Kravlji sir iz Sjenice se od 2013. nalazi na listi oznaka geografskog porekla Republičkog zavoda za intelektualnu svojinu Since 2013, cow’s milk cheese from Sjenica has been on the list of geographical indications of the Intellectual Property Office of the Republic of Serbia
his grandmother made. Now farmers from the dozen surrounding Pešter villages cur- dle milk in their homes and make deliveries to the Marićs each morning. They receive up to ten thousand litres per day, or around six thousand during winter – when the cows are calving so there is less milk. And in order for everything to conform with HACCP standards, the system for food safety, milk is not curdled as it used to be, warm under the cows, at a natural 35 degrees, but rather is pasteurised at 72 degrees. The rennet enzyme once came from the mucous mem- brane of a calf’s stomach, dried and ground to a powder, then later dissolved in water to curdle the milk. But now rennet can be pur- chased readymade, and those in the know say it doesn’t differ from the real thing. There are no more wooden churns either, but rather the new era has brought round metal moulds into which the milk is poured twice on the first day. And although the stone that weighed it down has been lost over the years, the lumps of cheese are left to strain themselves. Noth- ing except salt is added, because this cheese needs nothing else. It preserves itself by itself. When on the second day it is stacked and salt- ed, it is left to mature for up to a month. And there we have the widely-renowned Sjenica cheese, which until a century ago reached cus- tomers in Europe and Asia via the port of Thes- saloniki, and later travelled from the former “Pešter” plant to America. Since 2013, cow’s milk cheese from Sjenica has been on the list of geographical indications of the Intellectu- al Property Office of the Republic of Serbia, but a new era has yet to come for this delica- cy. In all likelihood it will be added to Serbia’s intangible heritage list this year. The people of Pešter say that youngsters are abandoning these hills, looking for some- thing nicer. There are ever fewer elderly peo- ple and homes with herds of cows will become a rare sight on this plateau. Yet somehow the secret of making cheese in the Sjenica area continues to pass the test of time.
SJENIČKI BELI SIR SJENICA WHITE CHEESE Sto grama punomasnog sira u salamu- ri sa 45% mlečne masti sadrži A hundred grams of full-fat cheese in brine with 45% milk fat contains Mlečne masti / Milk fat 16 g Proteina / Protein 15 g Ugljenih hidrata / Carbohydrates 2,5 g Energetska vrednost / Energy value 1.370 kJ/320 kcal
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