Skip to main content
Support

Browse by category

All categories
Home

Cheese from North Macedonia, Mavrovo National Park on Bistra mountain

Mavrovo mountain-pasture kashkaval (Galichki kashkaval)Галички кашкавал

In summer, raw milk from sheep on the Bistra mountain pastures is set with rennet at about 38 °C, cut, pressed, and left at room temperature until the curd (baskija) sours to about pH 5.3. The soured curd is sliced, stretched in brine at 73–75 °C and moulded into wheels, which ripen into a hard sheep kashkaval. No starter culture is added.

Fully documentedCheese45 minSlow Food Presidium for the traditional mountain-pasture cheeses of Mavrovo (kashkaval, sirenje and kiselo mleko), first shown abroad at Cheese 2011 in BraFamily: Pasta filata (stretched-curd) cheese family

Recipe

No fixed amounts recordedThe Galičnik plant studied works up to 800 litres of milk a day, in summer only, from the second half of June to the first half of August.
Raw sheep milkMorning and evening milk from the dairy's own flock; 8.10 % fat and 5.56 % protein on average[santa2021]
Rennet[santa2021]
Hot brineFor stretching, at 73–75 °C[santa2021]
Starternone added; the paper says it is made from raw milk without starter cultures

Total time across the recorded steps: 45 min

Start
Drag the bar or press Play
26.9 °CpH 6.6

What changes: Starting material: raw milk from sheep on the Bistra summer pastures

Step 1 of 7
Collect the sheep milk
Time
Not documented
Temperature
26.9 °C
Measured
Salt
None given
Acidity
pH 6.6
Measured

Milk from the morning and evening milkings of the dairy's own sheep, grazing pastures at 1,000–1,500 m in summer. Output: raw sheep 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

In summer, raw milk from sheep on the Bistra mountain pastures is set with rennet at about 38 °C, cut, pressed, and left at room temperature until the curd (baskija) sours to about pH 5.3. The soured curd is sliced, stretched in brine at 73–75 °C and moulded into wheels, which ripen into a hard sheep kashkaval. No starter culture is added. Made in 7 steps over 45 min. The longest step, add rennet, takes 45 min (Santa D 2021) and runs at 38 °C (Santa D 2021). Salt is 2.3 % (Santa D 2021).

Key numbers
Main step45 minReported[santa2021]Add rennet
Temperature38 °CMeasured[santa2021]Add rennet
Salt2.3 %Measured[santa2021]Unmould and ripen
AciditypH 5.5 → 5.28Measured[santa2021]Sour the curd (baskija) at room temperature

What makes this one different

This kashkaval is made only in summer, in the mountain villages, from the raw milk of sheep on the high pastures, with no starter culture. The pressed curd is left to sour at room temperature and is then sliced and stretched in hot brine.

Milk
Raw sheep milk from summer mountain pastures; no starter
Stretching
In hot brine at 73–75 °C, at a curd pH of about 5.3
Composition
At six months: total solids 60.81 %, fat 26.02 %, protein 27.85 %, fat in dry matter 42.77 %, salt 2.31 %
Output
Under 10 tonnes of kashkaval a year (2011)

Related ferments

Variants

  • Belo sirenjeThe white brined cheese of the same pastures, made in larger amounts (about 50 tonnes a year in 2011).

Safety

Made from raw sheep milk with no starter. The curd is stretched in brine at 73–75 °C, and the cheese in the mould measured about 52 °C and pH 5.05, then ripens for months. ANSES advises pregnant women, people over 65, people with weak immunity and young children to avoid raw-milk cheeses.

History and sources

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

A 2011 report says Galičnik and Lazaropole have been the heart of kashkaval making for centuries. A Lazaropole villager recalled that the first sheep came up in spring after wintering near Thessaloniki. Another elder said kashkaval reached the American market and, under Yugoslavia, was Macedonia's first source of valuable currency. The report says output has fallen since the early 1990s and by 2011 did not exceed 10 tonnes a year; it blames depopulation, little support for traditional production and cheaper industrial cheese. The Slow Food Presidium for these cheeses made its first international appearance at the Cheese fair in Bra in 2011.

Microbes
No study we found names the microbes of this kashkaval.
  1. [santa2021] Santa D., Srbinovska S. and Simonovska T. 2021, Dynamics of acidity (pH) and temperature during the production of traditional Macedonian Galichki kashkaval, Agriculture and Forestry 67(3):99-107paper
  2. [obc2011] Martino F. 2011, Slow food. On grass and transhumance in Western Macedonia, OBC Transeuropa (16 September 2011)web
  3. [anses2022] ANSES 2022, Fromages au lait cru, quels risques pour la santé et comment mieux les prévenir (8 April 2022)gov