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Cheese from Serbia, Homolje

Homoljski sir (ovčiji, kozji, kravlji)Homoljski ovčiji sir

Homolje cheese is a white cheese ripened in brine, made by artisans from raw cow or sheep milk with no starter culture; a goat cheese is also registered. It belongs to the Serbian "krishka" cheeses named after their region; each maker presses and salts in an own way, and the cheese usually ripens in brine for one to three months.

DocumentedCheese30 days – 3 monthsSerbian geographical indication (separate entries for sheep, goat and cow cheese)Family: White brined cheese family (Feta PDO as template)

Recipe

No fixed amounts recordedNo fixed recipe was found. Each cheesemaker has an own method, above all for pressing and salting, so cheeses from the same area and milk can differ a lot.
Raw cow or sheep milkNo starter culture is added[barac2019]
SaltRipening takes place in brine; each maker salts in an own way[barac2019]
Starternone added

Total time across the recorded steps: 30 days – 3 months

Start
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What changes: Starting material: raw cow or sheep milk from Homolje

Step 1 of 3
Collect the raw milk
Time
Not documented
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented

Raw cow or sheep milk; no starter culture is added. Output: raw milk.

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

Homolje cheese is a white cheese ripened in brine, made by artisans from raw cow or sheep milk with no starter culture; a goat cheese is also registered. It belongs to the Serbian "krishka" cheeses named after their region; each maker presses and salts in an own way, and the cheese usually ripens in brine for one to three months. Made in 3 steps over 30 days – 3 months. The longest step, ripen in brine, takes 30 days – 3 months (Barać M. et al. 2019). Salt is 5.4 % (Barać M. et al. 2019).

Key numbers
Main step30 days – 3 monthsReported[barac2019]Ripen in brine
Temperature31–33 °CReported[miocinovic2022]Make, press and salt the curd
Salt5.4 %Measured[barac2019]Ripen in brine
AciditypH 4.7Measured[barac2019]Ripen in brine

What makes this one different

Among Serbia's regional brined white cheeses (Zlatar, Sjenica, Svrljig), the Homolje cheeses tested were the driest and firmest, semi-hard rather than soft, and among the saltiest. They are protected as three separate geographical indications by milk.

Milk
Raw cow or sheep milk with no starter; sheep, goat and cow cheese are registered as three separate geographical indications
Ripening
In brine, usually 1–3 months
Composition
Two-month-old cow cheese: dry matter 59.09 %, fat 31.25 %, fat in dry matter 52.89 %, NaCl 5.43 %, pH 4.71. Sheep cheese: dry matter 57.49 %, fat 30.50 %, NaCl 6.49 %, pH 5.18

Related ferments

Variants

  • Dairy-plant make (2022 study)Pasteurised cow milk with a starter culture, cut after 1 h 20 min, pressed, dry-salted and ripened in 12% brine for 60 days at 16–18 °C.
  • Homoljski ovčiji sirSheep milk.
  • Homoljski kozji sirGoat milk.
  • Homoljski kravlji sirCow milk.

Safety

Made from raw milk with no starter. ANSES names Listeria monocytogenes, Salmonella and enterohaemorrhagic E. coli as hazards of raw-milk cheeses and advises pregnant women, people over 65, people with weak immunity and young children to avoid them, apart from cooked pressed kinds such as Gruyère.

History and sources

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

Serbia's Intellectual Property Office had registered Homolje sheep, goat and cow cheese as geographical indications before January 2015.

  1. [barac2019] Barać M. et al. 2019, The effect of in vitro digestion on antioxidant, ACE-inhibitory and antimicrobial potentials of traditional Serbian white-brined cheeses, Foods 8(3):94paper
  2. [miocinovic2022] Miocinovic J. et al. 2022, Sodium reduction by partial and total replacement of NaCl with KCl in Serbian white brined cheese, Foods 11(3):374 (Table 1, production process for Homoljski Sir, EkoFil dairy plant, Petrovac na Mlavi)paper
  3. [kurir] Kurir, Intelektualna svojina - zaštićen ečanski šaran i sirevi iz pet krajeva Srbije (12 January 2015)web
  4. [anses2022] ANSES 2022, Fromages au lait cru, quels risques pour la santé et comment mieux les prévenir (8 April 2022)gov