Queijo Serra da Estrela: Portugal's greatest cheese

Serra da Estrela, Portugal

Portugal's most celebrated cheese — a raw sheep's milk soft cheese from the Serra da Estrela mountain range, made by hand from December to March when Bordaleira sheep produce milk of the highest fat content, coagulated with cardoon thistle (the same vegetable rennet as Torta del Casar), and aged to a soft, flowing interior that must be scooped from the top rind. Queijo Serra da Estrela DOP is Portugal's only internationally recognised artisan cheese and shares with Torta del Casar the thistle-rennet character: slightly bitter, intensely creamy, with a persistent lanolin and wild-herb note from the mountain pastures. The best examples (November through February, when the milk is at peak fat content) have an interior that flows like a very thick cream when the top is removed.

Not yet written for this entry.

Not yet written for this entry.