A guide to deliciously complex yet approachable Manchego cheese and its brethren.
| Channel | Publish Date | Thumbnail & View Count | Actions |
|---|---|---|---|
 Insider Food | 2019-12-18 17:00:00 |  1,585,229 Views |
How Spanish Manchego Cheese Is Made in a 200-Year-Old Dairy | Regional Eateries
Serious Mealtimes / Vicky Wasik
Manchego the sheep’s milk poster cheese of Spanish cuisine is truly the ideal culinary ambassador for Spanish culture much like Parmigiano-Reggiano is for Italy or Roquefort for France. As an artisanal cheese it’s accessible at all stages of ripeness and its combination of flavours—a delicate balance of buttery sour sweet and nutty—makes it stand out from the more bland cheeseboard crowd-pleasers. Beloved by posh aunts and picky little brothers alike Manchego is unmistakably different from cow’s milk cheeses but without the polarising wildness of chèvre. And while sheep’s milk products can be pricey the small wheels that are typically produced age relatively quickly somewhat offsetting the cost of its expensive main ingredient. (It also helps that Manchego's balanced yet concentrated flavor means that a little goes a long way.) Perhaps best of all Manchego easily straddles the line between "basic" and "boutique" and can thus be considered a truly democratic dairy product.
According to The Oxford Companion to Cheese Manchego is the most popular Spanish cheese accounting for more than a third of all traditional cheese production in the country. Its popularity has certainly extended internationally. Carlos Yescas a nutritionist and program director for the Oldways Cheese Coalition explains that the cheese’s rise to fame in the United States is partly due to the Spanish government’s promotional efforts but he also points to the milk. “In the U.S. there was almost no sheep’s milk” he says. “That was a space that Manchego was able to come into. Good Manchego the first ones that came are very easy to eat — they’re not super salty they’re not super sweet they have the tanginess of Manchego milk. They’re nutty and very round.”
