Hey there, cheese lovers! Let’s talk about the origins of a particular kind of cheese. A cheese for the acquired taste, if you will. That’s right, it’s time to talk about Cabrales cheese.
Listen, love it or hate it, you can’t deny Cabrales cheese is a fine example of cheesemaking ingenuity. Whoever in the world thought that eating moldy cheese was a good idea, we’re grateful for their courage… and for spreading the word around.
Want to know more about Cabrales cheese’s origin? As always, we’ve got you covered. We’ve scoured the Internet for facts and rounded up everything you need to know about where Cabrales cheese comes from and how old the recipe for it is. If that’s what you came here to find out, bring your appetite and read on!
Where Does Cabrales Cheese Come From?
Cabrales cheese was originally made by dairy farmers in the autonomous community of Asturias in northwest Spain. The recipe has several variants — a mild variant made from unpasteurized cow’s milk, and a stronger, sharper variant made with cow’s, goat’s, and/or sheep’s milk.
The first references to Cabrales cheese date back to the writings of 18th-century Spanish author, statesman, and philosopher Gaspar Melchor de Jovellanos, who mentions it, along with other great foods of the Spanish Asturias, in his diaries. By the 19th century, Cabrales cheese had become a staple in the region, written about in Geographic-Statistical-Historical Dictionary by former Spanish minister of finance Pascual Madoz.
Today, Cabrales cheese carries a Designated Protection of Origin (DPO) stamp. This blue-veined cheese can only be made from cow’s, goat’s, and/or sheep’s milk from animals raised in the Picos de Europa natural reserve, and is ripened using traditional cheesemaking methods, for a minimum of 2 months in natural caves.
Bottom Line
Well, fellow cheese lovers, there you have it. Now you know where Cabrales cheese comes from — and what its origin story is. Since you read this far, we’d like to take the opportunity to say thanks for stopping by Gionado’s!
We hope you had a good time reading this article about the origin of Cabrales cheese. If you want to share some of your favorite facts about Cabrales cheese’s story with the rest of this article’s readers, or have a question that it didn’t really answer, we invite you to leave a reply below.
