Eating
The Cheeses Are Mostly Sheep, And Geography Explains It
Portuguese cheese comes largely from sheep and goats rather than cows, a pattern set by dry uplands, thin pasture and a thistle used in place of animal rennet.
A Portuguese cheese board looks unfamiliar to an American eye because the animals are different. Sheep and goats dominate, and the landscape explains why.
The land does not support dairy cattle well
Much of the interior is dry, thin-soiled upland with hot summers and sparse grass. Cattle need consistent forage and a great deal of water.
Sheep and goats graze rough ground, tolerate heat and travel between pastures. Where the land is poor, they are the animals that make sense.
American dairy grew up on wet pasture and grain, which supports cows at scale. The inputs differ, so the output differs.
Milk yield shapes the size of the cheese
Sheep produce far less milk than cows, so a single cheese represents many animals and several milkings. Wheels are correspondingly small.
That scarcity pushes cheese toward being a valued item rather than a bulk commodity. It is eaten in slivers, not in slabs.
It also explains prices that surprise visitors used to inexpensive cow's-milk cheese. The economics start with the animal.
A thistle does the work of rennet
Several traditional cheeses are set using an extract from a wild cardoon flower rather than animal rennet. The resulting curd behaves differently.
Thistle-set cheeses tend toward a soft, spoonable interior held inside a firmer rind, and they carry a distinctive slightly bitter note. That texture is the signature of the method.
The technique also makes such cheeses suitable for vegetarians, which is a genuine practical point. It was not adopted for that reason, but it holds.
How the soft ones are actually eaten
A ripe thistle-set cheese is opened by cutting a lid in the top rind and scooping the interior with a spoon or a knife. It is served at room temperature with bread.
Refrigeration firms it and mutes it, so a cheese taken straight from a cold shelf will disappoint. Time out of the fridge is part of the preparation.
These cheeses are seasonal in character, tied to the milking year, and quality varies through it. The best months are widely agreed on locally.
Where cheese sits in a meal
Cheese frequently appears at the start of a meal among the small plates brought before ordering, rather than as a course after the main. Its position is closer to an appetizer.
Anything eaten from that opening spread is charged for, which catches visitors out. Declining it is entirely acceptable.
Cheese as a dessert course exists but is less common than the American or French pattern. The sweet ending is usually something else.
Questions readers ask
Why does the bread go hard so fast?
It has almost no fat, sugar or preservative, so the starch retrogrades quickly. The trade-off is a much better loaf on the day it was baked.
Is sourdough common?
Long-fermented artisan bread has grown in the city over the last decade and is easy to find, though it sits alongside rather than replacing the traditional daily roll.
