Description
The Slovenský Ostiepok PGI is a semi-hard and semi-fat cheese, which can be submitted to a smoking or steaming procedure. It is produced from sheep's milk (of the races Valaska, Zoslachtená Valaska and Cigájao), from a mixture of sheep's milk with cows' milk, or even only with cows' milk. The production can be homemade (in shepherd's huts) or industrial (in cheese factories).
Production Area
The production area of the Slovenský Ostiepok PGI covers more than 80% of the Slovak territory.
Production Method
Processing takes place right after milking. In the homemade production, the milk is brought to curdle right after the manual milking procedure, it is then moulded and salted. Finally, it is potentially steamed or smoked. In the industrial production, the milking takes place mechanically. The milk is pasteurised and the bacterial culture is inoculated. Successively, the milk curdling takes place with a thermal treatment, to then continue with the pressing and the fermentation. The successive step is the steaming and the moulding, after which the cheese is salted, dried and potentially smoked.
Appearance and Flavour
The Slovenský Ostiepok PGI has a particular shape of a large egg, a cone or an ellipsoid form, with a typical external decoration varying according to the regions. The rind has a colour ranging from yellow gold to brownish gold after the smoking procedure, whereas the paste varies from white to straw yellow. The consistency of the paste is compact and firm, and once cut it shows small cracks and scarce holing. The aroma is pleasant, of smoke given the smoking, and the flavour is mild, slightly spicy or acrid, and moderately salted.
History
Written evidence and documents belonging to family archives of old cheese producers certify the production of Slovenský Ostiepok PGI as far back as the beginning of the 18th century. There is evidence that the foundations of the industrial production started approximately in 1921, but it was only in the 1960s-1970s that industrial cheese making started following set methods, as well as using cows' milk.
Gastronomy
The Slovenský Ostiepok PGI is packaged with materials that are not dangerous for the health. It is consumed plain as a snack or as a main dish: it is used in some traditional gastronomic preparations, served with dry wines or beer.
Marketing
The product is sold as Slovenský Ostiepok PGI. It is marketed in suitable packages, wrapped freshly cooled, and sold only in whole moulds, as it cannot be portioned, nor included in other packaging types. This serves to protect their original shape and decorations and, most of all, as a guarantee for quality.
Distinctive Features
The characteristics that distinguish the Slovenský Ostiepok PGI stem from the grazing lands, which supply healthy and natural nourishment, producing first-rate quality milk, as well as from the specific properties of the original culture of bacteria and the natural microflora, which are determined by the pedoclimatic conditions of the Slovak area where the sheep are bred and pastured.
