The Spanish Legacy of Food: The Romans and The Cheese

Cheese is the most specialised and developed by-product of milk and its discovery has been ascribed as a fortunate accident that occurred many thousand years ago - when travelling nomads with bags made of animal skin laden with milk were churned and became coagulated by their saddled mounts and henceforth the history of cheese began.

Its birth in Spain is mainly credited to the Romans who came, saw, and left the legacy of sophisticated cheese making techniques through storage, process and maturation. Today cheese is part of a staple diet for many Europeans and the Spanish have evolved this Roman legacy into an art form throughout many different regions of Spain. The only interruption was incurred during the Franco regime when these artisan techniques were outlawed under the pretext of modernisation and acquiring industrial quotas. Many varieties disappeared, but after the death of the dictator, the art of Spanish cheese making has flooded the country to the effect of over four hundred distinct cheeses available in Spain today.

The distinction of each Spanish cheese depends on the animal milk used, the processes of fermentation, storage, maturation and the ingredients used to bind and flavour them. Historically, the terrain determined what animal was used for milking, however with modern day infrastructure for road transport and preservation of milk this is not always the case. Generally, though the northern side of Spain mainly produces cheese made from cows and sheep milk and southern Spain and the islands mainly produce cheese manufactured from goats' milk. However, there are some exceptions and two notable ones are the "mmm…" words of "Mahon" which is cheese produced from cow's milk exclusively on the island of Menorca and "Manchego" a sheep milk produced cheese from La Mancha – the home town of the fictitious knight-errant "don Quijote" which lies south of Madrid.

There are also varieties made from blended milk like the famous Cabrales blue cheese which can be made from pure unpasteurised cow's milk but more commonly it is blended with goat or sheep milk. Once this cheese has been processed it is left to mature in caves until the mould has completely taken it. The Cabrales blue cheese is protected by European law and can only be sold as Cabrales if the entire herd used to make the milk was raised in Asturias in the Picos de Europa in the northern region of Spain.

Due to the diversity and wide range of Spanish cheeses, they can be eaten as a light snack such as a bocadillo which is a freshly oven baked roll cut lengthwise and then filled with jamon (Spanish cured ham) and salad vegetables. It can also be eaten as a tapas, served as an ingredient in a main meal or it can be integrated into the dessert.