It is not a mató nor a brossat: recuit is the creamy cheese of untranslatable name that has become the great attraction of Empordà

FountainQuim Martell was supposed to be a butcher, because his parents owned the Fonteta butcher shop, but one day he followed his grandmother's recipe for recuit, the one his grandmother Rosita Rosacals knew. In Girona, recuit was a well-known preparation, but being so traditional and homemade, it had been forgotten. "More than thirty years ago, when I started doing it, there was no professional producer in the Girona region dedicated to it; it had been lost," explains Quim Martell in his workshop, where he shows me the process of making Fonteta recuit, the name he registered when he saw that this preparation sold so well at his parents' butcher shop. "It was so well received by the public that I got excited, and little by little I started making more daily," he says. Today, he prepares an average of fifteen hundred units daily, every day of the year (except Sundays and Christmas), and depending on the time of day you go to buy, it's possible you won't find any unless you've previously ordered some. "I sell them right here in the shop, and I also distribute them to other towns." The price per unit is one euro and twenty-five cents.

In the word recuit we must pause. "It creates confusion, books do not agree on it, there are contradictions, so I will give a definition, but there can be others." Recuit means cooked twice, and it has no possible translation into any other language. If we go back in time, it might be that milk had to be cooked twice, and hence it was called re-cuit. "If nothing else, it is my father's theory, and it makes sense given how milk was prepared in ancient times".

Thus, recuit is a unique cheese in both name and preparation: it is not a mató, nor a brossat, nor a ricotta, nor a curd, "which are all good cheeses, but they are not recuit". What makes recuit unique and different is its creaminess, which is achieved with a very long curdling, between seventeen and twenty-four hours. It can be made from cow's or goat's milk, Quim makes both types, and the other ingredient he uses is calcium chloride, which is what helps to make the curd. And that's it. "I buy the milk from producers, because I don't have a herd, and I also buy it from other cheesemakers who also make recuit, like Lactis Pauet, who are in Jafre, and I buy about five hundred liters from them every day of milk".

Recuit without cloth, with paper

at the restaurant La Cort del Mos, in Palamós, the recuit, from Lactis Pauet, is placed on top of a recapte tartat the restaurant La Cort del Mos, in Palamós, the recuit, from Lactis Pauet, is placed on top of a coca de recapte, which has caramelized pepper, and he tells me yes, that recuit is used to prepare many dishes, because it goes well with many dishes, including pasta dishes. "Macaroni or any pasta you want with recuit is a very good idea", comments Quim Martell.

Let's leave the recuits, the great star of the workshop, and continue with the products that, now that it's hot, also sell well: ice creams. "I've been making them for two years, recuit with chocolate, with candied figs and with hazelnuts, which are ingredients that combine well with it". When the temperature rises, ice cream is always good, but it's also that "they can also be included in summer dishes, like the ones we prepare at the restaurant El Magatzem de Fonteta, of which I am a partner", says Quim. The ice creams can be eaten immediately or taken away in half-liter boxes. And after the ice creams, Quim and five other people from the workshop have time to make blue cheese (made with three strains), which is increasingly popular every day; a cured cheese; a semi-cured one; a goat cheese roll and the recuit cake. The producer highlights them all, but especially the goat cheese roll, because he says that in our region, the goat cheese rolls sold are mostly French. "I would say I am the only one in Catalonia who makes them". To finish, a detail. The shop is called Casa Martell de Fonteta, where Quim Martell daily produces, on average, 1,500 Fonteta recuits using his grandmother's recipe, a preparation that has gone from being lost to being the most beloved.