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Cheese from Slovakia, the mountain part of the country above 200 m

Slovenská parenica PGISlovenská parenica

Raw sheep milk, or a mix with at least half sheep milk, is set at 29–32 °C, and the curd lump is drained and left about a day at 20–23 °C until it sours to about pH 5.3. Pieces are worked in hot water at 60–70 °C into a smooth dough, pulled into a thin ribbon 4–6 m long, dipped in brine, rolled from both ends into a double spiral and smoked about two hours.

Fully documentedCheese31 h – 37 hPGI (EU), registered by Commission Regulation (EC) No 656/2008 of 10 July 2008Family: Pasta filata (stretched-curd) cheese family

Recipe

No fixed amounts recordedThe specification gives no doses. About 1/2 kg of soured curd makes one parenica; the finished cheese is sold in packs of 450–500 g.
Fresh raw sheep milk, or raw sheep and cow milk with at least 50% sheep milkSheep breeds Valaška, improved Valaška, Cigája and East Friesian, on pasture[sk-parenica]
Rennet[sk-parenica]
Saturated salt brine, cold[sk-parenica]
Hardwood smoke[sk-parenica]
Starterthe milk's own natural lactic bacteria

Total time across the recorded steps: 31 h – 37 h

Start
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29–32 °C

What changes: Rennet goes into the fresh sheep milk and it sets in half an hour

Step 1 of 8
Set the milk
Time
30 min
Set
Temperature
29–32 °C
Set
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Lactic acid bacteria
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

Raw sheep milk, or a mix with at least half sheep milk, is set at 29–32 °C, and the curd lump is drained and left about a day at 20–23 °C until it sours to about pH 5.3. Pieces are worked in hot water at 60–70 °C into a smooth dough, pulled into a thin ribbon 4–6 m long, dipped in brine, rolled from both ends into a double spiral and smoked about two hours. Made in 8 steps over 31 h – 37 h. The longest step, sour the lump, takes 24 h (Industrial Property Office of the Slovak Repu…) and runs at 20–23 °C (Industrial Property Office of the Slovak Repu…). Natural microorganisms of the milk, of the genera Lactobacillus, Enterococcus, Lactococcus and Streptococcus does most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main step24 hSet[sk-parenica]Sour the lump
Temperature20–23 °CSet[sk-parenica]Sour the lump
AciditypH 5.3Set[sk-parenica]Sour the lump

What makes this one different

The soured curd is not shaped into a block but pulled into a single thin ribbon metres long and wound into two linked spirals. It is smoked about two hours, and at least half the milk must be sheep milk.

Milk
Raw sheep milk, or raw sheep and cow milk with at least 50% sheep milk
Composition
Dry matter at least 53%, fat in dry matter at least 50%, NaCl at most 3%
Shape
Two linked S-shaped rolls of cheese ribbon, packed between two wooden veneer ovals

Related ferments

Safety

The milk is raw. Working the curd at 60–70 °C is only a partial pasteurisation, and the specification requires the cheese to be free of Listeria monocytogenes and Salmonella.

Hazards the sources name: Listeria monocytogenes and Salmonella must be absent; steaming at 60–70 °C is only a partial pasteurisation that lowers the natural flora from about 10^5 to 10^2; Coagulase-positive staphylococci and Escherichia coli can multiply in raw-milk curd during the first 24 hours of souring, as a study of Slovak pasta-filata curd found.

History and sources

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

The specification says parenica began to be made around Zvolen and Brezno at the start of the 19th century and spread across almost all of Slovakia. In another passage it says that in the 18th century it was made for home use in the families of sheep owners, and that in the 19th century it reached markets in Vienna and other European cities. Otakar Laxa's dairy textbook of 1908 called it a unique cheese, and the Austrian Codex Alimentarius of 1917 described it. Slovakia entered it on its national register on a transitional basis on 23 June 2005, and the EU registered it as a PGI in 2008.

  1. [sk-parenica] Industrial Property Office of the Slovak Republic, Špecifikácia "Slovenská parenica" CHZO (application under Council Regulation (EC) No 510/2006)spec
  2. [medvedova2020] Medveďová A. et al. 2020, Effect of Lactic Acid Bacteria Addition on the Microbiological Safety of Pasta-Filata Types of Cheeses, Frontiers in Microbiology 11:612528 (abstract)paper
  3. [kacaniova2019] Kačániová M., Kunová S., Horská E., Nagyová Ľ., Puchalski C., Haščík P., Terentjeva M. 2019, Diversity of microorganisms in the traditional Slovak cheese, Potravinarstvo Slovak Journal of Food Sciences 13(1):532–537, doi:10.5219/1061 (abstract, via Crossref)paper
  4. [reg656-2008] Commission Regulation (EC) No 656/2008 of 10 July 2008 registering certain names in the Register of protected designations of origin and protected geographical indications (Slovenská parenica (PGI) among them), Official Journal of the European Union L 183, 11.7.2008, p. 15gov