Idiazábal: smoked Basque sheep's milk cheese

Basque Country and Navarra, Spain

The most important cheese of the Basque Country and Navarra — a pressed, semi-cured sheep's milk cheese (from Latxa and Carranzana breeds) that is cold-smoked over cherry or beech wood before aging, producing a distinctive dark amber to mahogany rind and an interior that balances the mild natural sweetness of sheep's milk with subtle smoke and a slight nuttiness from the aging. DOP Idiazábal covers a wide range from mild (2-month curado) to intense (8-month madurado). Idiazábal is the cheese that appears at every Basque meal — on the pintxo bar, with walnuts and membrillo, melted over dishes, grated over soups. It is the defining regional cheese in the same way that Manchego defines La Mancha.

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