During the Spanish conquest in Ecuador, products, European customs, and Creole recipes were combined. This is how the Ecuadorian tradition of artisanal products like quesillo was born, a fresh cheese that is white in color, packaged, and can be consumed immediately, with its own distinctive characteristics. It has no rind, a compact, firm but slightly elastic texture. It is produced throughout the year because it does not mature. It is presented in elongated, flat slabs approximately 30-60 cm long and 10-15 cm wide, weighing between 300 and 800 grams per unit. This cheese is served as a dessert accompanied by honey, fig jam, etc.
The ancestral origin of quesillo
Eleven thousand years BC, the inhabitants of Europe and the Middle East had already learned the value of livestock and domesticated a bovid called aurochs. They milked and stored their milk in leather pouches (bags made from animal stomachs) and wooden containers. When they wanted to heat it, they did so with stones previously placed on the fire. Legend has it that on one occasion, a curious shepherd tasted the uniform paste that often formed when milk was transformed by natural enzymes remaining in the leather bags after being stored there for some time. The shepherd liked the paste, discarded the whey (the transparent liquid that drains from curdled milk), and studied how to produce the paste systematically, thus the cheese industry is believed to have been born. Just as in Imperial Rome and before it, cheese was popular in Greece, and it is said that Penelope, a symbol of conjugal fidelity in the Odyssey, besides weaving and dismantling her endless loom while waiting for Ulysses, amused herself by making delicious cheeses for friends and relatives. The truth is that gradually the fame of cheese spread everywhere, often helped by European monasteries whose monks had a fondness for gastronomy. The word “cheese” comes from Latin caseus. The French fromage originates from the Greek formos, which was used to refer to the wicker basket used in Greece to drain whey from cheese. There are many varieties of cheeses, but fresh cheeses (like quesillo and its derivatives) are those made solely by coagulating and dehydrating milk. This practice became a tradition for Ecuadorians.
Preparation of quesillo with cow's milk
A part of the cow’s udder is extracted, washed, salted until it forms a pouch, and dried in the shade or in the sun. Once dried, it is placed in a container with warm water, left to soak several hours until the water turns dark brown, indicating the acid of the rennet is ready to cut the milk. The rennet is added to fresh cow's milk, which begins to resemble yogurt. It is mixed with a wooden spoon, and this mixture is shaped with thick strips, then set aside, forming the curd: the solid part of the milk (the liquid part is whey). Once the curd has settled, it is removed and placed in another container for aging; the duration depends on the ambient temperature. With the matured curd, pieces are boiled in a pot of boiling water with salt, then removed and placed on a tray, forming small balls. These are then placed on a semi-suspended cloth on a table, and the cloth is stretched to shape each quesillo unit.
Quesillo or fresh cheese, delicious at breakfast or with tea, has the advantage of being much lower in fats than traditional cheese.
