Ossau-Iraty
Cheese
Top 10 pairings
Ossau-Iraty is a French pressed, uncooked sheep's-milk cheese from the Basque Country and neighbouring Béarn, in the western Pyrenees. Firm, supple and ivory-pale, it carries a Protected Designation of Origin and is prized for its mellow, nutty, gently buttery flavour with a faint note of roasted hazelnut and grass.
Picking a good onedrag
Supple, nutty, clean cutSweating, cracked, musty
Wrapped wedgeEveryday bestSheep's head stamped face-on: fermier, raw milk. Creamery wheels may be thermised, still unpasteurised. US CDC: pregnant, 65+ or immunocompromised, only steaming hot.
The cut faceColour true, the open face a shade duller
The rindDull or scuffed, the paste still tight against it
Smell at the cutTrue to its age, a little quieter at the face