Bryndza karpacka (Poland, Slovakia, Hungary)

Bryndza karpacka (Poland, Slovakia, Hungary)

Characteristic. Sheep's milk is usually used as the material. The production and maturation of the raw cheese is divided into two periods. The first period is the production of a moist lump with all the characteristics of a soft cheese. In this mass, completely clean lactic acid fermentation should take place. On the face of a solid, or bundzu, Mykoderma and Oidia soon begin to function. However, they fail to remove excess acid due to the unfavorable shape of the substrate and the relatively short time.

In the second period, the bundz is ground into a spreadable paste, which decomposes over time. The fat is split, whose acid number) more than once 100, proteins are broken down and the amount of lactic acid is reduced. The acid number corresponds to the mg amount of potassium hydroxide (KOH) needed for indifference 1 g (= 1000 mg) fat.

This ripening period of the cheese mass has not yet been adequately researched. They act peptonizing and neutralizing cocci, Undoubtedly, lactobacilli also work, which not only sour, but they also break down proteins.

The maturation process of bundz and bryndza made of cow's milk is different than that of sheep's milk.. Therefore, such factors still need to be explained, like the amount of other non-paracasein protein, the influence of fatty acids, etc..

Past. The oldest Polish cheese-making is Carpathian. In the Carpathian cheese vocabulary, we can find many words of Vlach origin, Romanian, Albanian and others.

According to Hungarian chronicles in the 12th and 13th centuries, a pastoral people called "Wlachami”, part of which settled in Spisz. It is not known, whether it was a people of Slavic origin. These shepherds knew how to make cheese. In the 12th and 13th centuries, cheese making was very popular in Spisz and Wałachy, that is, Wallachia received various privileges. Keszmark - Kaesemarkt had privileges as a forum caseorum - a cheese market. You can also accept, that quite often the surnames of Wałachs found in the Beskids are either descendants of foreign shepherds, or people who were pastoralists.

Economy. The mountain pastoral economy in its original form is based on sheep breeding as easier than cow breeding. In the Alpine countries, the cow has replaced the sheep almost completely.

Natural and economic conditions in the Carpathians are favorable for sheep breeding. A mixture of different races can be found here. Sheep predominate in the Tatras, in the Hutsul region before the Second World War there were a lot of puppies. Detriment, that it was not possible to distinguish and refine those sheep breeds that have been bred there for centuries.

Tatra shepherding is either private, it means that the owner of the hall grazes his own sheep near the shelter for remuneration, or a village one (cooperative), when the shepherd brings together sheep of different owners. Grass from high pastures is only suitable for grazing, from the lower areas it is used for hay.

The arable fields are situated at an altitude of up to 1000 m, above to 1550 m there are forests, a do 1800 m mountain pine. The halls, overgrown with trees, reach 1960 m in height, and not overgrown with anything to 2200 m and higher.

There's a rock above that belt. The shelters are usually located in the upper forest zone at high altitude 1350 do 1450 m due to the need for fuel and building materials for the shelter. Above 1500 m of huts are few.

From the mid-nineteenth century, pastoralism gives way to permanent settlement, which goes higher and higher.

More sheep graze in the western part of the Tatra Mountains than in the eastern part. It generally counts around 100 sheep on 1 km2 of pasture, however, here and there this number varies within limits 50 do 200 pieces depending on the condition of the halls. Calcareous pastures will feed more sheep than poor pastures. Staying too many sheep in a small area leads to rumi being trampled, flushing the ground and emptying the hall down to the rock. Similar destruction of mountain pastures can be found in the Hutsul region, where the destruction of the stand slowly led to the complete fossilization of many meadows.

Sheep's milk and its processing in a shack. Carpathian sheep, grazing in pastures after disconnecting the lambs, they give from mid-May to mid-September still after 30 do 60 liters of highly concentrated milk, from which it is made 6 do 12 kg bundzu, that is, raw cheese.

The flocks will go to the high halls only in mid-June, and the return from the halls in mid-September.

The sheep are initially milked three times a day, later twice. He milked himself generally carelessly, as a result, mastitis and loss of milk are common.

O. Laxa determined the fat content of the milk of a sheep herd of 119 ewes in July 7,0%, in August 8,4%, in September 9,8%. Under the same conditions, the protein content was in June 5,3, in July 5,7, in August 6,5, in September 7,4%.

According to this researcher, the chemical composition of bryndza made exclusively from sheep's milk is as follows, as in the table below.

in cheese in cheese dry matter
water 38,9 – 52,0%
fat 24,8 – 33,5% 51,5 – 59,9%
proteins 18,6 – 23,8% 38,7 – 39,3%

So we see an advantage of fat over protein in sheep's cheese.

The acid number of the fat is in fresh bryndza 10, in older over 20, and in old bryndza, whose fat has been strongly split, the acid number may even exceed 200.

That 100 liters of sheep's milk are obtained 16 do 20 kg bundzu, that is, raw cheese. Loss on desiccation, peeling off the skin, as well as due to dripping during storage it is approx 25%, so that you get a ready-made selection of bryndza approx 14 kg of 100 liters of milk.

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