More Tangled than a Oaxacan Cheese: More Detective Work
Was Oaxacan cheese developed from mozzarella-making techniques introduced to Mexico by Italians? And was this in the 1950s?
I’m still mulling this over. In and of itself it’s perhaps not so important. But I see these puzzles as case studies in how we get straight about the history of food, in how we can bring to bear different lines of evidence.
I have been much helped by three items. Two emails off list from MexicoBob including extracts from web pages on queso oaxaca and an article whose title (in translation) is Two Famous String Cheeses: The Oaxacan and Mozzarella (2004) by Abraham Villegas de Gante at the Universidad Autónoma Chapingo, Mexico’s main agricultural university. Here’s what I learned from Bob in bullet form.
- “That’s more tangled than a Oaxacan cheese” is a Mexican saying. Thanks Bob for this apposite addition to my Spanish! What a great expression.
- That there are legends saying that in 1885 a 14-year old named Leobarda Castellanos Garcia invented queso Oaxaca by accident when having let the coagulated milk pass the point for making cheese she tipped hot water over it and accidentally made the gummy mass that was the basis for a new cheese.
- That Oaxacans celebrate Reyes Etla as the cradle (birthplace) of cheese.
- That elderly Mexicans remember queso Oaxaca from before the 1950s.
And from Abraham Villegas (apart from lots of lovely technical details)
- That Oaxaca cheese is not the only string cheese in Mexico. There’s also asadero, guaje (from the mountains of Potosi) and trenzado or plaited (from Veracruz).
- That artisanal Oaxaca cheese is made by methods essentially identical to artisanal mozzarella while mass produced Oaxaca (or I suspect asadero) is made by methods essentially identical to industrial (sometimes called American) mozzarella.
- That the preferred cows in Mexico are a cebu-Swiss brown mix used for meat as well as milk and grazed not kept in a barn (though presumably with hay, alfalfa or other extras in the dry months).
- That mozzarella-type cheese production began climbing world wide in the 70s with the growing popularity of pizza.
- That milk-based mozzarella is threatened by artificial mozzarella.
So what do I conclude?
I’d still suspect queso Oaxaca and the other string cheeses are relatively recent additions to Mexican cheese making. The tricky technique and the fact that is so similar to the Italian, the fact that Mexico is not great dairying country, that the “Texas” longhorns that I think were the main cattle here weren’t ideal dairy animals, that it’s unlikely that cebu and Swiss browns were introduced until twentieth century, that it’s not clear that there was a big role for melted cheese (the main use of Oaxaca cheese) in traditional Mexican cooking, all suggest at least a twentieth century origin.
The accidental discovery story I discount. these make my historian of technology hairs stand on end. They’re hard to disprove but evidence almost always counts against them.
The fact that the elderly remember queso oaxaca from before the 50s I give more credence though memories being what they are (and everyone who has done oral history has stories to tell) I don’t count it as fact beyond a reasonable doubt.
So maybe earlier than the 1950s. But highly unlikely the technique was independently invented. Propelled along by quesadillas, pizza, queso fundido and the like. And I’d still guess brought by Italians.
Coming next in this continuing investigation (and for its intrinsic interest as well): a wonderful forthcoming book by Anne Mendelson on milk.
Well, Rachel, Wisconsin was not a dairy state either, at first. It was a wilderness until the invention of the nail making machine in the early 1800’s and the introduction of softwood lumber balloon framing construction. Then it became a lumber state. Where did cheese making finally come from in the “Dairy State”? It came from California where cheese making was introduced by whom? By the Spanish missionaries from Mexico, of course. Why must everything Mexican always be claimed by the French, the Italians, the Germans, and everybody else? Would it spoil some vast eternal plan to let Mexico claim Queso Oxaqueño as its very own? The next thing you know the Americans will claim that Taco Bell invented tacos :)
I don’t think that the is an issue with Mexico independently developing this cheese, but point would be on a food historians website to provide some evidence for this?
Origin stories without evidence looks a lot like a lack of confidence and hopefully the Mexican population is beyond that?
Hi Bob, I did not know that the original cheese making in Wisconsin was back influence from California. How interesting. They must later presumably have changed their techniques because now they seem chiefly known for cheddar-type hard cheeses.
As to vast eternal plans, I’ve not had the perception that everything in Mexico was attributed to the French, the Italians, the Germans etc. Actually rather the reverse, that whereas the US sees itself primarily as an immigrant nation, Mexico tends to ignore the contribution of immigrants. I’d love to talk to you about this sometime.
On the food front, one thing that is often claimed to be French is the bolillo. I think that’s wrong and would attribute that to the original Spanish settlers.
As to the cheese, we may never know. But another line of evidence comes from the general categorization of milk techniques offered by Anne Mendelson that I’ll be getting to soon.
Well, Rachel, I just knew that you were going to bring up cheddar. Why? Because it came from the village of Cheddar in Somerset England :)
Actually, cheese making in California started around 1780 when Padre Junipero Serra brought it to California from Mexico when the Franciscans took over for the Jesuits who were expelled from all of New Spain. The cheesemaking in Wisconsin didn’t really get started until just before the American Civil War. Curiously enough, Cheddar cheese making got started in both California and Wisconsin about the same time by immigrants from England. By the way and for the record, although I was born and raised in Chicago my family comes from Wisconsin and I love Wisconsin cheese. I also love Queso Oaxaqueño from Oaxaca, Mexico…not Italy :)
Thought this might be interesting and appropriate:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQo-gyzRNo0
Ojala comprende espanol.
My Grand father had cows, and my Mom use to make “Quesillo” (as it is called in Oaxaca) when she was a young teenager (13, she was born in 1925…you do the math….
The tradition tells that the quesillo is from Etla, but my Grand father has his ranches in San Pablo Huixtepec and Zimatlán…a different area of the Valles Centrales. Where was first, I don’t know.
Some of the quesillo that you can find in Oaxaca City right now is made in Etla, some other in Puebla and a lot of it (the cheapest) as you mentioned is vegetable…not dairy. It’s sad.
Iliana, Thanks for this. I always appreciate your input.
So, what I conclude from this is that your mother was making quesillo in the 1940s. Clearly the family was making it before, but for how long, that is the question. And where. I don’t know enough about the geography of Oaxaca to comment on this. Can’t wait to talk to you more about these traditions.
Unfortuntaley the video in youtube is no longer available