Kashkaval is a type of cheese made from the milk of Cattle, sheep, , or a mixture thereof.
Etymology
The name
kashkaval possibly comes from the
Italian cuisine caciocavallo.
Another theory claims that it is related to the Aromanian caș, 'cheese', but the kaval part remains unexplained.
Locality
Albania
In
Albania,
kaçkavall is the most popular type of cheese after
djathë i bardhë (white cheese). It is considered a traditional Albanian cheese, and is widely used as a side dish. Some traditional restaurants will bring plates of raw or fried
kaçkavall for no additional cost before the main dishes finish cooking. All dairy companies in Albania produce
kaçkavall and mainly use cow's or sheep's milk, but some also use goat's milk, though not as frequently.
Bulgaria
In
Bulgaria,
kashkaval vitosha is made from cow's milk,
kashkaval balkan from ewe's milk, and
kashkaval preslav is made from a mixture of the two.
Kashkaval is used in many breakfast pastries. A common dish with kashkaval is kashkavalka, a little pastry containing kashkaval inside and on top. As in the other Balkan countries, kashkaval substitutes for other cheeses, especially in pizzas. A popular Bulgarian snack is princesa (; ), toast topped with kashkaval or with ground pork and kashkaval.
Romania and Moldova
In
Romania and
Moldova,
cașcaval is used to refer to a number of types of yellow medium and semi hard cheeses made of sheep's or
Dairy cattle. The best known varieties of
cașcaval in Romania are
dobrogea (from sheep's milk only),
penteleu (from mix of sheep's and cow's milk),
dalia and
rucăr (both from cow's milk only). But the term is often used by extension as a generic name for all semi-hard yellow cheeses such as the Swiss Emmental cheese, the Dutch Gouda and the British
Cheddar cheese, or anything that looks similar to
cașcaval.
During the communist regime, because of the food shortages, Romanian housewives developed a technique for a homemade pressed cheese, similar to cașcaval, made out of milk, smântână, butter and eggs.[Anghelescu, Șerban, in Anii 80 și bucureștenii, Editura Paideia, Bucharest 2003.] In Romanian cuisine, a lot of dishes are made with cașcaval, such as cașcaval pane or mămăligă.
North Macedonia
Kashkaval cheese is very popular in
North Macedonia. It is mostly made of cow's milk, however both a sheep's milk and a mixed (cow's and sheep's milk) variant are widely available.
Kashkaval is also a synonym for any yellow cheese, to the extent that the word "cheese" mostly means white cheese such as
feta, while yellow cheeses such as Gouda or Emmental have the suffix
kashkaval attached to them in everyday speech, as simply calling them cheese would be ludicrous, since they're not white cheeses.
Russia
Kashkaval cheese is popular in Russia. In addition to the Balkan and Italian products, there exists also a Russian version of
kashkaval.
Serbia
In Serbia,
kačkavalj is traditionally a sheep milk hard cheese, and as such a protected brand of the city of
Pirot.
Other cheeses, made from a mix of cow and sheep milk, are sometimes also branded as
kačkavalj but they cannot be defined as
pirotski (of Pirot).
Kačkavalj is one of the six traditional cheeses of Serbia. The production process (in Serbian) can be seen online,
Levant
In the
Levant (
Syria,
Jordan,
Israel,
Palestine, and
Lebanon),
qashqawān is widely used as a melting cheese, particularly in pastries.
Hungary-made
kashkaval is the most common type found in the region.
In Israel, the Hungarian kashkaval is virtually unknown, and the domestically consumed kashkaval is produced locally from cow and sheep milk by both the large dairies (
Tnuva under the brand name Gil'ad,
Tara Dairy under the brand name Noam) and by boutique dairies, such as
Gad and Jacobs.
Imported kashkaval is represented in Israeli grocery stores by the
Euro Cheese brand.
Turkey
Kaşkaval (Ottoman:
penir-i kaskaval) was a type of cheese consumed in Ottoman feasts.
Evliya Çelebi's
Seyahatnâme mentions that there at his time (17th century) in Istanbul 400 artisans produced different types of cheese: among them, cut cheese,
teleme cheese and
kaşkaval. In the same book is also mentioned that
kaşkaval cheese was produced in Çatalca.
See also
-
List of stretch-curd cheeses
Notes
Further reading
