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Fermentation Atlas

Cheese from Western Balkans, especially the mountain villages of Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina

Beli sir (Serbian and Bosnian white brined cheese)beli sir

Beli sir ("white cheese") is the everyday white brined cheese of Serbia and its neighbours. In mountain households raw milk is renneted straight after milking, the curd is drained in a cloth, dry-salted and packed in layers in a wooden vat, then covered with a brine of whey and salted water to ripen for one to two months. Made in 5 steps over 30 days – 2 months. The longest step, ripen under brine, takes 30 days – 2 months (Ledina T 2024) and runs at 14–16 °C (Ledina T 2024). Salt is 12 % (Miocinovic J 2022). Native lactic acid bacteria of the raw milk; in ripened cheese mainly Lactiplantibacillus plantarum, Lacticaseibacillus paracasei, Lactiplantibacillus paraplantarum and Levilactobacillus brevis, with leuconostocs and enterococci does most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main step30 days – 2 monthsReported[ledina2024]Ripen under brine
Temperature14–16 °CReported[ledina2024]Ripen under brine
Salt12 %Reported[miocinovic2022]Ripen under brine

Recipe

No fixed amounts recordedHousehold cheese has no fixed recipe. In one dairy version (Homolje white cheese) rennet was dosed at 0.16 g per 10 L and the brine held 12% salt.
Raw milk, straight from milking · Cow, sheep or goat; not chilled; no commercial starter in household cheese[ledina2024][miocinovic2022]
Rennet[ledina2024]
Salt · Dry salt on the curd, then a brine of whey and salted water[ledina2024]
Starter: none in household cheese; dairies add a starter culture

Total time across the recorded steps: 30 days – 2 months

Start
Drag the bar or press Play
shapes, not to countLactic acid bacteriaL. plantarumL. paracaseiL. paraplantarum

What changes: Rennet goes into milk still warm from the animal, which sets within an hour

Step 1 of 5
Rennet the fresh milk
Time
1 h
Reported
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Lactic acid bacteria
L. plantarum
L. paracasei
L. paraplantarum
Lactobacilli

Rennet goes into raw, unchilled milk right after milking. Dairies pasteurise the milk at 72 °C for 20 s, cool it to 32 ± 1 °C and add a starter before the rennet.

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

What makes this one different

Beli sir is a family of home and dairy cheeses rather than one protected recipe; regional types such as Sjenica and Homolje cheese have their own geographical-indication rules. Village makers rennet the milk warm from milking with no starter and brine the curd with a mix of whey and salted water in wooden vats.

Milk
Cow, sheep or goat milk; raw in village cheese
Ripening
One to two months in brine at about 14–16 °C
Salt
White brined cheeses of this group usually hold 55–90 g of salt per litre of cheese moisture

Related ferments

Safety

Village beli sir is made from raw, unchilled milk with no starter, and no safety limits are set for it. Its main barriers are salt (55–90 g per litre of moisture is usual for the group) and the early drop in pH during ripening; dairies pasteurise the milk.

History and sources

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

  1. [ledina2024] Ledina T, Đorđević J, Glišić M, Čobanović N, Kovandžić M, Bulajić S. 2024. Technological and Functional Characteristics of Lactic Acid Bacteria from Traditional Serbian Cheeses. Foods 14, 38paper
  2. [miocinovic2022] Miocinovic J, Miloradovic Z, Radovanovic M, Sredovic Ignjatovic I, Radulovic A, Nastaj M, Sołowiej BG, Tomasevic I. 2022. Sodium Reduction by Partial and Total Replacement of NaCl with KCl in Serbian White Brined Cheese. Foods 11, 374paper