Etorki Cheese

Etorki cheese. Kubigula / wikimedia / 2007 / CC BY-SA 3.0

Etorki is a cheese made in the French Basque region of the Pyrénées from the pasteurized milk of black-headed Manech sheep.

The milk is curdled, then the curds are put into moulds, and pressed to drain off the remaining whey. Then, the moulds are soaked in brine for two hours, then rubbed in salt and wrapped in cloths that were also soaked in brine. The cheeses are then aged anywhere from 3 to 6 months. Finished cheeses are about 25 cm wide and 11 cm high (10 inches x 4 inches), and weigh about 4.4 kg (about 10 lbs.)

The rind on the cheese is thin and orangish. Inside, the cheese is a light-yellow, and feels just a bit oily from the high butterfat content. It is also very supple; you can bend it a bit without its breaking. The flavour is somewhat sweet; some people detect notes of burnt caramel.

The cheese was created by and is made by Fromagerie des Chaumes in Mauléon-Licharre, which is part of the French dairy company Savencia Fromage & Dairy (formerly “Bongrain.”)

Cooking Tips

Grates and melts well.

It has become popular to serve the cheese with Itxassou sour black cherry jam.

Nutrition

50% butterfat

History

Etorki is a new cheese, created in 1979. ^[1]”Le fromage Etorki a été créé en 1979 avec la volonté d’offrir aux consommateurs un « pur brebis ».” Accessed March 2022 at https://www.quiveutdufromage.com/f-etorki

Whole French sheep’s milk cheese “Etorki”. Tangopaso / wikimedia / 2011 / Public Domain