🧀 Kopanisti

Kopanisti is a Greek soft cheese with a Protected Designation of Origin (PDO), registered in the EU in 1996. According to the single document it is a salty cheese with a creamy texture and a tangy flavour, traditionally made from cow, sheep or goat milk or a mixture of them.

Milk. The milk must come from the Cyclades, from traditionally reared breeds adapted to the area, fed on a diet generally based on local flora. It must be full-fat, from milkings at least 10 days after birth, and must not be concentrated or contain powdered milk, milk proteins, caseinates, colouring, preservatives or antibiotics. Fresh butter, made from the cream of Cyclades milk, may be added up to 15% of the drained curd.

The cheese. Maximum moisture is 56% and minimum fat in dry matter 43%. There is no rind; the texture is soft and creamy and the colour yellowish to tan. The drained, salted curd, with or without butter, is put in wide-necked containers in a cool, humid place until abundant microbial growth appears on the surface. The mass is then kneaded to spread it through the cheese and put back in the containers; this is repeated two to four times during ripening, which usually lasts 30 to 40 days. To speed ripening, up to 10% of good old Kopanisti (locally called mother Kopanisti) may be mixed into the fresh curd. The specification links the sharp, spicy/peppery flavour to rapid proteolysis and lipolysis during this ripening.

Where it is made. The area is the Regional Unit of the Cyclades in the southern Aegean Sea. Milk production, processing and ripening all take place there.

Labelling. The pack shows the name, the words protected designation of origin and cheese, the type or types of milk and, where applicable, the indication with added butter; the special marking for raw milk where it is used; the producer-packager, weight and production date; and the code KO with a serial number.