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The cheese of Tronchón in Don Quixote

Tronchón, Maestrazgo, Teruel

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The cheese of Tronchón in Don Quixote

Historical milestone · Tronchón, Maestrazgo, Teruel

Image of Tronchón, not of the place itself.

Tronchón cheese, made with raw or pasteurised sheep's milk -from breeds such as the rasa aragonesa or the guirra- and goat's milk, is curdled with thistle (Cynara cardunculus) or rennet and pressed firmly. It has a circular shape, with a characteristic volcano-shaped hollow on both faces and a flower pattern on the rind; its colour ranges from ivory white to light brown and it weighs between half a kilo and two kilos. Cervantes mentioned it twice, in chapters LII and LXVI of the second part of Don Quixote, published in 1615, which gave literary fame to a product that later spread through the Maestrazgo of Teruel and Castellón as far as the Valencian Community, where it has held a protected quality mark since 23 December 2008.

1615

Photo: Mikel 365 vueltas (CC BY-SA 4.0)

What to see and do in Tronchón