What Mixed-Milk Cheese Is
Most cheese is made from a single milk, but some of the world's most interesting wheels come from a blend of two or three. Mixed-milk cheese, made from some combination of cow, sheep, and goat, exists because each milk brings something the others lack. Cow's milk is mild, smooth, and plentiful; sheep's milk is rich and high in fat and protein, which makes for a dense, sweet, nutty cheese; goat's milk is bright and tangy. Put them together and a cheesemaker can balance richness against freshness and reach flavors no single milk would give on its own.
The tradition is partly practical. On small farms with a few cows, sheep, and goats, the day's milk often went into the pot together, especially when one animal's supply ran low between seasons. That habit became an art, and today blended-milk cheeses are made on purpose, for the complexity they offer. Most of the ones here come from Spain, Italy, and Greece, where mixing milks is centuries old, and igourmet cuts and wraps them to order, as it has imported specialty cheese since 1997.
Where to Start
The most famous example is Iberico, the Spanish table cheese made from cow, sheep, and goat's milk in the same hatched molds as Manchego. The blend gives it the grassy, herbaceous edge of sheep and goat with the smooth body of cow, which is why it goes so easily with chorizo, jamón, and a glass of Spanish red. Spain has a whole family of these blends, from a young, semicured Iberico to the three-milk wheels sold as tres leches.
From Italy comes robiola, a soft, tangy stracchino-style cheese of Piedmont, often a mix of cow and sheep that spreads like cool butter on bread with a little honey. Greece and Cyprus add the briny ones: feta is traditionally sheep's milk or a sheep-and-goat blend, and halloumi is a sheep-and-goat cheese firm enough to grill or fry without melting. Each leans on its blend differently, and all of them taste more layered than a single-milk cheese would.
Serving and Keeping Mixed-Milk Cheeses
Because they cover so much ground, these cheeses suit almost any board. Serve a soft one like robiola at room temperature with honey, fruit, and crusty bread; lay out Iberico in thin slices with cured meats and olives; and save halloumi for the grill or pan, where it chars without losing its shape. Feta crumbles over salads, into pastries, or alongside watermelon in summer. Let the firmer wheels sit out half an hour before serving to bring up the flavor, and store any cut pieces wrapped in breathable cheese storage bags, which keep them fresher than plastic wrap. Brined cheeses like feta are happiest kept in their own liquid in the refrigerator.
Also Worth Exploring
Mixed-milk cheese is one slice of a deep counter, so the gourmet cheese collection is the place to keep browsing, with more than 550 cheeses sorted by milk, style, and region. For robiola's relatives and the rest of the boot, the Italian cheese collection runs from fresh to aged, and the charcuterie collection brings the chorizo, jamón, and salami that a wedge of Iberico was made to share a plate with.
Mixed-Milk Cheese: Frequently Asked Questions
Mixed-milk cheese, sometimes called blended-milk cheese, is made from a combination of two or more animal milks, most often cow, sheep, and goat. Blending lets the cheesemaker draw on the strengths of each milk at once, so the finished cheese is usually more complex and better balanced than a single-milk one. The style turns up all over the cheese world: Spanish Iberico, Greek feta, Cypriot halloumi, and Italian robiola are all made from a deliberate mix of milks, and each tastes distinctly of its particular blend.
Some of the best-loved cheeses in the world are mixed-milk. Iberico, from Spain, blends cow, sheep, and goat in a Manchego-style wheel. Robiola and La Tur, from Piedmont in Italy, are soft, creamy cheeses of two or three milks. Feta, the national cheese of Greece, is traditionally sheep's milk or a sheep-and-goat blend, and halloumi, from Cyprus, is a firm sheep-and-goat cheese made for grilling. Spain also makes three-milk wheels labeled tres leches. Each combines its milks in different proportions, but every one tastes more layered than a single-milk cheese.