Claudia Romeo: São Jorge cheese
is one of Portugal's best-kept secrets.
Made in a remote volcanic island under constant humidity,
this cheese is packed with moisture,
hints of spiciness, and a grassy scent.
The art of cheesemaking
arrived here on the island of São Jorge
over 500 years ago,
and it has become an important part of its identity.
Imagine -- there are over 10,000 cows on the island,
which is more than double the size of the human population!
Cows here even dictate
the start of their day for their keepers.
São Jorge is a tiny island
in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.
It is also home to one of the richest
and most elaborate cheeses on Earth:
São Jorge cheese.
The volcanic geology of this island
means that its soil is rich and fertile.
The result is abundant vegetation that basically never dies
and cows that are able to graze freely 365 days a year.
These conditions make São Jorge cheese
incredibly rich in flavor.
Every bite reminds of the very grass
where everything started.
Claudia: João is one of the keepers here in São Jorge.
He runs one of the only four dairies on the island,
the smallest of them all,
and the one that sticks to the way
this cheese has been made for decades.
His 40 cows give him around 400 liters of milk per day:
200 at dawn and 200 at sunset.
He will combine them to make cheese.
When milk arrives at the dairy,
it's João's mom, Graça,
and his dad, Manuel, who take the lead.
They devote the whole cheesemaking process
to preserving the flavors of the island in the cheese
by not killing the native cultures
that are present in the milk.
To do that, there are two crucial steps:
The first thing is to keep the milk raw
and not pasteurize it.
The second is to use whey from the day before
to ferment the milk
instead of adding other fermenting agents.
This way, the whey is imparting even more flavor to the milk
without interfering with its natural composition.
As this is a more gentle way to acidify the milk,
it takes four hours to split the milk into curds:
one hour of rest, and three hours of cutting.
This is more than double the time other cheeses take.
Why is it this long?
Is it a recipe that is specific to São Jorge?
Claudia: How did the recipe come to you?
Claudia: And then your family has perfected it?
João: Yes.
With the experience.
Claudia: At the four-hour mark, the cheese is salted
and transferred into molds.
It will stay in the molds for 48 hours,
with just a short break after one day to quickly turn it.
São Jorge then matures from three to 12 months.
Unlike other cheeses that spend their aging days
in temperature-controlled rooms,
São Jorge rests at room temperature.
Why?
São Jorge island is a very humid place,
subject to constant fog.
Like, really, really thick fog.
As it ages, the humidity packs the cheese with moisture
and turns it from sweet and mild to tangy and peppery.
Claudia: That's true. Actually, we drove around,
and we saw all of the cheesemaking at the top.
Claudia: And it's ready to be tasted.
Claudia: And what is this?
Is this, like, the moisture of the cheese?
João: Yes.
Claudia: That stays inside? OK.
Just from here, you can see that it's pretty wet inside.
Claudia: Can we try it?
João: Yes.
It's a bit spicy, like São Jorge cheese.
Claudia: And it's nice and soft,
but without being chewy.
You can feel the humidity is still there.
João: Thank you.
Claudia: On an island where there are so few people
and the only ones to compete for space
are cows and hydrangeas,
you might expect that João's cheese
is accessible to all the human population here.
But this is not the case.
There are bigger, more commercial cheese factories
on the island that are making a less traditional version
of São Jorge cheese.