Telemea () is the name of a Romanian cheese traditionally made of
sheep's milk
Sheep's milk (or ewes' milk) is the milk of domestic sheep. It is commonly used to make cultured dairy products such as cheese. Some of the most popular sheep cheeses include feta (Greece), ricotta (Italy), and Roquefort (France).
Sheep br ...
.About Telemea at cheese.com Nowadays the term encompasses cheese made out of cow's milk, and in some cases of goat's, or buffalo's milk.
Description
Similar to the Greek feta. American teleme cheese, Bulgarian or Macedonian sirene, and Serbian ''sir'', ''Telemea'' can have a higher water content, making it a soft or semi-soft white cheese with a creamy texture and a tangy aftertaste. Alternatively, the cheese is put through an ageing process that makes it crisper, more flavoured and salty.
It is used as a table cheese for snacks, in salads, and in a variety of dishes (e.g., omelettes, crepes, pies).
Production
To make ''Telemea'' cheese,
rennet
Rennet () is a complex set of enzymes produced in the stomachs of ruminant mammals. Chymosin, its key component, is a protease enzyme that curdles the casein in milk. In addition to chymosin, rennet contains other enzymes, such as pepsin and a ...
is added into milk to curdle it. Most commonly, cow's and sheep's milk is used, with goat's and buffalo's being more of a delicacy. The resulting curd is removed and is kept in cheesecloth, pressed overnight, then cut into square pieces. The cheese is then left to mature in brine. This fresh cheese (preserved in brine up to a couple of weeks) has its own name, caș. Subsequently, it is stored in wooden barrels named ''putini'' (singular: ''putină''). It can be kept throughout winter in a more concentrated brine, in which case, it is desalted in fresh water before consumption.