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Fermentation Atlas

Cheese from Hungary and the former Yugoslavia

Trappista (Hungary)trappista sajt

Trappista is a semi-hard, rennet-set cow cheese with small round eyes. Pasteurised milk is soured with a lactic starter and set with rennet, and the curd is washed and scalded at about 40 °C, pressed, brined and ripened in plastic film for about three weeks. It is Hungary's most popular cheese, and a 2025 Hungarian food standard now fixes its shape and composition. Made in 7 steps over 21 days – 28 days. The longest step, ripen in film, takes 21–28 days (Vitéz-Jakab A. 2025) and runs at 11–15 °C (Vitéz-Jakab A. 2025). Salt is 20.5–21.5 % (Vitéz-Jakab A. 2025). Lactic acid bacteria starter culture does most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main step21–28 daysReported[vitezjakab2025][darnay2022]Ripen in film
Temperature11–15 °CReported[vitezjakab2025][darnay2022]Ripen in film
Salt20.5–21.5 %Reported[vitezjakab2025]Brine and dry
AciditypH 4.8–5Reported[vitezjakab2025]Brine and dry
Fully documentedCheese21 days – 28 daysHungarian Food Codex product standard (Decree 43/2025); not an EU PDOFamily: Washed-curd cheese family (Gouda as template)More washed-curd cheesesMore from Hungary

Recipe

Amounts from a sourceFactory process from one Hungarian dairy (Fino-Food, Kaposvár), described in a 2025 food engineering thesis. It gives process settings but no ingredient amounts apart from the brine.
Pasteurised cow milk · The codex also allows skim or part-skim milk, milk standardised by membranes, and cream[vitezjakab2025]
Lactic acid bacteria starter culture[vitezjakab2025]
Rennet (coagulating enzyme)[vitezjakab2025]
Calcium chloride · Firming agent, dissolved in water and added after the culture in one factory[vitezjakab2025]
Potassium nitrate · Preservative used in one factory against gas-forming Clostridium[vitezjakab2025]
Brine of 20.5–21.5 g salt per 100 gSalt[vitezjakab2025]
Starterlactic acid bacteria starter culture, which the Hungarian standard requires

Total time across the recorded steps: 21 days – 28 days

Start
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77 °C

What changes: Heat kills most of the bacteria already in the milk

Step 1 of 7
Pasteurise the milk
Time
0.2 min
Reported
Temperature
77 °C
Reported
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Lactic acid bacteria

Output: pasteurised cheese milk.

Flavour
Not documented
Texture
Not documented
Colour
Not documented

Microbes at work in this step

heat kills most of the native milk flora

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

Trappista is made like Gouda, with a washed and scalded curd, but it is ripened only about three weeks in plastic film, so it has no real rind and stays mild and supple. Port-Salut and Saint-Paulin, the French Trappist cheeses it is compared with, are ripened with a washed rind.

Milk
Cow milk, which may be skimmed, part-skimmed or standardised, with cream allowed
Shape (Hungarian standard)
Disc 14–18 cm across and 6–9 cm high, 1.0–2.2 kg; mini disc 9–12 cm, 0.15–0.6 kg; blocks of any size
Composition (Hungarian standard)
Full-fat type 58 ± 2.5 % dry matter and 47 ± 2.5 % fat in dry matter; half-fat 53 and 32 %; low-fat 47.5 and 22.5 %; salt 1.5 ± 0.5 %
Ripening
21 days at 12–15 °C in one factory; 4 weeks at 12 ± 1 °C in a lab make

Related ferments

Variants

  • Smoked trappistaThe Hungarian standard allows a smoked or smoke-flavoured version.
  • Mini trappistaSmall discs of 0.15–0.6 kg.

Safety

Pasteurised milk is used in the described factory. In 1991 trials, Listeria monocytogenes added to the milk survived making and 90 days of ripening, so the milk must be pasteurised and the dairy kept clean.

Hazards the sources name: Listeria monocytogenes, which survived making and 90 days of ripening and storage in challenge trials (2.72–5.64 log₁₀ CFU/g at the end); Gas-forming Clostridium, which causes late blowing; one factory adds nitrate and tests cheeses 48 h at 35 °C.

History and sources

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

Austrian Trappist monk Franz Pfanner founded the monastery at Banja Luka in 1869, and cheese making began there in 1882, on a method that came from France. The cheese spread through the former Austro-Hungarian lands. By 1991 trappist made up more than a third of Yugoslavia's semi-soft cheese. In Hungary it became a mass product, and in 2025 the Hungarian Food Codex gained a trappista standard that fixes its ingredients, shape and composition.

  1. [vitezjakab2025] Vitéz-Jakab A. 2025, Mini trappista sajt gyártási paramétereinek optimalizálása (Optimising the production settings of mini trappista cheese), BSc thesis, Hungarian University of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Kaposvár; quotes Hungarian Decree 43/2025 (X. 2.) AMpaper
  2. [kovincic1991] Kovincic I., Vujicic I.F., Svabic-Vlahovic M. et al. 1991, Survival of Listeria monocytogenes during the manufacture and ripening of Trappist cheese, Journal of Food Protection 54:418–420, doi:10.4315/0362-028x-54.6.418 (abstract)paper
  3. [darnay2022] Darnay L., Miklós G., Lőrincz A. et al. 2022, Possible inhibitory effect of microbial transglutaminase on the formation of biogenic amines during Trappist cheese ripening, Food Additives & Contaminants Part A 39:580–587, doi:10.1080/19440049.2021.2005831 (abstract)paper
  4. [kirin2003] Kirin S. 2003, 120 years of Trapist cheese, Mljekarstvo 53(1):51–64 (English abstract only)paper