Manchego cheese is
the most important and well-known sheep’s milk cheese in Spain. The shape of
this cheese is very characteristic and defined, due to the traditional use of
esparto grass molds which imprint a crisscross pattern on the side of the
cheese.
These rustic molds are used outside of La Mancha as well. Thus,
there are other Spanish sheep's milk cheese with similar shape and markings,
known commonly as "Manchego style" cheese.
The true Manchego cheese, however, is made only from whole milk
of the Manchega sheep raised in the "La Mancha" region. This region
is a vast high plateau, more than 600 meters above sea level, which extends
from east to west and north to south, adjoining the provinces of Toledo,
Cuenca, Ciudad Real and Albacete, all in the Castile-La Mancha Autonomous Region
southeast of Madrid.
Manchego cheese has a long historic and literary tradition, as it
was mentioned by Cervantes in the legendary "Don Quixote of La
Mancha". Today, there are two types of Manchego cheese: the farmhouse
type, made with unpasteurized sheep's milk and the industrial type, made with
pasteurized milk.
In both cases, however, milk from Manchega sheep is the only type
used and the cheese is produced in clearly defined homogenous surroundings of
wheat fields, fallow land and brush fields. The climate is extreme continental
with cold winters and hot summers.
La Mancha is high plateau, of about 650 to 800 meters in height
(2000 feet) and an area of more than 35000 Sq Km. (13500 sq miles). It is made
of flat lands and hills with an extreme continental climate, with cold winters
and long dry summers, scant rainfall, and large daily temperature changes.
Labeled "Denominación de Origen
Protegida" (D.O.P.) Manchego Cheese has
been protected by the Denomination of Origin since 1984. The D.O. that stipulates
the exclusive use of milk from manchega sheep breed, as well as an aging period
of a minimum of 60 days.
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