Manchego cheese is the product of a harsh, extreme climate that favours the growth of very tough plants, the diet for a curious ancestral race of sheep, the manchega, that is raised under very strict standards of breeding and health. The result is a cheese unlike any other. Although there are records of people trying to make manchego cheese elsewhere both inside and outside Spain, nobody has ever successfully imitated so many time-worn factors at the same time beyond the borders of La Mancha.

 The earliest information we have on manchego cheese is that it was made and eaten many centuries before Jesus Christ. Although we don’t know what methods our ancestors used to make this natural product, we can safely assume that their cheese tasted very much like ours, and that their cheesemaking methods were most probably similiar to ours. 

Archeological remains show that in the Bronze Age, in what is now known as the La Mancha region, the inhabitants used to make a sheep’s milk cheese with the milk of a race of sheep that we might consider the ancestors of our modern manchega sheep. This race survived the passage of centuries roaming the lands with which it shares its name.

La Mancha was named by the Arabs, who called it Al Mansha, or “waterless land,” a perfect description of this harsh, rocky region of Spain. The dry, extreme climate has made La Mancha special and taught its vegetation to withstand the torrid heat of the summer months and the devastating frosts of the La Mancha winter.

 A type of sheep called Ovis aries ligeriensis was the ancestor of today’s manchega sheep. This early sheep crossed the Pyrenees and various regions of Spain (Aragon and Castilla y Leon) eventually settling in the region of La Mancha. That was where the manchega sheep put its wandering, migratory days behind it and became a sedentary breed faithful to the land that was to adopt it forever.

 It is proven fact that the early inhabitants of La Mancha domesticated the manchega sheep and improved the breed without allowing it to mix with other sheep breeds. That is how      manchega sheep has maintained its purity and original qualities, as well as its unique characteristics, which have hardly changed throughout the years centuries.

 The manchega sheep spends all year roaming the pastures and making the most of the natural resources of La Mancha, although its diet is reinforced with rations of concentrates and other by-products when its nutritional requirements are heavy (pregnancy, suckling, etc.). Depending on the size of the farm, the manchega sheep can live in herds between 100 and 600 sheep ,although there can be herds of up to 2,000 animals.

In this environment seemingly hostile to any kind of plant or animal life, there are many plant species mainly grasses and legumes that form the basis of feeding the sheep manchega adapted to this ecosystem since ancient times.

There are two varieties of manchega sheep, differentiated by their coats: a white sheep with no pigmentation of its mucous membranes (the more numerous variety), and a black sheep with white spots on its head and the distal ends of its anatomy. There is no difference however, in the quality of the milk the two varieties produce.

 The Regulating Council is in charge of supervising the use of the Protected Denomination of Origin, making sure all the cheeses that bear the manchego name meet the quality and source requirements set in the Council’s quality specifications. The Council certifies that all cheeses identified as manchego cheeses fit all the requirements for being considered true manchego cheeses.  

Another important job the Regulating Council does is to promote the product, informing consumers of manchego cheese’s fine qualities and the advisability of considering it an important part of a balanced diet.

The Manchego Cheese Denomination of Origin Regulating Council regulates a region 34.280 km² in area and covers all the milk produced and cheese made there, no matter what the stage in the cheesemaking process. The region includes 398 municipalities, 46 of which are in Albacete province, 77 in Ciudad Real, 153 in Cuenca and 122 in Toledo.

1. Milking and milk chilling 

The ewes are milked by hand or by machine. The milk is then filtered and deposited in refrigerated tanks, where it is chilled down to 4 ºC.

2. Curdling and curd cutting 

.The milk is moved into curdling vats, where it is curdled using natural rennet or other coagulating enzymes. For this process the milk is heated to 30 ºC and kept at that temperature for 45 minutes. The curd is then cut up time and time again until the individual curds are the size of rice grains.

3. Whey removal 

The cheese mass is stirred and slowly reheated to 37 ºC, to help eliminate the liquid part, or whey.

4. Molding 

The curd is put into cylindrical molds that have designs in relief on the inside to imprint a wheat ear “flower” on the top and bottom of the cheese and a zigzag braid along the sides,

5. Casein tabbing for cheese identification 

During this operation the casein tab,  with its serial number, is attached to identify each individual cheese

6. Pressing 

Once the curd is in the molds, it is pressed to help eliminate the whey from the inside of the cheese mass.

7. Turning

After some time in the press, the curd is extracted from the mold (it will be a cylindrical block by this time), turned over, and put back into the mold to be

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When you see a whole manchego cheese

- It will have a braided basketweave design around the outside, and its flat top and bottom will have lines dividing the surface into four equal parts.

- Natural color. Depending on how it has been aged, the cheese may be ivory to light brown in color. The rind may be coated with inactive transparent substances.

- The brand label must state that the cheese is made of 100% manchega ewe’s milk. You might also see the word “manchego.”

- Manchego cheese can only be made in the area covered by the Denomination of Origin, which spans part of the Spanish provinces of Albacete, Ciudad Real, Cuenca and Toledo.

-  The Manchego Cheese Denomination of Origin Regulating Council’s label, with its logotype and serial number.

- If it is a piece weighing less than 1500 Kgs will be crossed by a blue stripe on its upper right corner.

When you see already- cut portions

-  Check a whole cheese of the brand you want to buy to make sure it has all the signs of a true manchego cheese.

-  The inside of the cheese should be white to ivory in color, depending on how long it was aged.

- The paste, or interior of the cheese, must look all the same throughout. You may see a smooth surface, or there may be an uneven sprinkling of small holes.

- If the piece is packaged in a plastic film, you will have a back with a green stripe on its upper right corner.

Manchego cheese is a very complete food, a real concentrate of all the fine nutritional qualities of milk.

  It has a high proportion of proteins and is in fact even richer in proteins than meat.

  Manchego cheese also has such important vitamins as A, D and E, which are fundamental to metabolic processes such as growth, tissue preservation and calcium absorption.

  Because of its ingredients, manchego cheese is a recommended food for people of all ages. For children, manchego cheese’s high calcium content is a plus. For adults, the large amount of proteins it provides helps recover the daily expenditure of these vital substances. Lastly, manchego cheese is a great food for seniors, because it goes far to reduce bone calcium loss and it is easier to digest than milk.