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Cheese from Central and Eastern Europe

Fresh lactic (acid-set) cheese family

Milk is soured slowly by mesophilic lactic bacteria, often with a trace of rennet, until it sets to a soft acid gel near pH 4.5. The curd is cut, drained in cloth and eaten fresh within days or weeks, without ripening.

Fully documentedCheese7.8 h – 3 days

Recipe

Amounts from a sourceFamily template, so the ingredients are the ones fresh acid cheeses share. The amounts are a tvarog study's starter dose and the FAO fresh-cheese rennet dose.
MilkHeat-treated in the methods cited here; the FAO guide also covers raw milk[fao-ramet2001][dmytrow2021]
Mesophilic starter2.5 % of milk volumeLactococci and Leuconostoc; the dose is from one tvarog study[dmytrow2021]
Rennet (a trace, optional)0.4–1.0 g per 100 kg milkClotting enzyme for fresh cheese in the FAO camel-milk method; not a general dose[fao-ramet2001]
Salt (optional)Mixed into the curd by dry salting (FAO camel-milk method)[fao-ramet2001]
Startermesophilic lactic starter

Total time across the recorded steps: 7.8 h – 3 days

Start
Drag the bar or press Play
62–90 °C

What changes: The milk is heated before the starter goes in

Step 1 of 5
Heat-treat the milk
Time
0.2–1 min
Reported
Temperature
62–90 °C
Reported
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Lactic acid bacteria

The FAO guide says cheese can also be made from raw milk, with a lactic starter added. Output: heat-treated milk.

Flavour
Not documented
Texture
liquid
Colour
white

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

Milk is soured slowly by mesophilic lactic bacteria, often with a trace of rennet, until it sets to a soft acid gel near pH 4.5. The curd is cut, drained in cloth and eaten fresh within days or weeks, without ripening. Made in 5 steps over 7.8 h – 3 days. The longest step, add starter and let the milk sour slowly, takes 7 h – 2 days (Dmytrów I 2021) and runs at 20–30 °C (Ramet J.P. 2001). Lactococcus lactis subsp. lactis and subsp. cremoris and Lactococcus lactis biovar diacetylactis do most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main step7 h – 2 daysReported[dmytrow2021][ziarno2025][fao-ramet2001]Add starter and let the milk sour slowly
Temperature20–30 °CReported[fao-ramet2001][dmytrow2021][ziarno2025]Add starter and let the milk sour slowly
AciditypH 4.6–4.8Measured[dmytrow2021]Pack and keep cold

What makes this one different

The curd is set mainly by acid from a slow lactic souring near pH 4.5, not by rennet, and it is drained and eaten fresh with no ripening. Lactic goat cheeses start the same way but are then ripened with a rind.

Related ferments

Variants

  • Cottage cheeseIn the US dry curd cottage cheese standard, the coagulated mass may be cut, warmed and stirred and is then drained; the curd may be washed with water and drained again.
  • Quark and tvorogQuark, twaróg and tvorog (tvaroh) are names for the same kind of acid-set fresh cheese, described as soft and crumbly and common across Central and Eastern Europe.

Made the fresh lactic way

Other fresh lactic kinds

Made the same way, each with what its own sources record.

Caboc

Cheese from Scotland, Highlands

Caboc is made from double cream rather than milk and set by souring and pressing with no rennet, then rolled in toasted oatmeal.

Milk
Double cream from local cow milk, pasteurised
Composition
Fat 58.5 g per 100 gReported

Sources: Highland Fine Cheeses; Oxley M. 2014

Claquebitouquiaque-bitou (Burgundian)

Cheese from France, Burgundy

Burgundy's herbed fresh goat curd, close to Lyon's cervelle de canut. 'Clacbitou' is a separate trade mark for raw goat cheeses ripened in Saône-et-Loire.

Fat
45% fat, as quoted from a farm dairy guide

Sources: Wikipédia (fr)

Crowdiecrowdie

Cheese from Scotland, Highlands

Crowdie is a fresh lactic curd, soured naturally with at most a little rennet, then drained and salted, not ripened. Gruth Dhu is crowdie mixed with double cream and rolled in toasted oatmeal and black pepper.

Milk
Cow milk, pasteurised today
Ripening
Fresh; shelf life about 14 days

Sources: Slow Food in the UK; Davidson A.; Food Standards Scotland 2018

Cuajadacuajada

Cheese from Spain

Cuajada is not acidified, unlike fresh lactic cheeses such as quark, which bacteria sour. That makes it a boundary entry.

Milk
Milk; skim UHT milk in one Spanish study
Ripening
Fresh; not ripened

Sources: Arqués J.L.; Jaramillo-Bedoya E.

Demi-sel (fresh salted cheese)Demi-sel

Cheese from France

French law lets fresh fromage blanc go as low as 10–15 g of dry matter per 100 g, but the 2007 decree excludes demi-sel (and petit-suisse) from that allowance and defines them in its annex. Its other mark is the light salting that gives it its name.

Milk
Cow milk
Legal status
Named in the decree's fromage blanc article; unlike other fromages blancs it may not use the lower dry-matter minimum that French law allows for fromage blanc, because the annex defines it separately
Fat
About 40 % (French Wikipedia)
Size
About 100 g, square (French Wikipedia)

Sources: Décret n° 2007-628 du 27 avril 2007 relatif aux fromages et spécialités fromagères; Wikipédia (fr)

Queso llanero

Cheese from Venezuela, the llanos

A hard, salty grating cheese rather than a fresh one; the related queso merideño is described as similar but less salty.

Milk
The feature does not give the milk for queso llanero; it says most Venezuelan cheeses are now made from cow milk, and many are made from raw milk
Character
Hard, slightly acid and earthy, salty, good for grating

Sources: Meer

Rygeostrygeost

Cheese from Denmark, especially Funen

A fresh curd of milk, buttermilk and rennet, smoked for only seconds over straw or wood chips and nettles, which sets it apart from unsmoked Danish fresh cheeses.

Sources: VisitNyborg; Arla Foods

Snøfrisk

Cheese from Norway

Snøfrisk is a fresh goat-milk spread made with 20% cow cream, unlike brunost, a cooked whey cheese made with cow or goat milk.

Milk
80% goat milk and 20% cow cream
Launched
1994, for the Lillehammer Winter Olympics

Sources: TINE; Wikipedia

Zhazhik (Armenia)

Cheese from Armenia

Made from the whey of matsun or from buttermilk rather than from fresh milk.

Milk
Matsun whey or buttermilk

Sources: Eurasia Travel

Safety

The low pH helps, but there is no ripening step to remove pathogens, so the milk is usually heat-treated. The UK NHS advises eating unpasteurised soft cheeses only when cooked until steaming hot, because of Listeria. WHO notes that most brucellosis cases come from unpasteurised milk or cheese from infected goats or sheep. Keep fresh cheese cold (0–6 °C in the FAO method).

History and sources

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

The earliest direct evidence of cheese making comes from sixth-millennium BC sites in temperate Europe, where milk fat in sieve-like pottery vessels shows that fat-rich curds were separated from whey (Salque et al. 2013, abstract).

  1. [fao-ramet2001] Ramet J.P. 2001, The technology of making cheese from camel milk (Camelus dromedarius), FAO Animal Production and Health Paper 113, chapter on fresh cheese methodsbook
  2. [dmytrow2021] Dmytrów I., Szymczak M., Szkolnicka K., Kamiński P. 2021, Development of functional acid curd cheese (tvarog) with antioxidant activity containing astaxanthin from shrimp shells, Foods 10:895paper
  3. [ziarno2025] Ziarno M., Zaręba D., Ścibisz I., Kozłowska M. 2025, Effect of enzymatic lactose hydrolysis on the quality and texture of full-fat curd cheese produced without whey separation, Microorganisms 13:2471paper
  4. [cfr133-129] US Code of Federal Regulations, 21 CFR 133.129, Dry curd cottage cheesespec
  5. [nhs-preg] NHS (UK), Foods to avoid in pregnancy (cheese section)gov
  6. [who-brucellosis] World Health Organization, Brucellosis fact sheetgov
  7. [salque2013] Salque M. et al. 2013, Earliest evidence for cheese making in the sixth millennium BC in northern Europe, Nature 493:522–525 (abstract)paper