Ocosingo, Chis. The queso de bola, an emblematic food of Ocosingo, which President Andrés Manuel López Obrador described as “unique and succulent, one of the best in Mexico,” was created almost a hundred years ago due to the need to preserve it for a long time.
According to the lifelong chronicler of Ocosingo, Catarino Ramón Trujillo Trujillo, the cheese ball, “suigeneris Because it is one of the 40 genuine cheeses of Mexico, it was our first vacuum-filled product.”
He added that Abraham Villegas de Gante, an engineer specializing in dairy economics and technology who “has studied cheeses around the world and particularly in Mexico, lists it among one of the most original cheeses in the country for its shape, flavor and texture.”
The columnist said that “it is one of the most interesting products because it can be said that it is an invention of the need to preserve the products of the region.”
In an interview, he said that after the invasion of the Lacandon jungle, where Ocosingo is located, and the valley with the extraction of precious woods, very large farms and cattle ranches were created. Much of the cattle used to move the logs came from these farms.
He added that shortly after 1900, “there began to be a lot of cattle production and consequently of milk, but the population in the town of Ocosingo did not exceed two thousand inhabitants. There were five streets in each cardinal point. In contrast, many ranches began to produce cheese at that time.”
Photo La Jornada
Author of the book History and tradition of Ocosingo cheese ballsTrujillo Trujillo stated that “after having investigated for more than ten years with different cheese makers, it was clear to me that the main inventor of the cheese ball is Fidelino Solórzano Trujillo, in 1927 on his Laltic ranch.”
He said that he and his wife Elvira Ramírez Sánchez “are two interesting characters who came from the armed conflict that took place in Ocosingo from 1916 to 1920. They were both widowed. He, because he was brother-in-law of Porfirio Navarro, secretary of General Alberto Pineda Ogarrio (headed the counterrevolution in Chiapas), and therefore was involved in the armed process.”
Fidelino, for his part, “was widowed because people came into many farms to steal and kill people. When the Carrancista army arrived, they had to flee. Elvira’s husband went to Alberto Pineda’s army and died. When the Carrancistas entered the ranch, he had to flee to the hills, hide for a long time and eat what he had; that’s where his children from his first marriage lost their lives.”
She came from a well-off family, so she “studied in good schools and learned sewing and the culinary arts. After the revolution, after 1920, she started her life again and opened a restaurant in the center of Ocosingo. There she met Fidelino. Both widowed, they got married, formed a new marriage and went to live on the Laltic ranch.”
The chronicler commented that the couple had a lot of cattle and therefore produced a lot of milk and cheese, but they could not sell it all and so that it would not spoil they were looking for many ways to preserve it. They experimented by putting lime and salt or wax on it, but it did not work.
In 1926, he continued, “Elvira, an excellent cook, had the gift of making delicious desserts and breads. One day the daughter of one of the big landowners came and asked her for her famous butter bread recipe and then she gave her the recipe for a cheese she had seen in Europe.”
Photo La Jornada
Fidelino, “a man very ahead of his time, a cattle producer on two ranches, saw the recipe and began to play” with new ways of making a cheese that would last a long time.
“That is how in 1927 he created the first cheese ball, covered with another cheese, and I have always said that this first cheese ball was our first vacuum-sealed product because once the first and second layers are sealed, the flavour, smell and texture of what is inside is preserved. It is encapsulated. It was the way to preserve the product and extend its life.”
He said that “Porfirio Navarro, who had been his brother-in-law, asked him to teach him how to make cheese and he agreed. He taught him. He added cream and it became a double cream cheese. Our cheese is one of the only aged or strong-flavored cheeses in the country.”
He explained that “they are two cheeses in one: the outer layer, the layer that wraps it, is a cheese, a kind of quesillo that has a slightly different process because it is made with milk without cream. They skim the milk, add rennet to make the curd that is like a kind of elastic; they boil it so that it becomes elastic to make the lining.”
During his visit to Ocosingo in July 2022, López Obrador said that the Ocosingo cheese ball “is unique, succulent. One of the best in the country. It is stuffed, you cut it and eat the filling inside; it is delicious; it is cream cheese so it is better understood.”
Trujillo Trujillo said that a cheese ball “is ready in 30 days. The casing can be used to make mincemeat with beef; it is stuffed and put in the oven or also in small pieces, then left to dry in the sun to toast and then fried to make chicharrón.”
He said that “the cheese ball is in high demand. It has been exported to the United States, France, England, Brazil, Japan and China, among other countries. In Ocosingo there are only 15 cheese ball producers left.”
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– 2024-08-12 20:48:58
