Manchego

Posted On January 27, 2009

I bought some Manchego to have in ploughman’s lunches.  It’s a sheep’s milk cheese which has to be from La Mancha in Spain.  It’s quite a firm cheese aged for a minimum of 2 months (fresco), 3-6 months (curado), and up to a full year (Viejo).  It has the sharpness of ewe’s milk cheeses (which I really like), but a creamy texture.  The distinctive patterns on the rind are from the press it is made in, replicating the marks of the woven esparto grass it used to be wrapped in.  It’s a lovely cheese to eat by itself, or with chunks of wholemeal bread, butter, Branston pickle and an apple.