Ewe cheese

Cheese made from ewe milk. Well-known examples include Manchego, Pecorino and Roquefort, also called sheep cheese, sheep milk cheese or ewe milk cheese. Ewe milk’s high protein and fat give these cheeses rich flavour, firm texture and good yields, with a distinctive tang from the milk’s composition and traditional ripening. Ewe milk’s roughly 6–7% fat and 5–6% protein — well above cow milk — give high cheese yields and the rich, slightly piquant character of Manchego, Pecorino Romano and Roquefort, whose blue veining comes from Penicillium roqueforti. Traditional raw-milk versions depend on native microflora, requiring strict animal-health and hygiene controls.