“When the Christians finally regained Iberia, they took these Middle-Eastern sheep that had gone astray in Extremadura and cared for their lineage.
The lineage became known as the Merino sheep - today yet almost a mascot for Spain. The sheep were bred for the finest wool, and Extremadura became a kind of Merino wool factory Now those Merino sheep are almost exclusively used for the production of Extremadura’s best cheese.”
We arrive in Badajoz, one of the old Moorish taifas, and it's Columbus Day, so nobody is working and most are asleep. If they're not working, they're toasting Columbus with the pitcher. It's eleven in the morning.
Badajoz is worn; ornamented in arches and old quarters but without the passion for tidiness and antiquarianism that makes small-town Spain glow. I thought again about that American who said, 'they have more culture over there' and I seemed to confirm my belief that culture is more than old buildings. It’s how a people care for their old buildings.
At its heart lie a number of cafes, and we find a small table in a dim, crowded tavern. We ask for the lomo - another cut of cured ham, and an order of Queso de la Serena. The second cheese of our journey.
Queso de la serena - cheese of the mountains - is made of Merino sheep’s milk, and goes through an unusual coagulation process. Its rennet is from a local thistle plant. Made by a single family's sheep in the high mountains just east of here. Its unique flavor is a combination of that thistle taste and the rich milk of the Merino sheep. The goat cheese we ate in Morocco nearly approximated the first cheeses ever made; little more than sun-curdled skimmed milk. The skimmed milk gets churned, then boiled. The result is as fresh and tasteless as plain yogurt.
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