The Spanish Legacy of Food: Manchego Cheese

La Mancha famous for the windmills and insanity of Cervantes' unlikely hero don Quijote. His errant travels roll over the vast plateau of the Manchega sheep laden area, 600 metres above sea level. These sheep produce the milk that is the base of Manchego cheese.

This delicious sheep milk cheese approximately takes between two months to two years of maturation before it reaches the shops' shelves. It is a firm slightly piquant cheese interspersed with air pockets that vaguely interrupt its texture. The colour of Manchego cheese can vary from white to yellow and is coated with an uneatable yellow to beige rind. Manchego cheese has a delicious after taste that seductively lingers on the taste buds.

The cheese used to be traditionally made by plaiting the curd into esparto grass baskets which gave it a distinctive design. Now this distinctive design is provided by the pattern of the cylinders that the modern day cheese is processed in. The only additives that can be used to help make Manchego cheese is salt and a coagulating agent such as natural rennet or another such approved enzyme.

It is protected under PDO requirements and to further qualify as a Queso Manchego it must come from Manchega sheep stock, raised and registered in the region of La Mancha and the cheese must have a minimum maturation date of sixty days. They also must have been produced in specifically dimensioned cylindrical tubes and allowed only to mature to a maximum of two years. To carry the label of Artisan Cheese this whole process must be done with unpasteurised milk.

The clearest distinction of a true Spanish Manchego Cheese besides the PDO marking and the Queso Manchego tag is the serial number and the beautiful illustrative artwork of don Quijote de La Mancha. These will also be indicated in age by the names of Curado – matured for three to six months; and Viejo at one year plus. The former has a sweet and nutty flavour whilst the latter is sharper.

In the United States the closest equivalent to Manchego cheese is a variety known as Queso Tipo Manchego. This is made of cow's milk not sheep milk and is similar in taste to Colby or mild Cheddar.