Montenegrin Traditional Cheeses

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Milk production and processing have been the main activities of most of the Montenegrin agricultural population, for centuries. That's why, there is a wide range of traditional dairy products that take primary place in Montenegrin meal, both during history and today. From a wide range of traditional dairy products, the most famous, the highest quality and, according to the quantity of production and consumption, the most common cheeses are Pljevaljski, Njeguški, Lisnati, and Prljo. They are all characterized by high nutritional value, piquant, unique and specific aromas. Pljevaljski cheese is full fat, soft cheese that ripens in the wooden vat for at least 4 weeks. During ripening the cheese acquires a pleasant milky-sour taste and odour, white to yellowish colour and a compact texture suitable for slicing. Lisnati cheese belongs to pasta filata cheeses. The name Lisnati was given because of its very unusual form of slices that are extremely thin as a leaf ("lisnati" = "leafy"). It is partially skimmed, semi-hard to soft cheese that can be consumed as fresh or as ripened cheese. The most popular semi-hard cheese in Montenegro is Njeguški cheese. It is typical semi-hard, full-fat cheese. The specialty of this cheese is that, after ripening on shelves, cheese can be put into the olive oil where it continues to ripen. Mature cheese, especially cheese from olive oil, has an extremely spicy taste. The low-fat, semi-hard cheese Prljo is produced in the northwestern, mountainous region of Montenegro. The purpose of this chapter is to discuss the main phases in production technology and the chemical composition of the most important traditional Montenegrin dairy products.