Cheese making was a skill passed down from generation to generation and cheese was a simple food made at home with the most basic of ingredients and tools.
In Ecuador, specifically in Nanegalito, an Ecuadorian town in the beautiful Andes, the artisan cheese makers use milk from their own animals mostly, an easy way to control the process of cheese making since the beginning. In other words, traceability of the source of the precious main ingredient: milk is implemented. All of the animals are grass-fed, a practice that results in a more rich and flavorful organic milk.
Sometimes they pasteurize the milk, and others work with the raw milk, which in this case is carefully supervised to have low bacterial content. It is interesting to note that the big corporations that process milk commercially are also present in these little towns in the Andes. They purchase the milk from the small dairy farms, test it for bacterial content and then put it all together and send it to a big city where it is processed and becomes the various products for mass consumption domestically and internationally.
Another essential characteristic of these traditional artisan cheese makers is that they do not hurry the process and will give their cheese the right length of time to mature. They do not treat their cheese with enzymes to speed the aging process, although the fresh cheeses are more common and widely sold.
Since they prepare cheese and other dairy products in small quantities, is a real delight to visit those small shops and purchase a yogurt, fresh cheese, and dulce de leche that you know were prepared the same day or the day before.
A work of love and dedication is the key for an excellent product. There is nothing more enticing that to chat with an artisan that is so proud of the product and invites you to see the whole process. The tour in the small kitchen is as rewarding as the first bite to one of the cheeses and the mouth watering fragrance of the dulce de leche in preparation.
I think that I gained a few pounds just by visiting, but each of them were worth it.
After a night full of rain, an electrical storm caused the burning of the small artisan cheese making shop. I learned about it the day I was coming back to Panama. It broke my heart in a hundred pieces, but I KNOW that they will be operating again by the time I go back. If not, I have decided to help them. People like them, with so much talent and love for food and their work should continue sharing with the world their gifts.
Particulary this artisan cheese-maker caught our attention, because he is also the only veterinarian in the town and consultant to most of the dairy farms of the area. Knowing myself and how I am when it comes to cleanliness, this one was my pick. It was actually the only place I drank raw milk and ate dairy products. It will continue to be so I guess, until I start making my own cheese of course!
If you happen to be in the area and would like to have a tour of the kitchen, or need advice on managing a dairy farm, this is how you can contact him:
Productos Lacteos El Pedregal
Nanegalito, Quito, Ecuador. Tel.: 211-6089
Dr. Ivan A. Sivisaka |
