I haven't done any cheeses for a while, so today I thought I'd return to that lovely food type. The two I'll be discussing are Queso Iberico, from Spain, and Grana Padano, from Italy. Both are relatively common, and popular cheeses. I got both of these from my local Shop-Rite grocery.
Iberico is a hybrid of three kinds of milk. Specifically, milk from cows, goats, and sheep. The minimum percentages of each type are 50%, 30%, and 10%, respectively, with the remaining 10% up to the cheese maker. The cow milk is said to provide Iberico with its acidity and flavor, the goat milk the white color and tartness, and the sheep milk the buttery consistency and richness. Iberico is made in the Valladolid province, located in central Spain. Aside from being prized as a nice snack, the cheese is also often grated or grilled. Obviously, taste depends on the individual consumer, but folks often describe Iberico's texture as being "rich and buttery," and its flavor as "nutty and fruity." This hard cheese is often compared to another Spanish favorite, manchego cheese, which you can read about in my August 29, 2015 post. The Iberico I tried was the El Pastor brand, imported by the Schuman Cheese company. El Pastor also markets a wine soaked goat cheese, manchego, and regular goat cheese. And there are three subtypes of Iberico--the 3 month aged, the 6 month aged (which I had), and the 12 month aged.
Grana Padano is also a hard cheese, and is also from one specific area, in this case the Padania region of Italy, located in the Po Valley of Northern Italy. The "grana" part of the name comes from the Italian word for "grainy," which describes the cheese's texture. Grana Padano is one of the world's oldest hard cheeses, dating back 900 years. The Cistercian monks of the Chiaravalle Abbey were the developers, and the cheese has been famous for at least 500 years, valued for both its taste and ability to resist spoilage over long periods of time. Unlike Iberico, Grana Padano is made only from cow's milk. There are three subtypes, once again based on how long its been aged.
Grana Padano: aged 9-16 months, known for its rice-sized granules, and relatively sticky texture.
Grana Padano Oltre: aged 16-20 months, with a more grainy and crumbly texture.
Grana Padano Riserva: aged over 20 months, very grainy and crumbly, fuller flavored.
And here's what I thought of these cheeses:
El Pastor Queso Iberico, aged 6 months: White color, and hard texture. Mild and sweetish flavor. Very good.
Ambriola Grana Padano: Also has a whitish hue, and hard texture. Flavor reminiscent of its "sister cheese" Parmesan. Some pleasant sour sharpness to it. Also very good.
If you want to know more about the Ambriola cheese company, there's a 18 minute video on the company website. (Even I wasn't obsessive enough to watch this, but it's there if you want.) Also, all the dairy farming in the Padania region had an unexpected, and to my mind, a wonderful result. Gianantonio Locatelli and some of his fellow farmers decided to do something productive with all the copious manure that their cows make. Therefore, they opened the Museo Della Merde in the village of Castelbosco. In English, this translates to the Shit Museum. Some of the exhibits include some fossilized feces (coprolites), art inspired by ordure, and dung beetles. The Museum also promotes eco-friendly recycling of manure. Aside from fertilizer, they also developed a kind of ceramic which is made from a mix of cow excrement and clay, which they use to make tiles, plates, mugs, and bowls. (And you're probably wondering--is this sanitary?! Reportedly the ceramic is fired at unusually high temperatures, to kill off the bacteria from the dung.) So add this to the sights to see on your trip to Italy! If you're also curious, there's at least one other museum dedicated to this topic, at the Isle of Wight's Poo Museum at its zoo. And in Delhi, India, visitors can tour the International Museum of Toilets. Finally, I was further amused to read that in 2016 the Consortium of Cheese sued the makers of the American soap opera "The Bold and the Beautiful," for disparaging Grana Padano as a "poor man's Parmesan" in an episode. I wasn't able to find out the results of this no doubt landmark legal case. Apropos of nothing, if anyone from the Consortium is reading this, you'll note that I gave Grana Padano a very positive review, and I think it would benefit the tables of people from any socioeconomic position.
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