Pastel de Queso de Bola Yucateco

This cake is from Yucatan. Not from anywhere else. The peninsula sits apart from the rest of Mexico geographically, linguistically, and gastronomically, and its love of Dutch Edam, which they call queso de bola because of its red wax ball, is one of the clearest markers of that separateness.

The cheese came in on Dutch and English trading ships through the port of Sisal in the 18th and 19th centuries, and the yucatecos kept it because the wax preserved the wheel through the heat of the tropics. They folded it into queso relleno, scattered it over panuchos, and eventually, the abuelas of Merida found their way to this cake. Tere Cazola turned it into a citywide phenomenon out of her pasteleria, but she did not invent it. The home cooks did. They always do.

The principle is salty and sweet at the same time. The aged Edam is sharp and salty enough to cut the sugar and the butter, and the lime zest pulls the cheese forward instead of letting it disappear into a generic pound cake. Use a young, soft Edam and you will get nothing. Use the aged wheel with the deep yellow paste and the crystals of age inside it, and you will understand why this cake belongs to a birthday table in Merida and nowhere else. Cada estado, su propia cocina.