Top 3 Serbian Raw Milk Cheeses

Zlatarski sir is a traditional cheese originating from the Zlatar mountain area. The cheese is made from raw cow's milk (or sometimes a mixture of cow's milk and sheep's milk). This rindless cheese has a semi-hard texture and it's usually cut into thick slices before consumption. The aroma is pleasant and floral, and the flavor is mild, slightly salty, and milky. The floral notes come from the milk because the cows graze on mountain pastures that have a unique and diverse flora. Zlatarski sir is usually left to age from 3 weeks for up to 2 months before consumption.Expand

Sjenički sir is a soft, white, and brined cheese made with either sheep's or cow's milk produced in the Sjenica-Pester plateau in southwest Serbia. Even though there are two types of Sjenički sir, the production is the same whether speaking of sheep's milk cheese or cow's milk cheese. First, the raw fresh milk is mixed with rennet and left to curdle. Once the curd has formed, it is placed in cloths and weighed to separate the whey. Once the weighing, which takes 4 to 6 hours, is done, the curd is cut into slices and placed in, traditionally, a wooden barrel. The slices are arranged in layers, and a generous sprinkling of salt is applied to the bottom of the barrel and added between each layer of curd. Once stacked, the cheese is weighed with a hard object, either a stone or a wooden object, then left to ripen, while completely submerged in whey, anywhere from 20 to 60 days. Sjenički sir has been given the designation of geographic origin in Serbia and there's plans of including in on the list of UNESCO's Intangible Cultural Heritage. It is typically eaten as an appetizer, accompanied by cold cuts, but can be used in the preparation of various dishes as well. Expand

This Serbian spun cheese is one of the hallmark products of the entire Pirot region. It is a pleasantly tangy cheese characterized by its bright-yellow crust and smooth surface. The cheese was originally made from sheep milk since the area was well-known for the two indigenous breeds—pirotska pramenka and pirotska pramenka oplemenena—which freely grazed on the slopes of Stara Planina (Old Mountain). Following the changes in animal breeding, traditional cheese-making industry in Pirot has been slightly altered, and kačkavalj is nowadays produced from unpasteurized sheep's or cow's milk, or a combination of both. After milk processing and hand-stirring, the curd (baskija) is steamed in woven baskets. The cheese is then formed into a flattened-cylinder shape before it is left to ripen, preferably for three to six months. The entire production process is manually done by skillful cheese artisans who are trying to preserve traditional techniques that were originally passed down from the nomadic sheep breeders known as Crnovunci.Expand