Cow and sheep and goat milk, bothFresh
A fresh, salted cheese in a loaf shape (cipó) drained in cloth, so the weave of the strainer leaves its pattern on the smooth skin. The national HÍR collection of traditional foods describes a bone-white cheese of about 3 kg whose cut face is rich in curd holes (röglyukas). It was once made from raw sheep's milk and is now mostly industrial pasteurised cow's milk, with goat versions too. The book files it under northern Hungary, which includes Heves, and one of its names is palócz gomolya. In the Eger area the Sándor Tamás dairy at Mónosbél lists it plain, with clover or with chives, to order, and Vidéki Sajt at Ostoros lists it too.
Taste: Fresh, lactic and aromatic, pleasantly salty. The paste is smooth, sometimes slightly shiny, springy and a little chewy; it slices cleanly and holds its shape. Dry matter is 50 to 56 percent, according to the HÍR collection.
Ageing: None; sold fresh or ripened for a few days, according to the HÍR collection
Made in: Made across Hungary; the national HÍR collection files it in its northern Hungary chapter, which covers Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén, Heves and Nógrád
Cow and sheep milkPasta, filataAlso parenyica sajt
A kneaded, stretched-curd cheese: curd is worked in hot brine, shaped by hand into a ribbon about 6 to 7 cm wide and wound into a spiral roll 7 to 8 cm across, tied with a thread of the same cheese and smoked over sawdust. It has no rind; the smoke turns the skin golden yellow to golden brown. The HÍR collection says high-mountain shepherds of Upper Hungary made it and Hungarian dairies took it up after 1920, now mostly from cow's milk. The name is Slovak. Vidéki Sajt, a craft cheese workshop at Ostoros by Eger, lists a smoked cow's milk parenyica.
Taste: Fibrous and easy to pull into strands, a little chewy but melting in the mouth. The smell and taste recall ham, lightly smoked, full and pleasantly salty, according to the HÍR collection.
Ageing: Short ripening after smoking and chilling, according to the HÍR collection
Made in: Hungary; the HÍR book, which files it in its Northern Great Plain chapter, names Nagybánhegyes as the only place it was made when the book was compiled; in the Eger area Vidéki Sajt at Ostoros lists it
Cow milkWhey
A whey cheese. Whey left from making cheese is heated to 70 to 90 °C and acidified, the whey proteins flake out, and the flakes are drained in cloth. It keeps its milk sugar, so it spoils quickly. The Sándor Tamás dairy at Mónosbél in the Bükk makes it from fresh cow's whey, sells it with zsendice, and calls it one of the oldest traditional foods of Hungarian cheesemaking. Vidéki Sajt at Ostoros lists an orda too. It has no protection; it is a plain fresh cheese eaten on toast, grilled or used as a filling.
Taste: Mild and milky, lightly sweet, with a fresh smell. Hungarian Wikipedia calls it softer than cow's milk túró (curd cheese). The Mónosbél dairy serves it on toast, with cold starters, grilled, with house jams or in dessert fillings.
Ageing: None; fresh and perishable
Made in: Made wherever cheese is made; in the Eger area the Sándor Tamás dairy at Mónosbél in the Bükk and Vidéki Sajt at Ostoros list it
