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Cheese from Slovakia

Slovenská bryndza PGI

Raw sheep milk is renneted at 28–32 °C, cut, gathered by hand into lumps and drained, then the lumps ferment 2–3 days at 21–25 °C and mature for days more until the pH falls to 4.2–4.8. At the bryndza plant the matured lumps, at least half of them sheep cheese, are pressed, crushed, milled into a spreadable granular cheese and salted.

Fully documentedCheese9.2 days – 14 daysPGI (EU), registered by Commission Regulation (EC) No 676/2008 of 16 July 2008Family: Bryndza (Slovak / Podhale)

Recipe

Amounts from a sourceThe specification gives no milk volumes or salt doses; lumps of sheep cheese weigh 3–7 kg out of the cloth.
Matured lump sheep cheese (hrudkový ovčí syr) from raw sheep milk of Wallachian, improved Wallachian, Cigaya, East Friesian or Lacaune sheepmore than 50 %[bryndza-oj2007]
Matured lump cow cheese from pasteurised whole cow milk (optional)[bryndza-oj2007]
Liquid rennet[bryndza-oj2007]
Salt or saturated salt solution, added at milling[bryndza-oj2007]
Starterspontaneous for raw-milk lumps; pasteurised milk is inoculated with organisms isolated from barrel sheep cheese or raw sheep milk

Total time across the recorded steps: 9.2 days – 14 days

Start
Drag the bar or press Play
shapes, not to countLactobacillusEnterococcusLactococcusStreptococcus28–32 °C

What changes: Liquid rennet goes into warm, freshly milked sheep milk

Step 1 of 6
Warm and rennet the sheep milk
Time
30 min
Set
Temperature
28–32 °C
Set
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Lactobacillus
Enterococcus
Lactococcus
Streptococcus

If the milk is pasteurised (72 °C for 20 seconds) it must be inoculated with organisms from quality barrel sheep cheese or 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

Raw sheep milk is renneted at 28–32 °C, cut, gathered by hand into lumps and drained, then the lumps ferment 2–3 days at 21–25 °C and mature for days more until the pH falls to 4.2–4.8. At the bryndza plant the matured lumps, at least half of them sheep cheese, are pressed, crushed, milled into a spreadable granular cheese and salted. Made in 6 steps over 9.2 days – 14 days. The longest step, mature the lump, takes 4–6 days (European Commission 2007) and runs at 8–20 °C (European Commission 2007). Natural flora of the lump sheep cheese, mainly Lactobacillus, Enterococcus, Lactococcus and Streptococcus, with the yeasts Kluyveromyces marxianus and Geotrichum candidum and Lactococci or streptococci dominate the whey used as a natural starter; lactobacilli such as Lacticaseibacillus paracasei/casei, Lactiplantibacillus plantarum and Lactobacillus helveticus were isolated from it do most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main step4–6 daysSet[bryndza-oj2007]Mature the lump
Temperature8–20 °CSet[bryndza-oj2007]Mature the lump
AciditypH 4.2–4.8Set[bryndza-oj2007]Mature the lump

What makes this one different

Not made in one batch but milled from lumps of sheep cheese, and sometimes cow cheese, that were fermented and matured at sheepfolds and then pressed at a bryndza plant.

Sheep share
More than 50 % lump sheep cheese
Total maturing
Seven to eight days from making the lump to milling
Barrel cheese
Crushed lumps salted to about 4–6 % in wooden barrels mature at least two months at 2–6 °C

Related ferments

Safety

The sheep milk is usually raw; the lump must reach pH 5.2 or lower within 2–3 days and pH 4.2–4.8 by the end of maturing. One study found coliforms in all whey starters and coagulase-positive staphylococci in whey from half the producers [klistincova2025]. CDC advises people who are pregnant, aged 65 or over, or have a weakened immune system, and newborns, to avoid any cheese made with raw milk because of Listeria [cdc-listeria].

Hazards the sources name: Coliforms in all whey samples; coagulase-positive staphylococci at relevant levels in whey from 4 of 8 producers.

History and sources

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

The application dates industrial bryndza to the plants at Detva (1787) and Zvolenská Slatina (1797); before the First World War about 3.5 million kg were made, over two thirds exported. Janto adds that the word bryndza is first written in Slovakia in a charter of 17 September 1470, that the Detva plant was founded in 1787 by Ján Vagač, and that in 1892 the Zvolen maker Teodor Vallo began adding a salt solution in place of dry salt, which gave the soft, spreadable bryndza still made today.

  1. [bryndza-oj2007] European Commission 2007, Publication of an application pursuant to Article 6(2) of Council Regulation (EC) No 510/2006, summary 'Slovenská bryndza' SK/PGI/005/0427/13.10.2004, OJ C 232, 4.10.2007, p. 17 (Publications Office cellar copy)spec
  2. [klistincova2025] Klištincová N., Koreňová J., Rešková Z. et al. 2025, Bacterial consortia of ewes' whey in the production of bryndza cheese in Slovakia, Letters in Applied Microbiology 78(4):ovaf047 (abstract)paper
  3. [reg676-2008] Commission Regulation (EC) No 676/2008 of 16 July 2008 registering certain names in the Register of protected designations of origin and protected geographical indications (Slovenská bryndza (PGI) among them), OJ L 189, 17.7.2008, p. 19spec
  4. [janto2017] Janto J. 2017, Slovenské bryndziarstvo a vagačovská výrobňa v Detve (Production of bryndza in Slovakia and the Vagač bryndza manufacture in Detva), Muzeológia a kultúrne dedičstvo 5(2), pp. 51–59paper
  5. [cdc-listeria] Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Listeria prevention, safer food choices (cheese made with unpasteurized milk)gov