All About Spanish Cheeses

Spanish Cheeses

Before you buy any fresh or cured cheese, make sure you understand how to rinse and dry it. Buying cheese in wheels is not the same as buying a small chunk in the nearest grocery store or a package of slices from Kraft. Cured cheese should be placed in a large pot with enough water to cover it.

Scrub it with a small vegetable brush before removing the cheese and drying completely with a kitchen towel. You can freeze some kinds of cheese as well, as long as they are fresh or semi-cured cheeses you have cut them into pieces. You should not freeze cured cheeses.

Storing cheese is quite easy to keep it cool and dry. The refrigerator is usually best. Keep your cheese at around 45-50 degrees for the best storage.

Spanish cheese, like other cheeses, has a variety of purposes from eating it on bread, cooking with it, eating it as a dessert. As daily eaters of cheese, you are likely to find several varieties of cheese in a Spanish home. You may also find several recipes that are just recipes, you also want to make sure you know which wines go best with which types of cheese.

Though it may not be very important when you just have your family for dinner, if you are having a dinner party, you want to know the proper wine to serve with the cheese or cheese dish that you are serving.

There are over 100 different cheese produced in Spain, so trying them all can take years! You can start by finding the type of cheese you like best. Cheese is usually classified by what type of milk is used:

Cow's Milk Cheese: You'll most commonly find cow's milk cheese in northern Spain, where cheesemakers live in the mountains. Galicia produces a number of famous cow's milk cheeses, with the three most popular kinds being Tetilla Gallega, Sam Simon, Cebreiro. In Asturias, where Spain's richest cheeses are produced, the main varieties of blue cheese like Cabrales, La Peral, and Gamonedo, as well as buttery and soft cheeses like Porua and Vidiago.