Skip to main content
Support

Browse by category

All categories
Home

Cheese from Moldova, Ștefan Vodă and Căușeni districts

Brînză de Popeasca

Brînză de Popeasca is a soft white sheep cheese, with up to a quarter goat milk, kept in brine. The milk is set only with natural rennet from lambs a few days old, the curd is hung in sackcloth to drain, then cut and salted in well-water brine for a day. It matures in brine for at least 30 days.

Fully documentedCheese31 daysAppellation of origin in Moldova (AGEPI decision no. 11005 of 23 September 2016); a PGI in the UK since 25 July 2025 under the UK–Moldova trade agreementFamily: White brined cheese family (Feta PDO as template)

Recipe

No fixed amounts recordedThe specification fixes the method and the finished cheese, not batch amounts.
Sheep milkMostly from crosses of Karakul with the local Tusca and Țigaie breeds; fat 6.0–10.0%, protein at least 4.0%; fat neither added nor removed[uk-spec]
Goat milkUp to 25% of the milk; optional[uk-spec]
Natural lamb rennetFrom lambs slaughtered for their skins in the first 2–4 days after birth, kept dried with salt; the only coagulant allowed[uk-spec]
BrineCold well water of moderate hardness with non-iodised kitchen salt[uk-spec]
Starternone added; natural lamb rennet

Total time across the recorded steps: 31 days

Start
Drag the bar or press Play

What changes: Starting material: sheep milk with up to a quarter goat milk

Step 1 of 6
Receive and check the milk
Time
Not documented
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Moulds
Lactococcus lactis
Lactobacillus plantarum
Lb. paracasei

Milk comes from machine milking (raw-milk method) or hand milking (pasteurised-milk method) and is cleaned and cooled on arrival.

Flavour
Not documented
Texture
Not documented
Colour
Not documented

Microbes at work in this step

Not documented for this step.

Method

Measured measured in a studySet fixed by a specification or tested recipeReported one source reports itTypical a general value, not sourced for this fermentUnconfirmed not yet checked against a source

At a glance

Brînză de Popeasca is a soft white sheep cheese, with up to a quarter goat milk, kept in brine. The milk is set only with natural rennet from lambs a few days old, the curd is hung in sackcloth to drain, then cut and salted in well-water brine for a day. It matures in brine for at least 30 days. Made in 6 steps over 31 days. The longest step, mature in brine, takes at least 30 days (Public association of sheep and goat breeders…). Salt is 5–7 % (Public association of sheep and goat breeders…). In Moldovan brînză sheep cheese made from unpasteurised milk, a related product (the study does not name Popeasca), Lactococcus lactis subsp. lactis and Lactobacillus plantarum were identified most often, with Lb. paracasei, Lb. brevis, Lb. fermentum, Lb. rhamnosus, Lb. delbrueckii, Lb. casei and Lc. lactis subsp. cremoris also found does most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main stepat least 30 daysSet[uk-spec]Mature in brine
Temperature33–37 °CSet[uk-spec]Pasteurise unsuitable milk and cool it
Salt5–7 %Set[uk-spec]Mature in brine

What makes this one different

The specification credits the cheese's taste to the mixed Karakul-cross and Țigaie flocks of the area. It is set only with natural lamb rennet, dried with salt, and salted in brine straight after a short drain, so it stays sweeter and has fewer gas holes than sheep cheese from northern Moldova.

Composition
Moisture 45.0–60.0%, fat in dry matter 55.0–65.0%, NaCl 5.0–7.0%
Coagulant
Only natural rennet from lambs 2–4 days old, dried with salt

Related ferments

Variants

  • Brînză de Popeasca without goat milkSheep milk only; labelled "without goat's milk"
  • Brînză de Popeasca with goat milkUp to 25% goat milk; labelled "with goat's milk"

Safety

The specification sets salt at 5.0–7.0 % and moisture at 45.0–60.0 % in the finished cheese. It describes a raw-milk method and a pasteurised-milk method, and pasteurises any milk not fit to use raw. CDC advises pregnant women, newborns, adults 65 or older and people with a weakened immune system to avoid any cheese made from raw milk.

Hazards the sources name: In the same related Moldovan brînză, E. coli counts rose and several colonies of S. aureus were found (the abstract writes "Streptococcus aureus"), which the author links to unpasteurised milk and no added starter.

History and sources

Every number is labelled with how it is known. How this atlas is made

The specification says local herders have farmed sheep this way for over a century. Moldova's intellectual property agency AGEPI decided on 23 September 2016 to register the appellation, applied for by the sheep and goat breeders' association of the Ștefan Vodă district. The UK recognised the name as a PGI on 25 July 2025, one of 10 Moldovan names added that day under the UK–Moldova agreement.

  1. [uk-spec] Public association of sheep and goat breeders of the Ștefan Vodă district, Summary technical specification of the appellation of origin 'Brînză de Popeasca' (UK GI register copy)spec
  2. [govuk-popeasca] Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs, GOV.UK protected food names register, 'Brînză de Popeasca' (PGI, registered 25 July 2025, reason for protection UK trade agreement)gov
  3. [agepi-uk2025] AGEPI (State Agency on Intellectual Property of Moldova), news item 'New Moldovan Geographical Indications Protected in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland', 29 July 2025gov
  4. [cartasev2022] Cartasev A. 2022, Traditional Moldovan cheese microflora, conference paper, MTFI-2022 (Modern Technologies in the Food Industry), Technical University of Moldova, p. 67 (one-page abstract, read in full; about Moldovan brînză in general, not Popeasca)paper
  5. [cdc-listeria] US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Preventing Listeria Infectiongov