Sierra La Salona - Truffle Sheep's Milk Cheese

Truffle is an infamous ingredient - coveted for its flavor and rare availability, but also met with skepticism as many foods use synthetic attempts at delivering its earthy and unique aroma and taste. 

Using locally foraged Tuber Melanosporum truffles that are harvested in Teruel, Spain by a woman-owned company, Sierra La Salona is a diamond in the rough.  These cooked truffles are added to the milk of Manchega breed ewes, all born on Finca Sierra de la Solana Farm founded in La Mancha, Spain in 1878. The curds are then pressed into the traditional Manchego molds of the region, resulting in truffle as a perfect expression of terroir.

Cheesemaker Maria José Gonzalez works with 1200 Manchego ewes whose lambs are born in the spring and fall to the quiet playing of Mariachi music, and they feed on a mix of native grains grown on the farm.

• Country/Region: La Mancha, Spain 
• Style: Manchego 
• Milk Type: Raw Sheep's Milk  
• Age: 6 months 
• Rennet: Animal 
• Texture: Hard 
  
  There are less than ten cheesemakers left in Spain making farmstead PDO Manchego artesano with a natural rind like the ones made by Sierra de la Solana Farm and brought to us by Essex St. Cheese.