Cheese ball, the first vacuum-packed product in the country

Elio Henriquez

Correspondent

The newspaper La Jornada
Monday, August 19, 2024, p. 14

Ocosingo, Chis., The cheese ball, emblematic food of Ocosingo, which President Andrés Manuel López Obrador described as Unique and succulent, the best of Mexicowas created almost 100 years ago due to the need to preserve it for a long time.

According to Catarino Ramón Trujillo Trujillo, lifelong chronicler of Ocosingo, it is a cheese Sui generis because it is one of the 40 genuine ones from Mexico; it was our first vacuum-filled product.

Abraham Villegas de Gante, an engineer specializing in dairy economics and technology who He has studied cheeses around the world, and particularly in Mexico, and lists it among the most original for its shape, flavor and texture..

The chronicler said that It is a very interesting product because it is an invention that arose from the need to preserve articles from the region..

In an interview, he said that after the invasion of the Lacandon jungle, where Ocosingo is located, and with the extraction of precious woods from the valley, very large farms and cattle ranches were created. Much of the cattle used to move the logs came from these farms.

Shortly after 1900, There began to be a lot of cattle production and, consequently, milk, but the population in the town of Ocosingo did not exceed two thousand inhabitants. There were five streets on each cardinal point. In contrast, many ranches began to produce cheese at that time..

Author of the book History and tradition of Ocosingo cheese ballsTrujillo Trujillo stated that After having investigated for more than 10 years with different cheese makers, it became clear to me that the main inventor of the cheese ball is Fidelino Solórzano Trujillo, in 1927, on his Laltic ranch..

He said that Fidelino and Elvira Ramirez Sanchez They are two interesting characters who came from the armed conflict that took place in Ocosingo from 1916 to 1920. He was widowed because being brother-in-law of Porfirio Navarro, secretary of General Alberto Pineda Ogarrio (who led the counterrevolution in Chiapas), he was involved in the armed process (…) in many farms they entered 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, she had to flee to the hills, hide for a long time and eat what there was and there her children from the first marriage lost their lives..

Life changing

She came from a well-off family, so She studied in good schools and learned sewing and culinary arts. After the revolution, after 1920, she rebuilt her life and opened a restaurant in the center of Ocosingo. There she met Fidelino. Both widowed, they married, formed a new marriage and went to live on the Laltic ranch..

The chronicler said that the couple had quite 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 ways to preserve it. They experimented by putting lime and salt or wax on it, but it did not work.

Preservation technique

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, but she changed it and gave her the recipe for a cheese she had seen in Europe..

Fidelino, A man far ahead of his time, a cattle producer on two ranches, saw the recipe and started playing. with new ways of making a cheese that can stand the test of time.

That’s how he created the first cheese ball in 1927, 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 stated that Porfirio Navarro, who was his brother-in-law, asked him to teach him how to make cheese and he agreed. He told him how. He added cream and it became a double cream cheese. Our cheese is one of the few 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, which 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 cheese ball It 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, to make it easier to understand..

Trujillo Trujillo said that making a cheese of this type requires a process of 30 days. The casing can be used to make mincemeat with beef; it is stuffed and put in the oven or also cut into pieces, then left to dry in the sun to toast and then fried to make chicharrón..

He assured 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 producers of cheese ball..