FORMAGGIO.IT

Il Portale del Formaggio

Torta del Casar

Avenida de la Constitución, 13,
E-10190 Casar de Cáceres, Cáceres

Torta del Casar is a cheese made from raw milk of ewes belonging to the merino and entrefino breeds. The clotting agent used is vegetable rennet made from Cynara cardunculus flower heads. The cheese is ripened for 60 days at least and its characteristics are as follows:

(a) Physical characteristics:

— cylindrical shape,

— size:

(i) height: 5-7 cm; diameter: 11-13 cm; weight: 0,500-0,700 kg;

(ii) height: 5-7 cm; diameter: 14-17 cm; weight: 0,900-1,100 kg.

(b) Physical and chemical characteristics:

— fat content (in relation to the dry extract): may not be less than 50 %,

— dry extract: may not be less than 50 %,

— pH: may not be less than 5,2 or more than 5,9,

— NaCl: may not exceed 3 %.

(c) Organoleptic characteristics:

Semi-hard yellow to ochre crust; soft to spreadable white to yellowish middle. Texture closed

but soft and slightly greasy, possibly with some small holes. Strong smell and ripe and slightly

bitter flavour attributable to the vegetable rennet used.

The geographical area in which Torta del Casar and the milk from which it is made are produced, comprises 36 municipalities in the districts of Los Llanos de Cáceres, Sierra de

Fuentes and Montánchez, and is situated in the province of Cáceres in the autonomous  community of Extremadura.

The merino and entrefino milk ewes currently number about 20 000 and produce an estimated 1,5 million litres of milk per year. Characteristics of the rearing system:

— based in whole or in part on grazing,

— any supplements fed to the sheep are subject to regulatory council controls.

How Torta del Casar is produced:

— vegetable rennet is added for 50 to 80 minutes with the milk at a temperature of 28 to 32 °C,

— clotting is interrupted in order to produce fine, rice-like grains,

— the curds are placed in cylindrical moulds corresponding to the size of the finished product,

— the curds are put in a cheese press and subjected to a pressure of 1 to 2,5 kg/cm2 for three to

eight hours,

— wet- or dry-salting, using sodium chloride only,

— the cheese is ripened for 60 days, with the temperature at 4 to 12 °C and the relative humidity

at 75 % to 90 %.

Transhumance and grazing have since time immemorial been a feature of the districts situated in the geographical area of production. After undergoing a number of changes over the years, the drovers' routes were in 1273 officially recognised as obligatory passageways for flocks under the rules governing the ‘Honrado Concejo de la Mesta’.

There is evidence of the presence of established flocks in 1291, when King Sancho IV allowed the use of land around the town of Casar as grazing land for flocks. Already then, Torta del Casar was used as a means of payment, but it is not until 1791 that we find the first written reference to ewe's milk cheese from Casar de Cáceres.

The area of production is situated to the north of the Sierra de San Pedro. It is bounded by the border with the province of Badajoz and, to the east and north, by the Almonte and Tagus rivers respectively. The steppe-like plain of the geographical area of production is broken by the Sierra de Fuentes running north-west to south-east and consists of sandy, fairly thin and not very fertile soils with numerous rocky outcrops.

It has a continental climate with long hot summers, mild and short winters, and the annual

rainfall ranges between 300 and 500 ml. The flora essentially consists of highly nutritive but slow-growing grasses, plus some shrub and tree vegetation of the quercus type.