🌍 Balkans

The Balkan Peninsula is mountain country with a long herding tradition: in summer, sheep and goats are driven up to mountain pastures, and in winter back down to the valleys. That is why sheep’s and goat’s milk products are especially common here, although cows are milked everywhere too.

The region is known for its fermented milk products. Bulgarian kiselo mlyako became famous in the early 20th century: in 1905 the Bulgarian student Stamen Grigorov described a bacterium that was later named Lactobacillus bulgaricus. Katak is also popular, and in the south, thick strained yogurt. Among brined cheeses, the best known are Bulgarian sirene, Serbian and Macedonian brynza and Greek feta; among hard cheeses, kashkaval.

UNESCO has included the seasonal livestock drives of Greece, Albania and Croatia in the multinational intangible heritage element “Transhumance”.