🧀 Telemea de Sibiu

Telemea de Sibiu is a Romanian brined cheese made from raw sheep's milk in Sibiu county, Transylvania. It is the sheep's milk form of telemea; the name is protected in the EU as a PGI (eAmbrosia file PGI-RO-02473).

Sibiu county, especially the foothill villages of Mărginimea Sibiului, is an old shepherding area: in summer the flocks graze the high Carpathian pastures. The milk comes from sheep that feed mainly on the pastures of the area.

The raw milk is set with rennet, the curd is pressed, cut into blocks and kept in brine. The finished cheese is white, firm and semi-hard, with a salty, slightly tangy taste and a clear sheep's milk aroma.

It belongs to the brined cheeses and to the cheeses of Romania. The main variety is telemea; the other protected telemea is Telemea de Ibăneşti, made from cow's milk. In style the cheese is close to feta and bryndza.

How to eat it: with tomatoes, onion and bread, with polenta (mămăligă), in salads and bakes. Drink ideas are on Wine and cheese.

Why it matters to you: only sheep's milk cheese from the defined area of Sibiu county, made to the PGI specification, may be sold as Telemea de Sibiu.