Liliputas

Appearance & taste

Liliputas is a cylinder with rounded edges, 5 to 15 cm high, 7 to 8.5 cm in diameter and weighing 0.25 to 0.7 kg; it takes its name from its small size. The rind is smooth, without a thick underlayer, covered with a protective coating and may bear the pattern of the cotton cloth or of the mould. The paste is cream-coloured to yellow throughout, even, relatively firm, elastic and firm to the bite, sometimes with small, irregularly distributed oval, angular or slightly flattened holes.

The taste and aroma are fresh, of lactic acid and fermented cheese; the cheese may be slightly sharp and salty. It contains 50 % (± 5) fat in the dry matter and 1.3 to 3 % salt. It is only sold whole, because it is small and dries out if the protective coating is damaged.

Production

The cow’s milk is pasteurised, standardised and curdled with enzymes, starter cultures and calcium chloride. The curd is cut and stirred, a third of the whey is drawn off, and the curd is heated and stirred further until the grains are 4 to 5 mm in size, dry and firm. The curd is cut into pieces, placed by hand in cylindrical moulds and pressed there under its own weight for 20 to 25 minutes, being turned two or three times. The cheeses are then wrapped in damp cotton cloths so that a rind forms, put back into the moulds and pressed for 1.5 to 2 hours. According to the specification, this rind keeps the mould away from the inside during ripening.

After 36 to 48 hours in brine and drying, the cheeses go into cellars at 10 to 14 °C and 85 to 94 % humidity, in which the mould Penicillium pallidum Smith occurs naturally. It cannot be seen on the walls and shelves, but according to the specification, after a few days the cheeses look like silkworm cocoons. They are turned at least every five days. After 20 to 30 days the layer of mould is washed off, and the cheese is dried and coated with wax. Almost everything is done by hand; according to the specification, each cheese is handled more than 50 times.

Origin & history

Belvederis is a small village in the Jurbarkas district, in the Panemunė Regional Park on the right bank of the Nemunas, 1 km west of Seredžius. According to the specification, it is the historic cradle of Lithuanian dairy farming: in 1921 an agricultural school was set up in the manor house, which later became a college and in 1944 a technical college for dairy farming and trained more than 800 specialists in 34 years. Many of them gained experience in the village’s cheese dairy, founded in 1928, which according to the specification is the oldest in Lithuania. In the past the milk was heated over wood fires, the moulds were made of wood, and the ripening cellars were cooled with ice from the Nemunas.

At first, larger round cheeses of 2.5 to 3 kg were made there. From 1958, after the cheese dairy was extended, small cheeses of 0.4 to 0.7 kg were produced, and their name “Liliputas” quickly became known. In the first year just under 8 tonnes ripened, 40 years later 130 tonnes a year. According to the specification, the cheese is still made today using the 1958 method.