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Best Slovak Sheep's Milk Cheese Types
Ovčí salašnícky údený syr is a uniquely shaped, soft cheese, handmade from unpasteurized sheep's milk in a traditional way in mountainous areas and shepherd's huts in the Slovak Republic. The word salašnícky refers to the word salaš - a shepherd's hut where it is produced.
The cheese is smoked over hardwood and comes in various shapes - most often as a lump, but it may come shaped like a heart, cockerel or other animals. On the exterior it is firm and dry with a crust and little stains that appear from the smoking process.
Slovenská parenica is a soft, steamed cheese made from unpasteurized sheep's milk of the Wallachian, Cigaya, East Friesian and improved Wallachian breeds. The cheese can also be made using a mixture of raw sheep's and cow's milk, where the content of sheep's milk must be at least 50%.
The parenica is wound in two rolls that are connected in an S-shape or a spiral, steamed and lightly smoked. The rolls are bound with cheese string or chains. Its aroma is smoky with a characteristic smell of sheep's milk, and the taste is delicate, mild and slightly salty.
Slovenský oštiepok is a traditional semi-hard cheese made from half-fat sheep's milk, cow's milk or a mixture of both. It can be either steamed or unsteamed, smoked or unsmoked and can be produced in dairies using the industrial way of production, or on sheep farms (salaš) in the mountainous parts of the Slovak Republic, using the traditional methods.
It is quite striking to the eye - shaped like a large egg or a pine cone, with a golden brown exterior due to the smoking process and a creamy yellow color on the interior. Its texture is firm and homogeneous, with small cracks developing on the body when sliced.
Slovenská bryndza is a soft cheese made from sheep's milk produced in the mountainous regions of the Slovak Republic. The sheep usually graze at lower altitudes, but during the summer, they move to higher altitudes to lengthen the grazing period.
Its name, bryndza, comes from the Romanian word for cheese - Wallachian. The cheese is white, slightly moist, made from matured milk, and is easily spreadable in granular form. It has a delicate aroma of sheep's milk and a uniquely sour taste that is slightly salty and spicy.
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Locally known as Salaš, hence the term Salašnícky, Ovčí hrudkový syr is a farmhouse cheese made from unpasteurized sheep's milk, shaped by hand into a lump that gets its unique taste from the traditional process used during fermentation in shepherd's huts in the Slovak Republic's mountainous regions.
It weighs up to 5 kilograms and has a dry surface, with tiny holes and cracks on its interior. It is white to pale yellow in colour and the taste is delicately mild, clean, fresh, slightly acidic, characteristic of sheep's milk products. The texture is quite firm, yet elastic and pliable.
Klenovecký syrec is a semi-hard cheese made from unpasteurized sheep's or cow's high-quality milk, produced in the mountainous Gemer-Malohont region in the Slovak Republic since 1850. The cheese can be either smoked or unsmoked and can be made in shepherd's huts, on a farm or at dairies using the industrial process.
On the exterior, particularly on the surface, it has an embossed four-leaf clover for decoration, and its soft rind can be colored green using wood ash. The cheese must weigh between one and four kilograms. On the interior, it is white to pale yellow, with a soft, elastic texture with tiny holes that appear once the cheese is sliced.
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