Bulgarsko byalo salamureno sireneБългарско бяло саламурено сирене

Appearance & taste

The cheese comes in rectangular pieces with a square base: 100 to 220 mm long, 100 to 110 mm wide and 80 to 100 mm high, weighing 0.2 to 2.0 kg. It is white, with a shade typical of the milk used. The cut surface is white, porcelain-like and clean, with no visible layering, with or without a few small air pockets. The pieces are well shaped, separate easily from one another and do not crumble; the texture is moderately firm and supple.

The taste is that of a cheese ripened in brine: moderately salty, with a pleasantly pronounced lactic acid flavour and a slight bitterness from the breakdown of protein. According to the specification, this is determined by the starter cultures and the ripening in brine, not by the type of milk. During ripening, about 130 volatile substances form in the brine that shape the taste and smell. Preservatives, stabilisers and emulsifiers are not permitted.

Production

The milk comes from Bulgaria. The animals graze from March to November and are also given grass fresh, as hay or as silage; at most 20 % of the feed in a year may come from outside Bulgaria. The starter cultures with Lactococcus lactis subsp. lactis and Lactobacillus casei and the symbiotic cultures of Lactobacillus delbrueckii subsp. bulgaricus and Streptococcus thermophilus are also produced in Bulgaria and are not genetically modified.

The milk is pasteurised and curdled with the cultures and rennet. The cheesemakers monitor the temperature of the milk and the amount of rennet and cultures. The curd is cut into cubes by hand with special multi-blade knives and stirred with even movements so that it is not broken up. The curd is then pressed, salted wet or dry and pre-ripened, salted again, sealed in containers and ripened in brine. The minimum ripening time is 45 days for cheese made from cow’s and goat’s milk and 60 days for cheese made from sheep’s, buffalo and mixed milk. Because the cheese easily takes on foreign smells, it is cut and packed immediately after being taken out of the brine, in the plant where it was made, for example in vacuum film, metal tins, plastic boxes or wooden barrels.

Origin & history

Bulgaria has a relatively mild climate with moderate heat and humidity and average annual temperatures of 10 to 14 °C in most of the country. On pastures in the lowlands and in the mountains grow grasses, legumes and, on the natural pastures, over 2,000 species of herbs, among them sweet clover, field wormwood and shepherd’s purse. According to the specification, the climate favours lactic acid bacteria such as Lactobacillus delbrueckii subsp. bulgaricus, which occurs naturally in Bulgaria.

According to the specification, cheese dairies in Bulgaria are mentioned as early as 1558. In 1872 an article on cheesemaking appeared in the journal “Tschitalischte”, and in 1903 Hristo G. Tahtunov described the technique in a book on yellow cheese and white brine cheese. In 1905 the medical student Stamen Grigoroff discovered at the University of Geneva the bacterium that in 1907 was named Bacillus bulgaricus. In 1934 the Bulgarian Agricultural Society introduced the pasteurisation of milk and pure cultures. Machines arrived with industrialisation, but the curdling and the handling of the curd are still done by hand, and the knowledge is passed on from plant to plant.