🧑🤝🧑 Romanians
Sheep's bryndza (brânză) of the Carpathian shepherds.
Romanians are a Romance-speaking people, the main population of Romania. Romanians live in a country where the Carpathians encircle Transylvania and the plains of Wallachia and Moldavia spread out below. Sheep farming with seasonal moves of the flocks is one of the oldest traditions: in summer shepherds take their sheep up into the mountains and live at stâne — shepherds’ camps.
Cheeses are made at the stâne: brânză, a salty sheep’s cheese sometimes aged in spruce bark or in a sheepskin; cașcaval, a hard cheese; and urdă, a curd cheese made from whey. The fresh cheese caș is the basis of many dishes. Brânză is eaten with mămăligă — a cornmeal porridge served with sour cream (smântână).
In summer dairy dishes are everyday food for shepherds at the stâne, and village fairs sell cheeses from the mountain pastures. In 2023 the seasonal droving of sheep in Romania became part of the multinational UNESCO intangible heritage element “Transhumance”.
What it includes
How it connects to milk
🧑🤝🧑 Romanians ← among ← 🐑 Sheep → gives → 🥛 Milk
Links
- Where they live
- 🌍 Carpathians, 🌍 Balkans
- Traditional products
- 🧀 Bryndza
- Dairy animals
- 🐑 Sheep
Frequently asked questions
What do Romanians eat with brânză?
Most often mămăligă — cornmeal porridge — with sour cream and brânză.
What is a stână?
A summer shepherds’ camp in the mountains where sheep are milked and cheese is made.
Which Romanian cheese is aged in bark?
Sheep’s brânză: it is packed into spruce bark, which gives the cheese a resinous aroma.
Similar
🧑🤝🧑 Slovaks · 🧑🤝🧑 Ukrainians · 🧑🤝🧑 Bulgarians · 🧑🤝🧑 Greeks
Sources
- UNESCO ICH — Transhumance, the seasonal droving of livestock (2023)
- Eastern European Fermented Foods: Nutritional Value, Functional Potential, and Cultural Heritage. Foods, 2025