Sheep Cheese In Fir Tree Bark

One of the recipes I was able to try was sheep cheese that had been fermented in fir tree bark. While at a village gathering, a family of cheese makers had a booth set up for passer by’s to taste their product. Now, I’m not much of a cheese person; that is to say that I hardly have it ever, especially by itself. But as is my rule to try traditional food, I gave it a taste. I was expecting what one would usually expect when eating cheese but the taste was a pleasant surprise! It was unlike any cheese I had ever had before and is almost impossible to describe. It had much more flavor than ordinary cheeses one would buy at the supermarket, as I figure was the purpose of the fermentation. All in all, I highly recommend this product, if you feel the urge to add a little traditional Romania to your evening meal. 1. Strain the milk of sheep and put in a wooden bowl. 2. Then boil it to choose the cheese. 3. After the cheese is straining, let it to yeast for 9 to 11 days. 4. Then make from it small pieces and knead it with salt. 5. ­To store the cheese, a basket must be made from fir tree bark. 6. You will peel a white pine or fir and boil the peeling in the whey of sheep cheese. Sewing thread is then obtained by all of the tree peel. 7. After the cheese is fermented you can put it in a fir bark basket. 8. Then keep it in the fridge. If you keep it, for example, at 10 degrees, it ferments in a week and it won’t be as buttery. If the recipe is followed correctly, then you can store the cheese for as long as 2 years, depending on how it’s prepared and how many butter is put in it. Recipe collected by: Daniel Zmistowski Photo: Ana A. Negru