Ashyago cheese

Asiago or Asiago cheese refers to the floor of hard Italian cheeses, which are made from cow's milk. In addition to the well-known name of asyago cheese, there are other product names. For example, asiago or azyago cheese, in the Italian manner. Cheesemakers from Italy have been making two main types of asyago cheese for several centuries.

Young or fresh Asiago Presato cheese and ripened Asiago d'Allevo. These two subspecies of asyago cheese differ only in the ripening time of the product. However, the taste and aroma of the final product depends on the ripening period of the cheese. Therefore, the young asiago is strikingly different from the completely ripened cheese in both taste and aroma, as well as in color and consumer qualities.

Young asyago cheese is usually formed as a cylinder. Such cheese ripens for only 40 days and has a light color and uniform consistency of cheese mass, in which small irregularly shaped holes are found. Usually, the heads of young ashyago cheese do not exceed 40 cm in diameter and weigh up to 15 kg. The young asyago cheese is distinguished by its subtle and unusual cheese aroma with milky notes.

Fully ripened asyago cheese is distinguished by the golden color of the cheese mass. Such cheese belongs to elite and expensive varieties of the product. Asyago cheese takes up to two years to fully ripen and acquire its distinctive and refined cheese taste, as well as aroma. The taste of ripened asiago cannot be described in words. A fruity and at the same time savoury palette of tastes and aromas that are delicately intertwined with each other and form a truly masterpiece of the world cheese tradition.

In addition to young and fully ripened asyago cheese, there is an intermediate variety of a well-known cheese product. For this reason, manufacturers of asyago cheese additionally indicate the aging time on the product packaging. Therefore, do not be surprised if in a specialized store in the homeland of the product in Italy you are asked about the desired "age" of asiago cheese. Distinguish between medium-aged asyago cheese or mezzano, aged or vecchio, as well as stravecchio or fully aged product. Asyago cheese works beautifully with expensive wines, so the product is used as a snack or dessert.

It is noteworthy that asiago cheese is produced only by specially authorized cheese producers, the products of which are constantly subject to quality control by the Italian Ministry of Agriculture and the Cheese Quality Protection Consortium. In Italy, the quality of cheeses is taken very reverently and seriously. This is not surprising when you consider that Italians themselves are considered true connoisseurs of cheeses. In addition, Italy annually supplies thousands of tons of first-class cheeses to world markets, which have become symbols of the country.