Torta del Casar

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Torta del Casar
Country of origin	Spain
Region, town	Casar de Caceres, Caceres
Region	Extremadura
Source of milk	Sheep
Pasteurised	No
Texture	Semi-hard
Aging time	60 days minimum
Certification	protected-origin status 2003
Named after	Casar de Cáceres
Related media on Wikimedia Commons

Torta del Casar (Extremaduran: Torta del Casal) is a cheese made from sheep's milk in the Extremadura region of Spain. It is named after Casar de Cáceres, its city of origin. The milk is curdled using a coagulant found in the pistils of the cardoon, a wild thistle. This ingredient lends a subtle bitterness to the otherwise rich and slightly salty tasting cheese. It is aged for at least sixty days. The fully ripe cheese has a creamy consistency in the center, and is traditionally eaten by slicing off the top and scooping out the inside.

In 1999, the cheese was given protected-origin status, regulations that stipulate not only where it can be produced, but also that it can only be made with the milk of Merino and sheep. These breeds have a low yield of milk, and it takes the milk of 20 sheep to make a 1 kg (2.2 lb) wheel of Torta del Casar.

See also[]

• List of cheeses
• List of sheep milk cheeses

References[]

• Torta del Casar: Regulation Council, Protected Designation of Origin, retrieved December 22, 2005
• "It takes a herd of sheep to make one small wheel of Torta del Casar" by Janet Fletcher, San Francisco Chronicle, December 22, 2005, retrieved December 22, 2005