Cheese of the Week: Tronchetto Miele

This has to be one of the best flavored cheeses out there. The paste was chalky the underind full of goaty flavor and the rind had a hint of honey that got more pronounced as the cheese aged. Overall an amazing cheese.

The label has this little rant in Italian supporting raw milk: Il latte "crudo" e un alimento "vivo," non viene privato delle sue caratteristiche originaire e mantiene tutte le sue qualita.

I got this amazing cheese at the Formaggio's on Essex Market in NYC. Brooke the head monger at this cheese store is superb and always has great recommendations. A couple of weeks ago she recommended Papillon Pur Brebis Pave d'aveyron from Belgium.

Coming up a post on flavored cheeses, stay tuned...

Thanks to my fried Ale for my newest cheese-board.

Culinary culture

If you follow me on twitter, you may know that I am fighting a very-familiar battle for cheesers out there. The battle is against big dairy corporations, their lobbyists and elected officials with no backbone. The fight is over pasteurization and this time the battleground is Mexico. However, the fight does not look much different in the rest of North America, Australia or New Zealand for that matter.

My battle is against a law proposed in the Federal Congress by the Ministry of Health that would outlaw cheesemaking using raw milk. The passage of the law would not only criminalize small artisanal producers, it will also constitute an assault to our culinary culture.

Yes, I know that both charges are really strong, but that is exactly what this proposed law (we'll call it NOM 243 by it's filling number) would do. Let me explain why and present the case for raw milk cheeses in an entirely Mexican context. If this sounds familiar to you, but you are not from Mexico or live there, it may be because a very similar situation exists in your country.

Let's start with a basic facts, Mexico did not have cheesemaking or any dairy industry before the colony. It was with the arrival of the Spanish and Italian monks that cheese made it's way to Mexico. This, however, does not mean that cheese is still foreign to Mexican cuisine. What it means is that cheese, like many other food ingredients in Mexican cooking, is a clear representation of a complex, varied, and vibrant culinary culture.

This culture inherits a strong indigenous sense with ingredients like corn, chilies, chocolate, cactuses, tomatoes, and vanilla. It borrows techniques from Spain like salting fish and meat and integrates milk (and it's by-products), bread and most meat into the cuisine. But the story does not end there. Mexican cuisines also learnt and incorporated French sauces, Italian meat curing, Chinese soups and broths, and we also use tahini and pickles from Mexicans whose backgrounds are Lebanese and Jewish. Increasingly our food is also influenced by new immigrants from Haiti, Argentina, Central America, Brazil, Korea and also from the US.

It is exactly within this diversity that Mexican cheese finds its place in our cuisines. Cheese in Mexico is not only a food product, for many is a way of life. Here I am talking of the small artisan producers who produce unique cheeses in all regions of the country. Think for a second of the Menonites of Chihuahua, the small communities (some indigenous peoples included) of Oaxaca and Chiapas who make Quesillo or Queso de Bola or Queso de Cuadro and of small ranchers in Michoacan who turn amazing raw milk into Cotija cheese. Those artisan cheesemakers learnt their craft from their grandparents who in turn learnt from their grandparents. Most of them use raw milk to make their cheeses. They have small herds that are taken care by the immediate family and worry a lot about the well-being of their cattle, their cheese and their customers.

If the proposed law passes, it would criminalize their way of living. Most of them would have to leave cheesemaking as they won't be able to afford pasteurizing machines and will rather sell milk for liquid consumption. Others would defy the law and continue making cheese with raw milk, but their productions will be pushed to the illegal market raising the real risk of having an outbreak of food-related illnesses from dairies that are not carefully inspected and regulated.

That situation already exist in Mexico, as there are laws in place for limiting the use of raw milk, but this law will completely outlaw this practice. Just to be sure, I am not advocating for no regulation. I am arguing that we don't need laws that prohibit completely traditional ways of cheesemaking and that instead we need strong mechanism for monitoring that the raw milk that is used for human consumption is clear and free of pathogens that can affect human health.

In a sense this proposed law is the option to solve a problem on the cheap. By outlawing all production of cheese with raw milk, the government only needs to enforce the law by sanctioning producers who go against the law. While establishing a monitoring system, guidelines, and trainings for dairy producers and cheesemakers, is expensive, labor intense and requires long term planning. Outlawing something from a comfy office in Mexico City is the easy way out.

The project that I am involved with in Chiapas to create a collective trademark for the Queso de Cuadro is the right solution. This project involves producers, farmers, government and academia in finding a way to maintain traditions while ensuring that cheesemaking is safe and clean. It is an initiative that has the backing of many stakeholders, making it a slow process, but at the same time it ensures that the ultimate decision would have the backing of all involved.

So what is it about raw milk? Why are so many of us fanatics of it and what does it have to do with Mexican culinary culture? Before I answer to these questions, let me tell you a short story about one of the cheese judging competitions that I hosted in Chiapas.

In my first trip to Chiapas, I tasted 45 samples of Queso de Cuadro. There were producers from the many regions of the state, and while most cheeses tasted similarly I was able to taste the terroir of the farms where these cheeses were produced. Those from the mountain region were dryer and fattier. The ones from the plains were more lactic (milky) with fresh smell of grass and those from the coast were sweet and aromatic (like tasting flowers). One cheese from the coastal region stood up in smell and flavor. It was sweeter than the others and the smell reminded of ripe fruit instead of flowers. After the competition, I asked the producer of this unique cheese about his herd, the location of his farm, the weather in the region and finally about the feed the cows eat. I was surprise to find out that while his dairy is similar to all other in the region the feed that he gave the cows included a stick of sugar cane in the middle of the day. He said that the cows loved the sugar and produced better milk. He said that he was worried that I was gonna ask him to stop feeding sugar canes to the cows. Instead I was for the first time realizing how much impact feed has on the final flavor of the cheese.

Pasteurization kills harmful bacteria and pathogens in milk, but it also destroys all the complexities in the milk from the various aspects present in the terroir. This means that flavors are more generic and it really doesn’t matter where cheese is made, as no trace of the location where is made is maintained. However, taste alone is not enough to argue that milk should not be pasteurized, especially if there are concerns about the quality of the milk.

Here is exactly, where the minutia of the argument becomes relevant. The solution is to ensure better milk, cleaner and safer techniques, and also to care and be responsible for milk producers’ livelihoods. This is impossible to achieve when the only reasoning behind producing milk is to turn a profit. Milk, while treated as a commodity in economic markets, it is also a food for human consumption. However a lot of people, companies and farmers forget this. They only see dollar/peso sings in the liters/gallons of milk produced and not a food with nutritional value, a story and benefit for our population. Food companies are not in the business of feeding people, they are in the business of making profits with products that we all need daily.

We need to move away form this economic model, which is ending traditional ways of production and hurting our environment. The solution is smaller farms, local consumption and care for the trade of farming. This is why I advocate for raw milk, to support our dairy farmers who are willing to produce good milk for us because they love what they do, not because they want to turn a profit at expense of the animals and the consumers.

If you are interested in learning more about the campaign in Mexico against NOM 243 follow me on twitter (@carlosyescas) and make sure to be ready to talk about raw milk to everyone that needs help understanding why this matters.

For resources in English visit the Alliance for Raw Milk Internationale, they have info about similar movements all around the world.

Quesillo o Queso de Hebra de Oaxaca

This cheese is most commonly known as queso Oaxaca. It is the only cheese made in Mexico of the Pasta Filata style. The name "de hebra" refers to the long and thin shreds that form long pieces of cheese and are then braided into a small ball and sold fresh.

Traditionally, it was made with raw cow's milk only in the state of Oaxaca, where it is used to make "tlayudas." Now it is produced all over the country and in the US with pasteurized milk. The flavour of the original cheese made with raw milk is tangy almost sour but also slightly sweet. Its aroma is that of fresh milk and most times some left over whey is released when the ball is unbraided.

This cheese became popular for its capacity to melt, but not brown. This makes it the perfect quesadilla cheese, because it allows for the quesadilla to be soft in the center. Also its mild flavour is great for pairing with many different types of salsas.

As of right now, there is no initiative by producers in Oaxaca to seek a DO, which means that you can get excellent quesillo everywhere, but also allows large commercial outfits to make poor examples of it readily available in super markets and major retailers.

If you have the oportunity to travel to Mexico look for pick-up trucks parked in corners of major cities with big banners announcing "Productos Oaxaquenos." There you will find fresh examples that you will need to consume right away. The best age of this cheese is at about day one to day four of being made, and you obviously should look for the hand pulled versions as they are always fresher.

Commercial versions and those made in the US lack moisture and the cheese is gummy. If you don't have the option of buying the real deal. Look for one of the commercial ones that looks more loose and make your own whey and let it sit on it for a day to allow for the wet environment to moist the dry curd.

Quesillo is one of my favourite cheeses and everytime I get to see a good ball I ask for a taste and buy a big chunk. In my local Mexican market they have a good version made with pasteurized milk, the only problem is that I don't know the source of the milk and therefore it is more likely cheap milk from dairy facilities that tend to produce unhealthy milk that must be pasteurized to prevent outbreaks of listeria.

Nevertheless, this is a great cheese style.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone.

Cheese of the Week:Crystal Brook Farm Goat Chevre Log

For New Year’s celebration, my sister instituted a family tradition a couple of years ago. At 12:01 on the first day of the new year, you have to go out of your house with a small bag in hand and run around the nearest pole seven times. She attributes the extensive amount of travelling that she does to this tradition. My mom, Will and I have also started following it and seems like we are travelling more. Most recently we ran in Guadalajara, Mexico on our 2008 New Year’s Eve trip. Will and I have ran in Boston and in New York, convincing friends to follow us in what always is a very fun and accelerating activity for an otherwise un-climatic moment.

I love to travel, having grew up in a pre-NAFTA Mexico I find the diversity of the world full of possibilities. The one thing that I love the most about travelling is eating and finding new foods. Recently, the quest to find new local cheeses in the places I visit has open up a world never tasted before. In my recent trip to Europe, I had a layover in Reykjavik from America and found nice cheeses in the duty free area of the airport (see pictures below in the blog). I bought two bloomy rinded cheeses, one with extra blue mold making it a very cheese. The cheeses had a mixture of cow’s and goat’s milk and they claimed that the milk of these animals is unique because they eat grasses watered with glacier water. My friend Peyman, who kindly enough hosted me in London with his wife Alpha, loved the cheese and claimed that he was able to taste the tundra. Talk about an interesting terroir.

Finding local cheeses has pushed me to venture to walk on the highway interconnector in St. Louis, MO and to practice my rusty Italian with an Albanian bus driver in Milan. However, during this holiday break finding good local cheeses was easy - Will’s parents took us to the Cheese Shop in Concord, MA (http://www.concordcheeseshop.com). This little store has a great selection of world cheeses, with all the families covered. Still, the real treat was to find Massachusetts chesses.

Of four that I tried, I bought two: Crystal Brook Farm Goat Chevre Log from Sterling and Great Hill Blue from Buzzard’s Bay (Marion). I choose them because they were the most complex in flavor and I knew people would enjoy them. Will’s family likes creamy full-fat cheeses. My family likes sharp cheeses and Will and I enjoy the rounded flavors best.

Crystal Brook Farm makes this goat chevre with the milk of their own animals. The chevre is fresh, milky (lactic), and a little bit sour. Making it a great chevre to mix with food. They have a version with locally grown cranberries and another one with ginger. I did like both flavored ones, but decided to buy the plain one, as I didn’t want people to be unable to taste the freshness of the milk.

Great Hill Blue was really nicely covered with blue mold all over. I am guessing they use penicillium roqueforti because the veins were green and blue. The cheese is made with raw milk, and it was very lightly salted. It was also very fresh and the smell was full of mineral notes. The fact that this cheese is made and aged near the ocean is unique and it has a definite impact on its flavor. I really liked that it smelled like wet rock, which made me think of the rocky beaches of Massachusetts.

The goat chevre was a success and we finished almost all of it. The remaining piece may go into a quinoa/cranberry salad that we are copying from a friend who brought it for our Thanksgiving potluck.

If you want to find out more about Massachusetts cheeses, I found this link (http://www.mass.gov/agr/massgrown/cheese.htm) while browsing for information on the cheeses that I got. It belongs to the Massachusetts Agricultural Department and has a nice list by county of cheese producers in the state.

Apart from being a great cheese, I am making goat chevre the selection of this week because any good cheese plate should start with a fresh cheese. Since this is the first choice of the year it is perfect that it starts with a cheese that is fresh, from Massachusetts (where I took my first cheese class at the Boston Center for Adult Education from the buyer at Formaggio’s) and one discovered during a trip. Come midnight of December 31st, 2009, I will be out of the door running with my suitcase to wish that 2010 brings a lot of trips to find new cheeses and interesting politics research.

Feliz Año Nuevo.

(In the picture Crystal Brook Farm Goat Chevre log is in the upper left hand corner, Great Hill Blue is in the upper right hand corner, at the bottom there is Bound for Glory Cheddar from Greensboro, VT on the left and Queso de Vaca Urgelia from Catalan Pyrenees, Spain)

Cheese of the Week: Stilton

The winter arrived to New York this week in full force. After having unseasonaly warm days with 60 F in November, this week it was really cold. Still no snow on the ground.

This weather makes me change my entire eating patterns. While I normally go for light food, when it gets cold outside all I want is stews, soups, and vegetables instead of fruits and tacos. My cheese cravings also change. Instead of washed and bloomy rinds, I only want hardy and blue cheeses.

Cheeses in the blue family are always my favourites and I always find an excuse to buy a piece of blue cheese to eat. I love blue cheese and red wine and Roquefort in potato & leek soup. Gorgonzola is great on toast and Bayle Hazen Blue and Cashel Blue are great introductory blues for a cheese board.

This week for my class at Murray's, I choose Stilton for the cheese plate. I normally don't think of this cheese, as it can be really salty and it is expensive. However, Stilton made it to the last round at the World Cheese Awards and it was easy to get for my class. When I tasted it, I was surprise at how well balanced it was and because the paste was moist and had blue everywhere.

People in my class seemed to like it and worked well to close the class with a familiar cheese. The flavour was described by someone as chlorine, which I attribute to the mineral notes of this cheese and not to a fault in the cheesemaking process.

The politics of this cheese are particularly English. This is the only British cheese protected with a Denomination of Origin. The regulation calls for pasteurized milk, which is strange for a DO cheese. Most other cheese making guidelines require that the milk be raw. However, for Stilton, the particular history about the creation of a British milk board was key to have pasteurization as a requierement to be certified.

In a push to industrialize and make the dairy industry more profitable, the British created a milk board that collected milk from various regions and then served as the sole national supplier. Eventually, the milk quality dropped and pasteurization was necessary to ensure nobody ot sick. This in turn created a national anxiety over raw milk and all cheesemaking techniques changed to use pasteurized milk.

Stilton is the pride of English cheesemakers, so it makes sense that a cheesemaker associated with Neal's Yard Dairy is trying to revive the original recipe made with raw milk. That cheese, however, cannot be called Stilton so it goes under the name of Stichleton. If you find it, buy it. It is amazing and really improves the flavour of the blue mold.

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Cheese of the Week: Meadow Creek Grayson

So the holiday parties are in full force. What a great excuse to eat more cheese. My idea for this year is to bring cheese for my hosts, rather than wine.

I am recommending Grayson because everyone always love it. It's creamy, stinky, meaty flavour goes great with any type of bread and with most red wines. It's square form reminds me of an Italian taleggio, but the flavor is unique. The only problem of this cheese is it's smelly nature. It is a washed rind cheese from Galax, Virginia. Last time I bought it people kept looking at me in the subway, so make sure to not buy it much in advance of you getting to your house.

The politics of this cheese are straight forward. The story is a common one of American artisanal cheeses and it is rapidly becoming a very sucessful and famous cheese. It won't take long before it becomes an export cheese.

It is made with raw milk and the family that makes it is using environmentally sustainable techniques to make their cheese. They also respect their animals and only produce cheese with milk from the normal periods of lactation, instead of injecting their cows with growth hormones to produce more milk. And only when the cows are on grass and not on silage, which makes the cheese more flavorful and there is less risk of infection from the unpasteurized milk.

Last year it won the 1st in it category at the American Cheese Society awards and it is set to become a staple of the new wave of American cheeses. When Virginia was red (Republican), I feature it in my American Cheese Politics: Blue state vs Red state class. Next year when I'm teaching again that class, I will be using it as a sample of blue state (Democratic).

On Wednesday (Dec. 9. 2009), I will be teaching a class at Murray's Cheese. I will be presenting six cheeses that made it to the supreme panel of the World Cheese Awards. The class will be about the politics of judging cheese and about the unique opportunity that we have to taste so many cheeses from such diverse traditions.

If you are interesting on what it entitles to be a cheese expert and didn't get a seat for my class, watch this video from the 2009 Caseus competition in France. (At Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mvr19PsnO68)

This competition is known as the cheese Olympics. I have trained for it for many years, but I'm still looking for another Mexican national to go with me. If you know of anyone, please let me know.

Hope you enjoy Grayson and come back on Tuesday to find out on the cheeses that I will be teaching for my class.

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Cheese of the Week: Mozzarella di Buffala

It seems like my iPhone lost the post and never published it online. This is a short reproduction.

Cow's, goat's, and ewe's milk are the most commonly used type of milk in cheesemaking. However, cheese is also produced from the milk of other animals. Camel, Mare, Yak and Water Buffalo are other types. The most famous of these other four in the 'west' is Water Buffalo and perhaps the most famous cheese made with this milk is Mozzarella di Buffala.

This cheese has an Italian DO and is mostly produced in Lazio and Campania. The cheese is in the pasta filata category and is always eaten fresh. A smoked version also exist, and it is the main ingredient in pizza made in Naples.

The story of this cheese is full of myths. The most famous involving the Second World War, the Nazis and new herds of Water Buffalos. According to the story, Mozzarella stopped being produced after the war because all water buffalos were killed by the withdrawing fascist troops.

Apparently, the troops got orders to destroy the livelihoods of the farmers and this meant the killing of all farm animals. Soon after the establishment of the new republic, a herd of water buffalos was brought from South East Asia and production restarted.

In North America, only one producer uses water buffalo milk. The Vermort di Buffala company used to produce an ok mozzarella out of their facility in Woodstock, Vermont. However, since they move to Quebec in Canada, I have not seen any of their cheeses.

In New York you can get cow's milk mozzarella in most delis. They are normally produced somewhere in Brooklyn or are hand pulled in the kitchen. However, it is possible to find the water buffalo version in a couple of places. They normally come in a little green plastic bag with some whey to conserve them fresh. But if you want to eat them really fresh and are willing to put up with the guilt of a heavy carbon foot-print product, the best option is the Mozzarella bar in midtown.

The place is Obika and they have fresh Mozzarella di Buffala imported weekly from Italy. The flavor is milky with a tangyness distinctive of this milk. They also have a nice selection of meats and salads. I will be taking my partner to celebrate his birthday, and I will be taking a lactaid to be able to consume so much lactose.

Cheese of the Week: Rogue River Blue

For this week, I wanted to choose something that could be served for Thanksgiving dinner. Perhaps a blue cheese is not the best option after a meal of turkey, cranberry sauce, and pies. But I have chosen this chesse for its politics and story.

Rogue River Blue is made in Portland, Oregon - out of raw cows milk. After the cheese is pierced, it is covered with grape leaves that have been macerated with Brandy. The flavour is salty, creamy and boozy (this may help you when coming out to your family during dinner.)

The cheese is the first American raw milk cheese allowed to be exported to Europe. The cheesemakers behind it are strong advocates of raw milk and have designed a cave that mimics those in Roquefort. However the wrapping in grape leaves resambles more a Spanish cheese than a French one.

The great thing about American cheeses is the possibility to combine various cheesemaking techniques and come up with great new cheeses. The proccess of innovation in Europe has stopped and for the most part new cheeses there are only commercial inventions responding more to market forces than innovation.

Some cheesemakers blame this on the strict DO rules, while others attribute it to a saturation of the market. In North America there is more space to innovate because we still have huge markets to enter. Still, cheesemakers in Canada, the USA and Mexico are not just looking for market niches, they are trying to figure out the terroir of their regions and develop cheeses that will appeal to consumers in the same region.

For this reason a lot of the great new American cheeses can only be found in local farmer's markets and access is limited to where the cheesemakers can get without compromising their product.

The conjuction of old techniques, new terroirs and opportunities to young cheesemakers is the driving force behind the growth in artisanal cheesemakers in North America. For this reason, I think we should support them and help them find their own place in the cheese world.

Enjoy and happy thanksgiving.

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Cheese of the Week: Queso de Cuadro

After tasting 50 samples of this cheese. I had to make it the cheese of the week.

This cheese is produce only in Chiapas and it varies from region to region. The cheese is commonly made with raw cows milk and some producers make small batches with pasteurized milk for some specific markets.

I believe the best examples are from the Ocosingo and Costa regions of the state of Chiapas. Those cheese are creamier, more milky and fresh, and overall better in texture. This may be due to the better pasture in those regions and a smaller incidence of cows eating silage.

A recent issue with this cheese is the use of milk from cows eating the infamous "pollinaza" and "gallinaza." Basically chicken feces. The region around Tonala has one of the largest chicken processing plants in the state and therefore produces a lot of "feed."

The producers in this region had started using the feed until the government started monitoring and discourage the use of milk from cows on this diet for the making of raw cheeses. However, some cheesemakers are still using it for pasteurized versions. The Minister of Agriculture of the state promised me that by the end of the year they will have a total ban.

Still the issue of feed for cows is important and I will write about it soon. Michael Pollan's book The Omnivore's Dilema is a good read to learn about feed.

This style is commonly found in in the major cities of Mexico, in Guatemala and in Texas (only the pasteurized version).

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Why is Oka the only Canadian cheese you can find in New York?

Canadian cheese doesn’t carry the same connotations as American Cheese – all Kraft Singles and curds in a can – so why don’t we see more of it around the world… As usual my response is: Cheese Politics!

“Quebec cheese is a hundred years ahead of us,” Cole Snell told me when talking about all the Quebecois cheeses offered at his store in Toronto. As proven recently in the 2009 World Cheese Awards, where a Canuck cheese took the top prize, Quebecois cheese is ready for the world stage. Still it is impossible to get the winning Le Cendrillon in the US or even cheeses that are more familiar in Canada like Le Baluchon or its mature cousin Reserve La Perade, or Fellowship or Grey Owl, or even the cryopacked-but-amazing Cows Cheddar.

Quebecois politics may have something to do with why good Canadian cheese can’t be sold to foreign markets. Also, there is the Canadian federal system that protects small local producers, but creates huge obstacles for small dairies to obtain federal permits to sell across provinces. This risks only helping big agri-business and food conglomerates with the resources to lobby parliament.

The transfer of knowledge from Quebecois cheesemakers to other farmers in the rest of Canada has been slow. A persistent perception that English-speaking Canadians only eat cheddar has hindered joint ventures that would train cheesemakers in British Columbia, Ontario or PEI. So most of the cheeses produced in the English-speaking provinces have developed by people who have gone “back to the farm,” much like in the US.

The US still limits imports of Canadian cheddar to protect American producers (mainly conglomerates producing block commercial cheddar). Many of the regulations in place are left-over from policies adopted by the government of the thirteen American colonies against the royalist Canadians who sided with England during the war for independence. Other regulations involve the inconsistent 60-day rule applying to raw milk cheeses, that bans the entrance of much amazing unpasteurized cheese from Canada.

If this weren’t enough, the Canadian government has been slow at supporting its own producers (artisanal, but also some farmstead) to get them off the ground and move into export. I know we are not meant to have some food products outside of our regions, following slow food principles, but when you think about it, Toronto is closer to New York, Quebec closer to Boston and Vancouver closer to Seattle, than many points within the States. “Think local, think Canadian” was my motto when I was beginning to develop a market for Canadian cheeses in New York.

While that project is on hold, now I just hope someone starts bringing these amazing cheeses from north of the border. Intermittently, Canadian cheeses can be found at Artisanal in New York. Their affineur Denis Cottin is from Quebec and manages to bring some interesting wheels. But if you have the chance to travel north, make sure to try one of the amazing Canadian cheeses made with raw milk.

BTW – if you are into the slow movement, Mr. Woody Tasch, author of Inquiries into the Nature of Slow Money: Investing as if Food, Farms, and Fertility Mattered will be giving a talk at Murray’s cheese on Friday at 6:30 PM. For info contact: Taylor Cocalis at taylor@murrayscheese.com

Cheese of the Week: Queso de Bola de Ocosingo.

For this the first blog post of Cheese of the Week, I present to you………….. Queso de Bola de Ocosingo. This cheese is manly produced by small co-ops in the towns around the city of Ocosingo, in the north-east part of the Mexican state of Chiapas. This cheese resembles an Italian Cacciocavallo in the type and form. It has an outer rind that hardens and forms a casing that is sometimes edible (however, I don’t like the chewy-ness of the rind). In the inside, the paste is a bright straw yellow (with the texture of cream cheese) and the flavour is lactic (milky), salty and fresh. The cheese is normally made with raw cows milk from small Holstein herds.

This cheese is almost impossible to get outside of Chiapas, but if you ever travel down there to see the Mayan ruins of Bonampak, the cheese will be available in most tienditas de abarrotes.

There are two cheeses produced in the state of Chiapas, 1) Queso de Cuadro and 2) Queso de Bola, both are fresh raw cows milk cheeses. Queso de Cuadro is fresher, salty and very lactic. Some people in Mexico City, like a matured Queso de Cuadro, four to five months old, until it has become dry and even saltier to sprinkle on top of enchiladas.

I chose this cheese because I got word this past week that I will be attending the 13th International Expo of Non-Traditional Products in Tuxtla Gutierrez, Chiapas, Mexico. During this event, I will taste fifty samples of Queso de Cuadro (Doble Crema) de Chiapas. Since the summer of 2007, I have been working with a group of consultants for the Chiapas Ministry of Agriculture help local cheese producers to develop a single recipe for this cheese.

In 1994, the Zapatista movement entered a political conflict with the Mexican government. After the accords of San Andres, the government promised to support rural farmers. Many of them are indigenous peoples and these programs were intended to bring them out of poverty. The Ministry of Agriculture then became very interested in small cheesemaking co-ops that produced Queso de Bola and Queso de Cuadro and granted funds to develop newer cheesemaking facilities.

Most of these cheesemakers are family run outfits with no more than four to six employees, mostly family members. Fifty percent make farmstead cheese (made with your own cows milk), while the other half produce cheese with milk bought form local producers. At this moment there is only one farm that is certified organic and there are issues over pasteurization.

Now, the State of Chiapas and the Mexican Institute for Industrial Property (part of the Ministry of Economy) are trying to develop collective trademarks for cheese. This is the first step in the long process to get a Denomination of Origin in Mexico. Currently, there are no cheeses with this denomination, while other items like Tequila have been recognized for a long-time. The Queso de Bola de Ocosingo has already been granted a collective trademark and is now in the periodic review to be granted a full fledged Denomination of Origen.

Both cheeses have been produced in Chiapas since the time of the Porfiriato, and some believe that Queso de Bola was actually developed following a recipe for the Edam. However, in the techniques of cheesemaking employed and even in the flavor, they seem to have little in common. Still, the spherical shape of Queso de Bola may have had some inspiration from that Dutch cheese.

Edam was originally introduced to Mexico when the ports of the Yucatan peninsula were a common stop for transatlantic cargo ships. In fact Yucatan food often incorporates Edam, -- a great dish featuring this cheese is Relleno de Queso. This meat and cheese dish is made by stuffing a carved Edam with minced meat and spices.

Queso de Bola and Queso de Cuadro, are two of the ten distinct Mexican cheeses. As Steven Jenkins wrote in a recent email, “there are no new cheeses.” This is true, Mexico didn’t have cows before the conquista and almost all cheesemaking techniques were brought over by Franciscan monks evangelizing Christiantianity to the indios. For this reason, I think Queso de Bola and Queso de Cuadro produced by indigenous farmers shows exactly how cheese can be political.

Cheeses of Chiapas- letter from fellow cheesemonger Carlos Yescas

Originally posted on August 18th, 2008 in The Cheese Diary

Dear Cheese Aficionados.

How are you all?

I hope you are doing great and enjoying some nice summer cheeses during your many sunny picnics.

I'm here reporting on the cheese life in Mexico, as you have all wrote and asked.

I was in Chiapas last Monday and back on Tuesday after tasting 48 double-cream Quesos de Cuadro. It was a great experience, as I got to talk to all the producers, which included small family businesses and farm cooperatives. No cheese conglomerate there.

The experience started with my first trip to Chiapas. As you know, Chiapas is a very important place for me as is the only Mexican state with a sizable indigenous population that has not produced international indigenous migrants. There is still a lot of internal displacement of people due to the military intervention from back in the 1990s and the push from the para-military group. This, however, has made both the federal and state government to pay more attention to living conditions of Chiapanecos. For cheese producers this has meant an infusion of cash to modernize their facilities and ultimately to decide to grant a Denomination of Origin to the Queso de Cuadro.

Among Mexicans the yellow-foil wrapped cheese called "doble crema" is well known for its acidic taste. This cheese is used mostly in the south of the country to cook with, in Mexico city is known as a great way to stuff enchiladas, but little or nothing is known of its history, making, or of the producers involved in making it. Its real name is Queso de Cuadro and is produced by different cooperatives, farms and small family businesses.

Along "quesillo," "panela," "menonita," and "requeson" - Queso de Cuadro is among one of the most famous Mexican cheeses. Other mexican cheeses exist, such as "añejo," "de bola de ococingo," "enchilado,"

"fresco," and "cotija." But these are only eaten locally or found in Mexico city in one of the big Mercados like Sonora or Medellin. For the most part all Mexican cheeses are variations of well-tested European recipes, with some modifications for fat content and salt availability. Maybe the big exception is enchilado, which may resemble those cheeses from Portugal or the Balkans rubbed with paprika, but in the Mexican version it is rubbed with chilli powder.

The government of the state of Chiapas is now trying to better regulate the production of one of its best products, by granting a Collective Trademark to the Queso de Cuadro. This is the first step in the long process of awarding a Denomination of Origin (DO) to any product in Mexico. Currently, only Queso de Bola de Ocosingo has this distinction and the producers of Cotija are in a legal battle to be recognized as well.

Queso de Cuadro has many varieties, changing size, fat content, salt and acidity. However, amongst the various options all maintain a nice acidity, a very lactic smell and a sharp salty end. It is real nice cheese that can be eaten fresh (2 –3 days) during breakfast or matured (45 days) grated over enchiladas. It is mostly made with unpasteurized milk and turned with microbial rennet.

Tradition calls for unpasturized milk and the producers want to keep it this way. The Secretaria del Campo (Ministry of Agriculture) – my employer – also wants it this way, but the Ministry of Health and Walt-Mart wants it to be pasteurized. The debate is now on whether it’s possible to sell fresh cheese from unpasturized milk and the lawyers are saying no. Advocates are trying to change this rule and keep Queso de Cuadro as an unpasturized cheese.

On Tuesday, I was given the chance to talk to the producers and I addressed the issue of pasteurization. I obviously, want this cheese remain unpasturized, as it will open the way for other cheeses to enter the country in its original way. The Deputy Minister of Agriculture wasn’t happy with me taking a position but I had nothing to lose. Afterwards, during an interview with the local TV, I repeated my position and the Minister recognized that economic pressures were behind the push to pasteurize this cheese. I hope that this battle is well fought by others here in Mexico and I will continue speaking up about it.

The tasting was great. My approach was to not judge any cheese against each other, or even against a memory I had of this style of cheese. I instead tried every one with an open palate and made recommendations on how to improve each individual recipe. My biggest problem was the use of commercial salt, which gives most cheeses a metallic taste. I suggested changing salts to a better quality and in some cases adjusting recipes according to the amount of water expelled from the curd. The producers were receptive to my opinions, but some left angry because they felt I was being too harsh on their product. Others assured me that this would improve the overall quality of cheese produced in the state and only the best producers will remain. I also had issues with acidity and with those cheeses made with different milkings I found 8 excellent cheeses and will be recommending two as the standard for the others.

I plan to go back to Chiapas next summer and taste again all of the producers. But in the mean time, we will be approving guidelines based on the two I will be recommending.

Now, that I am back in DF, I am finishing the set up for my two cheese classes. I will be teaching at Endicott College / Mexico on Thursday, August 7 and Friday, August 8.

The classes will feature one Mexican goat cheese (that my mom has been selling for about a year), four imported cheeses (Brie, Raclette, Comte and Roquefort), two pates, Jamon Serrano and three wines. The classes are almost sold out, and I hope to start a real following for good cheese in Mexico.

Best, Carlos.