São Jorge (Azores)

One of Portugal’s rare cow’s milk cheeses, as well as the largest, it is a magnificent-tasting hard cheese. Unpasteurized cow’s milk is mostly used for São Jorge cheesemaking from late spring to summer. The hard cheese has a sort of waxy texture, but it is rather like a Cheddar, with sharp, nutty flavours and crumbly texture, and if aged over a year, is really delicious. If you make a Portuguese fondue, use this as the base cheese, and add softer cheeses at the end of cooking.