Paški sir

Appearance & taste

Paški sir is cylindrical with a flat base and a flat to slightly domed top, 18 to 24 cm in diameter, 7 to 13 cm high and weighing 1.8 to 3.5 kg; there is also a small cheese 9 to 14 cm in diameter weighing 0.6 to 1.2 kg. The rind is smooth and hard, golden yellow to light reddish brown. The paste is compact, slightly elastic and dense, with no holes or a few small, irregular ones, and pale yellow; as it ripens it loses elasticity and becomes darker. The cheese contains at least 45 % fat in dry matter.

After two months the cheese is slightly sweet, a little salty and pleasantly savoury, with a lingering aroma reminiscent of Mediterranean herbs; the rind is then still soft enough to be eaten too. With further ripening the taste, aroma and colour become more intense and the paste firmer. After at least six months it is finely grainy, breaks irregularly when cut and melts on the tongue, with small “crystals” noticeable. Because the sheep live outdoors, the cheese, according to the specification, has no smell of the stable.

Production

The sheep are on pasture all year round. If the feed there is not enough, they receive roughage and concentrates from outside, at most 50 % of the dry matter over the year. In the milking season of around 130 days, the ration consists of at least 83 % green feed and hay, of which at least 65 % from the island; concentrates of wheat, barley, maize and soya may make up at most 17 %. Silage and brewer’s grains are prohibited.

Raw or heat-treated whole milk from Pag sheep is used. If it is not processed within six hours of milking, it is cooled to below 6 °C and made into cheese within 48 hours. It is coagulated with animal rennet or microbial enzymes and salted with sea salt from the area. The cheesemakers achieve the desired consistency through the temperature and duration of heating the curd, which they adjust according to the season. During ripening the cheese is washed by hand and rubbed with olive oil or other vegetable oils at least four to six times; this shapes the rind and prevents it from drying out. All steps from milking through moulding, pressing and salting to ripening take place in the area. Cheese that has ripened for more than 12 months is also sold grated.

Origin & history

Pag is a karst island with a Mediterranean climate that is hardly suitable for arable farming; karst pastures cover 90 % of the agricultural land. On them 331 species of vascular plants have been counted, including yarrow, wormwood, fennel, Italian everlasting, St John’s wort, mint, rue, thyme and sage. Over centuries, selection produced the Pag sheep, which according to the specification makes use of the sparse vegetation better than almost any other breed. The pasture plants shape the composition of the milk and thus the aroma and taste of the cheese; succinic acid, which contributes to the umami taste, was found mainly in Paški sir in a study of ten sheep’s cheeses from the region.

Cheesemaking arose because the islanders had to preserve surplus milk; the cheese served as a store of fat and protein after the milking season and as a trade good. Sheep’s cheese from Pag is first mentioned in a geographical lexicon printed in Venice in 1831; according to the specification, it took its present form around 1870. Ljudevit Tejkal described production on the farms in 1912, and in 1947 Nikola Zdanovski named the cheese, alongside wool and lamb, as the reason for the reputation of the Pag sheep. At that time it was still shaped by hand without moulds, which explains its small size. From the 1960s the sheep were bred specifically for milk, and because the island’s pastures were no longer sufficient, the farmers bought in feed from the mainland. In 1971 the cheese was made in a dairy and from pasteurised milk for the first time. Today it is made mainly by small family businesses that also keep the sheep.