The Dairy Products Cooperative Society of Taramundi brings out some 80 cheeses a day. None exceeds the 500 grams of weight, just the right size so that the most popular consumption does not abuse or get bored. The good flavor comes with just snacks, the artisan is always scarce and is as protected as the landscape that sees it born. Protected by beautiful and tasty. The cheese inventory of this center is limited to three types: the walnut and hazelnut, the matured goat and cow (at 50% of both milk) and the pure goat. The first one is perhaps the most demanded. Mainly for a solid reason: it is the only one in Spain that contains dried fruit. Its drying is fast, from 6 to 8 days, and the taste certainly inimitable. The other two cheeses have to overcome a maturation of two months and their greater production and consumption extends from early spring to the end of summer. All three have the same sustenance and the same milky essence, the same know-how and an unmistakable, long and buttery taste.
Cheese making in all its phases it seems simple and hardly distinguishable from others: in the first place the whole milk of the area is used, produced on the farms of the partners themselves and of controlled quality; then pasteurized, lactic ferments are added, acidified: add the rennet and allow to coagulate, the curd is cut, stirred and heated until it is ready. The nuance is therefore not in the process itself, but in knowing how to reach that point with one's own milk. An end state that depends on too many things. Above all of the land and the climate that sees him born, and that in this sense is so unique that he does not have twins. Before packaging it is already observed that the rind is natural and that the cheese has a very special flavor, due to its buttery texture, its slightly acidic flavor and the presence of toasted flavors. A fruit that is packaged in molds, pressed and only the next day the point of salt is sought. As we can see, there are several points. A full stop, in short, that makes them very salable cheeses, about way in the Principality. Meanwhile awaits his just fame in the peninsula.
Allow us a final suggestion for all those who dare to try it: also use it to melt and gratin, you will be pleasantly surprised. Consume it only with cider, white wines or Ribeiros. The variety of nuts should be tasted as a dessert, accompanied by a sweet and dense liquor wine. Chopping it for salads is another very valid option.
Three versatile cheeses, as you can see, they are good in sauces, dry sticks, and as you wish at any given time. Three brothers of the same mother: the nature and culture of Taramundi.
Today they are made more than 40 varieties of cheese, some of the best known and most popular ones, if you want to discover something more about the cheeses of Asturias.
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Text: © Ramón Molleda for asturias.com
