I believe it’s safe to say that the Portuguese like cheese (hey, I rhymed!). Whether it’s in a sandwich, as a snack, as an entrée or at the end of a meal – we like cheese.
The Serra da Estrela cheese (Queijo Serra da Estrela), probably the most famous and appreciated of Portuguese cheeses, is produced in the mountainous region of Serra da Estrela (a beautiful area, even if you don’t like cheese) and it has been granted PDO (Protected Designation of Origin) status in the European Union.
The region where this cheese can be manufactured is limited to an area of 3,143.16 km2, which comprises several municipalities. The production of the Serra da Estrela cheese has to follow strict rules. For example, it is made mostly from November to March and from sheep’s milk, but not any sheep’s milk will do – only those from the bordaleira Serra da Estrela and the churra mondegueira sheep can be used; the maturation period has specific rules and must last thirty days at least.
As a side note to those of you who might be more interested in the fine art of making cheese, I’d like to add that in this case the raw sheep’s milk is coagulated using a local type of thistle, instead of the more common rennet.
The texture of the cheese varies: while still young it’s very soft and kind of semi-liquid; when older it’s still soft but you can slice it. So, how do you eat it? Simple: If you’re eating it in the ‘young’ version (and particularly if you’re not sharing not going to eat it all in one go) you can cut a ‘lid’ on the crust, spoon out some cheese and put the lid back on. If you’re eating the ‘older’ cheese you can still cut the lid but it won’t be so easy to take some of it with a spoon, so you might as well slice it.
I don’t qualify as a cheese expert but I can tell you that it’s really really good when eaten with some nice marmelada (quince paste, not marmelade), artisan/rustic bread or pumpkin jam. Or, you can do like me: wait until there’s no else around, take the lid off the cheese, plunge your spoon in, give it a nice swirl, remove the spoon gently, put the lid back on, erase any evidence of your actions, sit back and… enjoy!
Apparently some kind of great-great-great-grandfather of the Serra da Estrela cheese has been around for quite a long time: Columela, an officer in the Roman army who was born in the Iberian Peninsula around 2,000 years ago, wrote about the production of this cheese.
Source: http://www.estilosmercearia.com/
Beyond Lisbon 
Reblogged this on kattyjames.
I couldn’t get enough of the cheese in Portugal, smuggled some home in my bags!
Ah! I know the feeling! I did the same with a couple of poppy seed buns when I was in Germany 😉
I’m sure that young lady is hiding up in the mountains somewhere! Not tried the cheese “young”, so that could be interesting. I do like the firmer cheeses though.
If you prefer firm cheese then you might not like it ‘young’. Still, there’s nothing like trying to be sure of it 😉 Even if you don’t go to Serra da Estrela sometimes you can sample this cheese in big supermarkets (like Continente) without having to actually buy one 😉
[…] it’s lovely when it snows and they’ll mention the typical cheese of the region (“queijo da Serra da Estrela“). The way I see it, snow is fun for a while but my favourite times to visit are Spring and […]