Oscypek

Appearance & taste

Oscypek has the shape of a double cone or spindle, is 17 to 23 cm long, 6 to 10 cm thick at its widest point and weighs 0.6 to 0.8 kg. At that point it bears an embossed pattern. The rind is bright straw-coloured to light brown with a delicate sheen. When cut, the paste is slightly cream-coloured and somewhat darker towards the rind; an almost white colour is also permitted.

The cheese contains at most 44 % water and at least 38 % fat in dry matter; the exact composition depends on the smoking time and the season. According to the specification, the varied plants of the mountain pastures shape the taste of the sheep’s milk and give the cheese its particular aroma.

Oscypek is sold only as a whole cheese, packed or unpacked. The name may also appear on the packaging in the dialect form “Oszczypek”.

Production

The sheep’s milk comes from the Polish Mountain Sheep (“Polska Owca Górska”). If cow’s milk is added, it must come from Polish Red cattle (“Polska Krowa Czerwona”); at least 60 % of the milk is sheep’s milk. The cheese is made only from May to September.

The milk is first soured at ambient temperature, then mixed with fresh milk and coagulated with rennet. The curd is broken up with traditional tools such as the “ferula” beater; the pieces of curd settle at the bottom, and up to half of the whey is drawn off. The curd is pressed together, taken out, crushed again by hand and shaped into a ball, which is placed in whey. The pressed ball is pierced with a larding needle and pressed further on it until it has the shape of a double cone. A ring presses the pattern into the widest point. The cheese is then smoothed with the palms of the hands and placed in cold water so that it keeps its shape. It goes into brine for up to 24 hours, dries for 12 to 24 hours and is then cold-smoked for three to seven days.

Origin & history

The name is linked to how the cheese is made: it can be derived from the verb “oszczypywać”, which refers to breaking up the curd, and from the word “oszczypek” for “little skewer”, which alludes to the shape. The Polish Mountain Sheep is an improved form of the primitive Zackel sheep of the Eastern Carpathians and the Balkans, well adapted to the mountain climate and traditional husbandry. According to the specification, Polish Red cattle are the oldest Polish cattle breed; in the region the first herds were established in 1876 in Stróża in the district of Limanowa.

According to the specification, Oscypek is a very old product of Wallachian shepherds. Immigrant shepherds brought it to Podhale, together with their way of grazing sheep and the shepherds’ huts, the “bacówki”, in which the milk is processed according to handed-down tradition. Cheesemaking is first mentioned in 1416 at the founding of the village of Ochotnica in the Gorce Mountains. An instruction of the Ślemień estate from 1748, revised in 1773, is the first to describe production in the shepherds’ huts in detail. In 1830 the historian Ambroży Grabowski writes that in summer the Górale build shepherds’ huts and make their “oszczypki” there, and in 1858 the travel writer Maria Steczkowska describes cheesemaking and the shepherds’ vessels in the Tatra in detail. Production is based on the skill of the head shepherds, the “baca”, passed down over generations.