Quesillo
Mexico's stretched-curd string cheese from Oaxaca, wound into a ball like a skein of wool.
Also: queso Oaxaca, Oaxaca cheese, quesillo de Oaxaca
In Oaxaca, quesillo is the name of the cheese known elsewhere in Mexico as queso Oaxaca. Cow milk curd is soured, then stretched in hot water into a long, flat ribbon, which is salted and wound round and round into a ball. It is mild, milky and slightly salty, and it pulls apart into strings. Quesillo melts beautifully and is used in quesadillas, tlayudas, chiles rellenos and queso fundido. It is usually said to have been developed in the nineteenth century in the town of Reyes Etla. In Honduras, Nicaragua and El Salvador, quesillo means a different soft, stretchy cheese, eaten in tortillas, and in Venezuela it is a caramel custard.