Zázrivský korbáčik

Appearance & taste

Zázrivský korbáčik is a plait 10 to 50 cm long made of cheese strings 2 to 10 mm thick, traditionally called “vojky”. The strings consist of well-separated fibres, are elastic to firmer but not hard, and thanks to this fibrous structure do not tear easily. The elasticity decreases with ripening. The cheese contains at least 40 % dry matter and at least 25 % fat in dry matter.

The unsmoked variety is white to creamy white; the smoked one is yellowish to golden yellow, has a typical smoky aroma and about 1 % more salt. Structure and consistency are the same in both. The taste recalls milk and fine cheese and is salty and slightly sour. The label states the variety, smoked or unsmoked.

Production

The starting material is lump cheese made from raw or pasteurised cow’s milk with a sour-milk culture. It has at least 48 % dry matter and 35 % fat in dry matter; according to the specification, the region where it is made is not decisive for the quality. The ripened, partly over-ripened cheese is cut, grated, and steamed and stirred in water at 70 to 95 °C until a compact, mouldable mass forms. It is kneaded, pulled and folded over by hand until it is supple and smooth.

The paste is then pulled into strings by hand or between two notched, counter-rotating rollers; the strings drop immediately into cold drinking water for 2 to 10 minutes. The strings are wound onto a reel, cut through at one end, tied in the middle with a cheese string, salted in saturated brine and hung on wooden or stainless-steel rods to drain. At least two strings folded over in the middle are braided by hand for up to two thirds of their length and tied with a string. For the smoked variety, the plait is placed in cold smoke from hardwood at about 30 °C until it is golden yellow. It is packed in the area in food film so that the braid does not come undone.

Origin & history

Zázrivá lies in the mountainous north-west of Slovakia with a cool, harsh climate. The municipality offers good conditions for keeping sheep and cattle and for processing their milk into cheese. Most of the inhabitants lived from arable farming and livestock farming and made the milk into cheese in various shapes.

According to oral tradition, cheese plaits were already being made in Zázrivá in the second half of the 19th century; at that time steamed cheese for sale was the only source of income for the sheep and cattle farmers. The name comes from the small whip (“korbáč”) traditionally braided from willow twigs at Easter in Slovakia. Zázrivá also became a centre of the trade in steamed cheese; the street vendors were named after their wares, for example “korbáčkári”, and trade licences of such vendors can be found in the archives. To this day the plaits are offered at markets and at weddings, christenings, Christmas, carnival and Easter, and at the Zázrivá Days there are competitions in making the cheese plaits.