Mahón
Cheese
Top 10 pairings
Mahón is the great cheese of Menorca, a firm, pressed cow's-milk cheese moulded into a distinctive squarish cushion and aged behind a rind rubbed with paprika, oil and butter that turns it a warm orange-brown. The pale-gold paste is buttery, slightly salty and lactic-sharp young, growing dry, hard, intensely savoury and almost piquant — with a faint nutty, even meaty tang — as it cures.
Picking a good onedrag
Firm paste, sound rind, clean cutDried, cracked, stray mould
Well wrappedEveryday bestArtesano is raw milk; the label says how other Mahón milk was treated. US CDC: pregnant, 65+ or immunocompromised, eat raw-milk cheese only steaming hot.
The cut faceColour true, a shade darker and drier at the open face
The rindColour even, the oily sheen dulled, still whole and tight