Sheep's milk cheeses
Rich and nutty: Roquefort, Manchego, Pecorino, Feta, Idiazabal and oscypek.
Sheep's milk is the richest of the common dairy milks, with close to twice the fat and much more protein than cow's milk, so it gives more cheese per litre and a full, nutty, slightly sweet flavour. Sheep are milked across the Mediterranean, the Balkans, the Middle East and the Carpathians, and many of the oldest cheeses are theirs: Roquefort, Pecorino, Manchego, Feta, Idiazabal, oscypek and bryndza.
Pecorino and the south
Pecora is Italian for sheep, and pecorino means any sheep's milk cheese. Pecorino Romano, Pecorino Sardo, Pecorino Toscano and Pecorino Siciliano are protected, each with its own size and age, and Sardinia, with its great flocks, makes most Pecorino Romano. Greek feta and kefalotyri, Spanish Manchego, Roncal and Zamorano, and Portugal's Serra da Estrela, set with the flowers of a wild thistle, are all sheep's milk cheeses. Roquefort, the great blue, is made only from the milk of Lacaune ewes.
Shepherd cheeses of the north and east
In the Carpathians and the Tatras, shepherds still make cheese in summer huts: Polish oscypek and bryndza, Slovak bryndza for bryndzové halušky, and Romanian telemea and caș. Ewes are seasonal, milked mainly from late winter to summer after lambing, so production rises and falls with the year. Sheep's milk freezes better than cow's milk, which lets small dairies save it for making cheese later in the season. Turkey's tulum is packed into a goatskin or sheepskin bag to ripen.
In South and Central Asia
In South Asia, sheep are kept mostly for wool and meat, and their milk is seldom made into cheese, though herders in the high mountains make small amounts for their own use. In Central Asia and Iran, sheep's milk becomes kurt, qurut and kashk, dried and kept for winter, and in Jordan, jameed of sheep's or goat's milk is the soul of mansaf. Iran's lighvan, a brined sheep's milk cheese from near Tabriz, is a favourite with bread and herbs.
Worth knowing
- Roquefort: Blue of Lacaune ewes' milk
- Pecorino Romano: Salty grating cheese of Lazio and Sardinia
- Manchego: Pressed cheese of La Mancha
- Feta: Greek brined cheese with up to 30 per cent goat's milk
- Idiazabal: Basque cheese of Latxa sheep
- Oscypek: Smoked cheese of the Tatras
- Serra da Estrela: Portuguese cheese set with thistle
- Bryndza: Soft sheep's cheese of the Carpathians
Good to know
- Sheep's milk cheeses are rich, so cut thinner slices for a board.
- Aged Manchego and pecorino go well with quince paste, honey or pears.
- In Rome, young pecorino with raw broad beans is a spring custom, especially on the first of May.
Sources and further reading
Original text by the EveryCheese desk, written with AI assistance and checked against the sources above. Customs are described as tradition, not as advice. If we have something wrong, tell us.
Sheep on EveryCheese
The cheeses written up so far, best known first.
Photo credits on this page
The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.
- Zamorano: Jon Sullivan, Public domain, source