Queso Ibores

Appearance & taste

Queso Ibores is a cylinder with a relatively smooth top and bottom and rounded edges, 8 to 15 cm in diameter, 4 to 9 cm high and weighing 400 to 1,200 g. The rind is smooth and medium-firm, naturally wax-yellow to dark ochre. Because the cheese is traditionally rubbed with paprika or brushed with oil, its colour ranges from the grey of the natural mould coating through the orange-red of the paprika to ochre yellow. The inside is ivory-coloured, semi-firm and moist, with a buttery consistency, crumbly or elastic, with a few small, unevenly distributed holes.

The cheese smells mildly to moderately of raw goat’s milk cheese. The specification describes the flavour as fresh, faintly sour, moderately sharp and somewhat salty, with a mild goat aroma in the finish, along with milky, vegetal, floral and fruity aromas. It contains at least 45 % fat in dry matter.

It is usually sold as a whole wheel; the cheese dairies in the area may also cut it into halves or quarters. Every cheese and every piece bears a numbered control label that cannot be removed and reused.

Production

The goats of the Verata, Retinta, Florida, Malagueña and Murciana-Granadina breeds and their crosses are kept on pasture extensively or semi-extensively. In winter they eat mainly acorns, as well as rockrose, thyme and heather. Straw, cereals and mixtures of legumes and seeds are given as supplementary feed only when requirements are very high, for example around kidding, during lactation or when vegetation is sparse in summer.

Natural raw whole milk is used. It is coagulated with natural rennet at 28 to 32 °C in 30 to 60 minutes. The curd is cut until the grains are 5 to 10 mm in size. The curd is placed in cylindrical moulds and pressed for one to three hours. It is salted dry or in brine, in the latter case for at most 24 hours. The cheese ripens for at least 60 days. Cheese made from the milk of the producer’s own herd and ripened for at least 100 days counts as “Artesanos” (artisanal). Milk production, cheesemaking, ripening and cutting take place in the area.

Origin & history

The area is crossed by ridges of quartzite and slate, including the mountains of Deleitosa, Villuercas, Palomera, Valdelacasa and Altamira, and by peneplains with exposed areas of flint. A large part belongs to the UNESCO geopark “Villuercas, Ibores, Jara”. The landscape is Mediterranean, with pastureland under holm oaks and cork oaks, sweet chestnuts, rockrose, heather, broom, French lavender and thyme. The winters are cold, the summers very hot; the average temperature is 15 to 16 °C. The native goat breeds are adapted to the climate and the rough terrain; their milk yield is moderate.

According to the specification, the cheese has been offered at the market in Trujillo every Thursday since 14 July 1465; at that time Henry IV of Castile granted the town a free market at which cheese, among other goods, was exempt from sales tax. The goatherds’ street “Calle de los Cabreros” still exists there today. Jaraicejo was granted a weekly market in 1945, at which today only goat’s cheese is traded, every week from January to July. A national cheese festival has been held in the area every year since 1986.