Basque Cheese Making

This delicious note appeared at EITb:

Fiestas & traditions

Ancient practice

Cheese making: Idiazabal and Ordizia

11/22/2007

Cheese making has prevailed along the years in the Basque traditions giving a well-known name to some towns such as Idiazabal and Ordizia.

The vast number of megalithic monuments scattered through the Basque countryside (dolmens, cromlechs, etc.) offer us signs of the ancient practice of livestock herding.

Shepherds tended native “Latxa” sheep throughout the year, grazing them in the highest, coolest fields in summer and the best-sheltered fields in winter. The milk they gave was made into a ball of semisolid milk, the beginnings of what today is a superb cheese.

After several centuries of evolution and with the help of modern technology to ensure proper hygiene, Basque sheepherders continue to make excellent cheeses, the quality of which has now transcended the valleys of its birthplace.

Idiazabal, the seat of a long Goierri valley stretching from Alava and Navarra to Gipuzkoa, lends its generic name to a DO product (denominación de origin mark of authenticity and control).

The milk that goes into Idiazabal DO cheeses comes from Basque sheep, although not always from Gipuzkoan. Today milk from Bizkaia, Alava and Navarra is also used to make Idiazabal cheese. Only “Latxa” sheep’s milk can be used in the Idiazabal DO, making creamy cheeses with hints of hazelnut, walnut and the unique flavor of the milk itself.

The best products are taken to compete for prizes in cheese competitions held throughout the valley: Idiazabal (May), Ordizia (June) and Zegama (November). But the Idiazabal DO’s crowning event, drawing crowds, important cheese tasters and the media, takes place in Ordizia in September with the so-called “Euskal Jaiak” (Basque fiesta). The festival and cheese contest has now become a tourist event.

~ ~ ~