Ovčí salašnícky údený syr (Smoked mountain sheeps' milk cheese)
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ZTS ‘Ovčí salašnícky údený syr’ is a Slovakian cheese produced from fresh sheeps' milk, processed in shepherd’s huts, smoked and often formed into specific shapes (hearts, cockerels or other animals, hemispheres).
Physical properties:
— comes in various shapes, most often a lump, or if a mould was used in production, in the shape of the mould: hemispherical, or in the shape of different animals or in the shape of a heart
— weight: varies from 0,1 kg to 1 kg
Organoleptic properties:
— external appearance: dry, firm, intact surface, with a crust, possibly also with small smoke stains, free of tar residue
— colour: yellowish to yellow in cross-section; brownish to slightly chestnut on the surface
— odour and taste: smoky aroma, with a mild, slightly acidic taste
— consistency: firm and solid when cut, with small holes and small cracks here and there
Production method:
Collection of sheeps' milk:
— milk for the production of the cheese is obtained from healthy sheep (grazed sheep of races reared in mountain and foothill areas) by hand-milking in a milking pen (strunga) located in natural conditions. The milk is collected in a rust-proof milking pail with a filtering device (traditionally the milk was collected in a wooden pail). When the pail (geleta) is full, its contents are strained into a milk can through a sieve containing a cotton-wool filter (the milk may also be collected mechanically in a mobile or stationary milking parlour)
— the milk collected is transferred in the milk cans to the production area — a shepherd’s hut (salaš).
Processing the milk into cheese:
— the freshly collected milk is processed immediately after milking, after being transferred to the production area in the shepherd’s hut, where it is poured from the can into a putera, a vessel used for cheese production; during this process, it is re-filtered through a cotton-wool filter. A wooden vessel (putera) or stainless steel double-bottomed vessel is used for the production of the cheese
— the temperature of the milk is raised to 30-32 °C by adding two to three litres of hot drinking water (at a temperature of 50 °C) per 50 litres of milk directly to the milk or by heating it with the aid of hot drinking water in a jacketed vessel (putera) or boiled sour sheep’s milk whey
— after the temperature has been raised to 30-32 °C, microbial liquid rennet (based on the saltstabilised fungus Rhizomucor miehei) is added, with continuous stirring, at a quantity of 40 ml of rennet per 100 l of milk. The amount of rennet used also depends on the milking period (the quality of the milk, which changes during the milking period). The milk curdles approximately 30-45 minutes after the rennet is added (the amount of rennet is determined by the producer)
— the curds thus produced are stirred and cut with a curd-harp until a grain size of 0,5-1 cm is obtained
— boiled drinking water, cooled to 65 °C, is added to the cut curds in order to heat them to 32- 35 °C, thus improving the release of whey from the grains. The curds are stirred well and left to rest. Throughout the production of the sheep’s milk cheese, the temperature of the milk and whey must not fall below 29 °C
— the traditional method of shaping the cheese consists in compressing the settled curds by hand after about ten minutes and working them into the shape of a ball, which is then removed with the aid of a cheesecloth, hung on a hook and formed into a lump, or else the pressed curds are placed by hand into moulds, which gives them their shape. Manual processing gives the cheese its characteristic elasticity
— shaping of cheese in moulds: small pieces (depending on the size of the mould) are cut from the prepared lump. These pieces are compressed by hand and placed into moulds and lightly pressed so as to obtain the particular shape. If two-part moulds are used, the procedure is the same, the cheese being compressed by hand and pressed into the mould so that it fills both parts of the mould. The mould is then closed
— the shaped cheese is left to drain for about two hours. Lumps of cheese are hung on hooks and cheeses in moulds are placed on shelves to drain
— after draining, the cheese is transferred to a warm storage area, the ripening room, where the fermentation process takes place. Cheese shaped in cheesecloth is hung on a hook, and small shaped cheeses are removed from their moulds and left to ripen on wooden shelves designed in such a way as to allow whey to drain off
— the temperature of the room during fermentation must not fall below 18-22 °C. The cheese ferments for two to three days under such conditions.
— lumps of cheese are then cut into pieces and placed in a cold brine solution for 1-10 hours (depending on their weight). Once salted, the cheese takes on a solid and firm consistency. The brine solution (10-15 % salt concentration) is prepared by boiling drinking water with salt. Cheese shaped in moulds is salted in a similar manner
— after salting, the cheese is removed from the solution and placed on wooden shelves to dry and to drain off residual brine solution
— this is followed by smoking: the cheese is placed on wooden or stainless steel grids (or hung on holders made from bast) and cold-smoked with hardwood smoke which must not contain ash or dust. The cheese is smoked until it is pale brown with a hint of light chestnut colour, which takes 12, 16 or as much as 24 hours
— once smoked, the cheese is placed on wooden shelves in a cold store-room where the temperature is 13-15 °C
Specific character:
1. This is a product which has been produced for decades, even centuries, the cheese being smoked to extend the life of the product until winter, when cheese was not made.
2. The specific character is determined by the quality of the milk produced in mountain and foothill areas (grazing of sheep on mountain and foothill pastures, feeding with feed obtained from grasslands in mountain and foothill areas).
3. The product has a typical odour and taste (a smoky aroma and a mild, slightly acidic taste).
4. The product is made by hand, using traditional techniques (manual processing of curds).
5. Various moulds (some wooden) are used to shape the cheese during production and the product thus takes on specific shapes.
6. The product is made in a shepherd’s hut (salaš), not industrially, with the possibility of also using wooden appliances, instruments and devices (e.g. a wooden vessel (putera), wooden mixers and wood moulds).
7. The product is smoked using hardwood smoke produced by a fire.
Traditional character:
The ‘salašnícky’ element of the cheese’s name is derived from the traditional production site, which was a shepherd’s hut (salaš). Its traditional character stems from its traditional composition, production method and processing. As stated by P. Huba in the book entitled ‘Zázrivá’, small-scale highland sheep-farming in Zázrivá was focused on the production of sheep’s milk, which was always processed in the shepherd’s home (salaš), where sheep’s milk lump cheese was offered as a delicacy to people visiting the shepherd. (Martin: Osveta, 1988).
In the 20th century, the production of ‘ovčí hrudkový syr salašnícky’ and ‘ovčí salašnícky údený syr’ spread throughout the mountainous areas of Slovakia where sheep were reared. Sheep’s milk lump cheese was one of the dairy products of traditional Wallachian sheep-farming, and its production was the main reason for sheep rearing in the mountainous regions of Slovakia. As a culinary speciality, it was used fresh (succulent — sweet) or fermented or dried, or preserved by smoking, i.e. smoked (Podolák Ján: Slovenský národopis 25, 1977).
In an article entitled ‘Z histórie Ovčieho mliekárstva na Slovensku’, Prokop wrote as follows: ‘Wallachian culture is still kept alive in these parts by the carving skills of our shepherds; its influences are still to be seen in exquisitely carved bowls (črpáky) which shepherds used and in moulds (hearts, ducks, etc.) for oštiepok cheese and similar products.’ (Čítanie o správnej výžive 1970, Slovenská spoločnosť pre racionálnu výživu, Bratislava, 1969). Heart- or duck-shaped moulds are used for ‘ovčí salašnícky údený syr’.
Dr Ján Balko, the author of ‘Bryndziarsky priemysel na Slovensku’, published by Osveta in 1968, wrote as follows: ‘We have no precise evidence showing who produced the first sheep’s milk lump cheese here, or when they did so. However, we can safely assume that it was many centuries ago as, until 1914, the keeping of sheep for milk did not differ that much from the farming practices that existed at the time of the migration of the peoples.’
The name and traditional production method of ‘ovčí hrudkový syr salašnícky’ and ‘ovčí salašnícky údený syr’ were also used by shepherds from the municipality of Priechod, who worked in shepherd’s huts in the 1960s and 1970s in the Turiec region (Lamper and Ivanič, shepherds from Priechod).
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