Until just a few years ago, Mexican-style cheese wasn’t readily available in the United States. To taste its fresh simplicity, you had to go to Mexico. There, in restaurants, mercados, households or from street vendors, you could get crumbly, salty sprinkles of cotija cheese on top of fragrant mashed beans. Or, warm Oaxaca cheese (sometimes called quesillo) melted onto small, just-made corn tortillas.
Now, companies in the United States are creating many of the fresh or slightly aged cheeses that Mexican food aficionados crave. Some are reaching beyond the traditional.
At the Mozzarella Co. in Dallas, Paula Lambert, for instance, is making a simple Mexican style disc of soft cheese wrapped in deep green hoja santa leaves. Hoja santa is a hot-climate bush with large leaves that impart an herbal taste reminiscent of anise or root beer.
South Texan Melissa Guerra, cookbook author and television cook, describes Mexico’s cheese as simple and fresh, largely because “the weather doesn’t lend itself to being good for aging or fermenting cheeses. Mexico doesn’t have the history that European cheesemaking does.”