Ossau
Iraty
Name of Group of Producers
Ossau-Iraty
Maison Bazatchartenea
64120 Ostabat
Champs Elysèes, 138
75008 Paris
Slightly pressed ewe's milk cheese with an orangey-yellow or grey rind; a flat cylindrical shape with a straight or slightly convex heel produced in two formats: 4-7 kg or 2-3 kg; at least 50% milk fat.
Geographical area: Western part of the Pyrenees mountain range embracing the Atlantic Pyrenees dèpartements and three contiguous communes of the Hautes-Pyrènèes Dèpartement that include the Ossau Valley (Beam) and Iraty Forest (Basque country).
This region contains traces of a farming-herding system dating back to the Neolithic. Latin authors mentioned ewe's milk cheeses' being sold in the markets of Toulouse. Fourteenth-century share-cropping contracts and notarized documents from the early 15th century attest to the making of ewe's milk cheese in the region at the time.
Made exclusively from the milk of ewes of the local breed. The whole milk is used raw for farm cheeses. After renneting the curd is separated, stirred, and scalded in a vat at between 36 and 44χΟ. The cheese is ripened in the area for at least 90 days; this period is shortened to 60 days for the small cheeses.
