Idiazabal

idiazabal - www.healthnote25.com

Idiazabal is a hard textured cheese from a Basque village in Spain made with raw sheep milk. The shape of this cheese is a cylinder weighing 1 to 3 kilograms.

The texture of Idiazabal cheese is dense, fragile and has ivory-like color. If the skin color of this cheese is light yellow then the cheese is not smoked. Meanwhile, if the cheese skin is orange reddish to brown, then the cheese has been smoked.

For centuries this cheese has been made by the shepherds in the mountains of Urbia and Aralar. Traditionally this cheese was sold in late September, when the shepherds and sheep were forced to descend from the mountains because of the winter that had begun.

The Idiazabal cheese made by the shepherds is a smoked version. At that time there was no chimney on the houses in the mountains so the smell of the smoke was firmly attached to the cheese. Initially they smoked Idiazabal cheese in order for the cheese to last longer and can be sold in winter.