cheese. The documentation on this cheese is minimal. It is imported directly from Sardinia by my local gourmet store, A Southern Season, and the manufacturer's web site describes it only as "Formaggio Pecorino Dolce Stagionato", an aged sweet sheep's milk cheese. For a sheep's milk cheese it has an unusual golden straw-like color and a nuttiness found mostly in cow's milk cheeses. Where I would normally grate both parmesan and pecorino over pasta, I can now use only Granitu and come close to the same effect. Seek it out.
Name: Granitu
Type of Milk: sheep's, pasteurized, part-skim
Type: hard
Produced in: Italy, Sardinia, Santa Marina Formaggi
Date Purchased: 12/27/2006
Date Eaten: 12/31/2006
Purchased Where: United States, North Carolina, Chapel Hill, A Southern Season
Price: $16.99/lb.
Sometimes on trips to the cheese counter I will see a small, often handwritten, sign next to a new cheese describing interesting information about the new product. More often than not I do nothing more than read it and owing to my awful memory, hope to find the same information online or in one of my dozens of cheese books. Sometimes, as with today's cheese, Tintus, I can find no information at all.
Fortunately this cheese has a label and though written in Portuguese offers a few clues. The maroon and gold piece of paper has a picture of a spiny orb with a flowering purple blossom and words "Flor de Cardo o Queijo". Flor de Cardo translates as Cardoon or the artichoke thistle and I believe is the manufacturer of the cheese. In some Medieterranean countries thistles are used as a coagulant instead of rennet to start the milk separating into curds and whey. "Cardo" or "thistle" is listed as one of the ingredients.
Next comes the word "Tintus" which makes me think of "ink" although "tinta" is the word in Portugal. Again my search shows no town, village, region or province of Portugal called Tintus so it is unclear what the name of this cheese actually means. Next are the words "Queijo Curado de Ovelha," "aged cheese of the sheep".
The outside of the cheese is mottled with red, white, beige and gray streaks on a burlap textured rind. The red leads me to think the cheese was bathed in wine, but wine is not listed as an ingredient. Only raw sheep's milk, salt and thistle are listed. It's possible the color comes from the thistle.
The aroma is not overpowering but there is a hint of funk. The flavor starts a bit sour but finishes pleasing. Interesting for a cheese plate. I didn't eat the rind.
Name: Tintus
Type of Milk: sheep's, unpasteurized
Type: semi-soft
Produced in: Portugal, Setubal, Flor de Cardo
Date Purchased: 1/28/2007
Date Eaten: 1/30/2007
Purchased Where: United States, North Carolina, Chapel Hill, A Southern Season
Price: $13.99/lb.
Please help me welcome our first guest from the Balkan state of Bulgaria, Kaškaval. I'll call her Kashkaval since I don't know how to pronounce the little smiley face above an 's'. Her name is derived from the Italian provolone-style cheese, Caciocavallo, but this cheese does not taste much like its Italian counterpart. The name can also refer to any yellow sheep's milk cheese in Bulgaria or Macedonia.
The cheese is nothing extraordinary but I like it. Compared to most supermarket cheeses Kashkaval is out of the ordinary. It probably won't fit in on a high-end cheese plate but is a nice everyday sandwich cheese.
Name: Kaškaval or Kashkaval
Type of Milk: sheep's
Type: semi-hard
Produced in: Bulgaria
Date Purchased: 1/28/2007
Date Eaten: 1/30/2007
Purchased Where: United States, North Carolina, Chapel Hill, A Southern Season
Price: $9.99/lb.
The cheeses made by the Santa Marina Formaggi company on the island of Sardinia are an odd lot. I can find out almost nothing about them on the Internet. Their website used to offer images of the cheeses they produce but now consists only of a single page and the words "organic cheess" in three languages. They also make the very good cheese Granitu and the very bad Plassas. Fortunately Monte Regale is also very good.
Do not confuse Monte Regale with Toma del Monte Regale, a soft raw cow's milk cheese from the Italian Piedmont. This Monte Regale, or "regal mountain", is made from raw sheep's milk and is a very fine grating or after dinner cheese. It has a clean pecorino taste with rich lingering flavors.
Name: Monte Regale
Type of Milk: sheep's, unpasteurized
Type: hard
Produced in: Italy, Sardinia, Santa Marina Formaggi
Date Purchased: 1/28/2007
Date Eaten: 1/30/2007
Purchased Where: United States, North Carolina, Chapel Hill, A Southern Season
Price: $14.99/lb.
The name of these cheese tells you a lot about it if you can translate from the Portuguese. I will try my best. "Amanteigado" means "buttered up" and the cheese has a rich, buttery aroma and flavor. "Cardus" is a type of thistle traditionally used in Portugal as a vegetable rennet to coagulate the milk and start the cheese-making process.
The small golden round also came swaddled in gauze bandages requiring it to be unwrapped like the Invisible Man before eating.
The washed rind gives this soft, almost runny cheese a tart yet creamy flavor. A nice and rare find.
Name: Amanteigado Cardus or Cardus or Amanteigado Mini
Type of Milk: sheep's, unpasteurized
Type: washed rind, soft
Produced in: Portugal
Date Purchased: 2/13/2007
Date Eaten: 2/15/2007
Purchased Where: United States, Online Order, www.murrayscheese.com
Price: $7.99 each
Finding La Serena at the peak of ripeness is a real surprise. Between the first and second tasting of this cheese it went from a firm cheese of muddled flavor to a real oozer that was rich, creamy and packed with flavor remniscent of mushrooms sauteed in white wine and butter. If you are lucky enough to have an entire wheel of this sheep's milk cheese from Spain's Extremadura region at its peak of oozingly rich ripeness, cut off the entire top side and spoon out the inner softness onto warm bread or fried potatoes. Delicious!
Name: La Serena or Queso de la Serena
Type of Milk: sheep's, unpasteurized
Type: semisoft
Produced in: Spain, Extremadura
Date Purchased: 2/13/2007
Date Eaten: 2/15/2007
Purchased Where: United States, Online Order, www.murrayscheese.com
Price: $17.99/lb.
From the sheep that bring us Merino wool comes a lovely ewe's milk cheese from Portugal that makes us feel as warm as a sweater. The taste is nutty and milky with the right amount of age and salt. One of my favorite Portuguese hard cheeses.
Name: Nisa
Type of Milk: sheep's, unpasteurized
Type: hard
Produced in: Portugal, Alentejo
Date Purchased: 2/13/2007
Date Eaten: 2/15/2007
Purchased Where:United States, Online Order, www.murrayscheese.com
Price: $21.99/lb.
All too often when talking about Spanish cheeses people will say, "It's kind of like Manchego." Yes, I too am guilty of this. But not today. For the rest of this article I will not mention the "M" word.
Roncal is a hard sheep's milk cheese from the Navarra region of Basque Spain. The flavor is both buttery and nutty, both milky and a little grassy a nd very different from other sheep's milk cheeses like most Italian percorinos. The saltiness is just right for thin slices of Roncal by themselves or alongside almonds or Spanish quince paste. Rocal deserves a place on your Spanish cheese board.
Name: Roncal or Farmstead Roncal
Type of Milk: sheep's, unpasteurized
Type: hard
Produced in:
Date Purchased: 2/13/2007
Date Eaten: 2/15/2007
Purchased Where: United States, Online Order, www.murrayscheese.com
Price: $21.99/lb.
The name makes me think of a large Finnish bird but in fact Etorki is a cheese from France. Some versions add cow's milk to the traditional sheep's milk, but the one I sampled was pure sheepy goodness. Alongside other traditional French cheeses Etorki stands out as black sheep. Its flavor resembles cheeses of northern Italy, Switzerland and Holland. If you're serving a cheese plate of French cheeses, throw in a little Etorki for variety. You won't be disappointed.
Name: Etorki
Type of Milk: sheep's, pastuerized
Type: semi-hard
Produced in: France
Date Purchased: 2/13/2007
Date Eaten: 2/15/2007
Purchased Where: United States, North Carolina, Chapel Hill, A Southern Season
Price: $16.99/lb.
The folks at Carr Valley Cheese in America's Wisconsin have yet to make a cheese I do not like. Their River Bend Sheep cheese is a literal winner with prize ribbons in 2004 and 2006 from the American Cheese Society. The flavor is buttery and sharp with a nice granular bite. The texture is firm and will almost crumble when sliced. Delicious.
Name: River Bend Sheep or Sheep River Bend
Type of Milk: sheep's, unpasteurized
Type: semi-hard
Produced in: United States of America, Wisconsin, Carr Valley Cheese
Date Purchased: 2/13/2007
Date Eaten: 2/15/2007
Purchased Where: United States, North Carolina, Chapel Hill, A Southern Season
Price: $22.99/lb.
It came as either a gift or a mistake. I received a shipment of seven cheeses from an online order at ArtisanalCheese.com although I had only ordered six. The additional cheese was this wonderful French sheep's milk cheese, Carles Roquefort. No note to say they had thrown it in for free but if I remember right, I may have gotten an extra cheese on a previous order too. It was a little less than perfect in appearance. The thin edge of the wedge had been crushed a little, maybe even before shipping. Still it had its charms of appearance. I tasted this cheese, served it with green salad, spread it on warm bread, and enjoyed it immensely. Only when I started to write about it did I find out the retail price for this treasure, $43.00 a pound. Holy blue cows, Batman! That's Wagyu beef prices. When time came to review a Roquefort I may well have paid that amount and bought as small of a piece as would photograph well. It is the granddaddy of amazing blue cheeses. Is it worth $43.00 a pound? Maybe no, but it is worth $10.75 a quarter pound for a blue cheese experience to ground you in great blue cheeses.
Name: Carles Roquefort or Roquefort Carles
Type of Milk: sheep's, unpasteurized
Type: blue, semi-soft
Produced in: France
Date Purchased: 6/16/2007
Date Eaten: 6/20/2007
Purchased Where: United States, online, Artisanal Cheese
Price: $43.00/lb.
I don't hate Bianco Sardo di Moliterno but it is not anywhere near my favorite cheeses. The initial taste is somewhat vegetal. Asparagus, maybe. I don't like the taste of asparagus especially in asparagus when it has a strong asparagussy taste and now I can say I don't like it in cheese either. The texture is a little weird too--dry but waxy. When cut the pale straw colored cheese turn white on the cut edges almost immediately. The outside of the cheese is marked by the reed basket the cheese ages in. Maybe that is the source of the unpleasant flavor that will make me pass on Bianco Sardo if I see it again.
Name: Bianco Sardo di Moliterno or Canestrato
Type of Milk: sheep's, unpasteurized
Type: hard
Produced in: Italy
Date Purchased: 6/16/2007
Date Eaten: 6/20/2007
Purchased Where: United States, online, Artisanal Cheese
Price: $13.50/lb.
Part of my job of finding great cheese is done for me by shopping at places that do most of the work for me. Sometimes it can even get a little boring writing about good cheese after good cheese. Mostly it is still great fun to taste something I love, cheese, made by people who really care about what they do, trying to make the best product they can. Lamb Chopper is a super sheep's milk cheese by people who specialize in goat's milk chevre. The cheese is mild but not lacking in flavor. The texture is also of a young cheese, semi-soft and pliable making it ideal for melting on pizza or baked tomatoes.
Name: Lamb Chopper
Type of Milk: sheep's, pasteurized
Type: semi-soft
Produced in: United States, California, Cypress Grove Chevre
Date Purchased: 7/12/2007
Date Eaten:7/14/2007
Purchased Where: United States, North Carolina, Chapel Hill, A Southern Season
Price: $20.99/lb.
Rossollino is another cheese I can find very little information about. Usually that is not a good sign. Here's what I know. I bought the cheese in Chapel Hill at the cheese counter of A Southern Season. The store-printed label says "Rossollino semi-aged peccorino". I have not always found accurate information on these labels and I am a unsure if the spelling of the name with two "l"s is even correct. The sliver of label from the manufacturer stuck to the cheese's rind mentions "...ated in rind with tomato's extract..." and may account for the reddish hue of the rind and the "rosso" in the cheese's name. Basically Rossollino is a peccorino vecchio, an Italian sheep's milk cheese probably aged a year. It is on the salty side and not the best cheese of its type I've had. It's okay but not memorable.
Name: Rossollino
Type of Milk: sheep's, pasteurized
Type: hard
Produced in: Italy
Date Purchased: 7/10/2007
Date Eaten:7/14/2007
Purchased Where: United States, North Carolina, Chapel Hill, A Southern Season
Price: $18.99/lb.
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