Spanish sheep cheese with thistle rennet, nearly custard-like and traditionally scooped with a spoon.
Torta del Casar comes from Casar de Cáceres, a town in the Extremadura region of western Spain, and it carries a PDO that ties the recipe to the place. Made from raw Merino and Entrefina sheep's milk, the curd is set with wild thistle flower instead of animal rennet, which is the move that makes this cheese what it is.
Aged about sixty days, the wheel is bound in a cloth band because the paste inside goes nearly liquid. The rind is thin and reddish-brown, the interior almost custard-loose, and the traditional way to serve it is to cut the top off like a lid and scoop the molten paste out with a spoon. The flavor is rich sheep cream up front, tangy, a little gamy, with a vegetal, slightly bitter herbal pull from the thistle that lingers on the back of the palate. Some people get a soft smoky note, others get more of a wild artichoke thing, that's the thistle talking.
This is one of those cheeses that doesn't really have an equivalent anywhere else, the thistle rennet and the raw sheep's milk give it a character that's specific to Extremadura. It picked up Super Gold at the World Cheese Awards in 2019, and once you've scooped into one you understand why.
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