Portuguese cheese [Moved from Spain/Portugal board]

[anit]

This is a long shot but can anyone help me...when I was traveling through Lagos, I walked by this man selling cheese off of his truck along the main street in Lagos. The cheese was made from a mix of cow and sheep's milk, really inexpensive...it had a tough yellow rind and inside was soft-medium texture, harder than brie but still very creamy. Does anyone have any idea what the name of this cheese is? As sketchy as it sounds, it was actually really great! Would love to be able to look for it in the states...thanks!

[David Leite]

Anit,

It if was a mix of cow and sheep milks, it wasn't Queijo da Serra. That's a DOP cheese made only from winter sheep's milk. Most likely it was the farmer's own cheese. When I lived in Portugal, I'd fine some excellent cheese--all raw-milk--that had a soft, creamy paste, and a hard, yellowish rind. Unfortunately, what'll you'll find here in the States is only the famous cheeses that have aged more than 60 days. Try a Serpa or Azeitão. The lovely. Of course Serra is out of this world, but might be too soft compared to what you described.

www.leitesculinaria.com

[howboy]

You might go to this site and ask. It a Lisbon based blog, but they speak English:
http://www.teemejota.blogspot.com/
or try this NYC based Portuguese cooking site
www.leitesculinaria.com

[BobB]

Possibly Serra de Estrela - it shows up in this thread on Portuguese cheeses from a while back. I had had an artisanal mountain cheese in Portugal that was incredible, and a poster suggested it might be that.

[shana]

we had this same cheese while we were there last year and have never been able to find it here or figure out what it was called. I'm curious if anyone here can help us both!