Telemea () is the name of a Romanian cheese traditionally made of
sheep's milk.
[About Telemea](_blank)
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
Feta ( el, φέτα, ) is a Greek brined white cheese made from sheep's milk or from a mixture of sheep and goat's milk. It is soft, with small or no holes, a compact touch, few cuts, and no skin. Crumbly with a slightly grainy texture, it ...
. 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.
Cumin seeds are occasionally added for a spicy, nutty flavor.
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 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
Curd is obtained by coagulating milk in a sequential process called curdling. It can be a final dairy product or the first stage in cheesemaking. The coagulation can be caused by adding rennet or any edible acidic substance such as l ...
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.
Certification
Starting 2004, the ''Telemea'' is intended to become a
protected traditional speciality product of Romania, and the following types of ''telemea'' have sought to be recognized under the PDO or PGI labels:
*Telemea de
Argeș
*Telemea de
Brașov
Brașov (, , ; german: Kronstadt; hu, Brassó; la, Corona; Transylvanian Saxon: ''Kruhnen'') is a city in Transylvania, Romania and the administrative centre of Brașov County.
According to the latest Romanian census (2011), Brașov has a pop ...
*Telemea de
Carei
Carei (; , ; /, yi, , ) is a city in Satu Mare County, northwestern Romania, near the border with Hungary. The city administers one village, Ianculești ( hu, Szentjánosmajor).
History
The first mention of the city under the name of "Karul ...
*Telemea de
Harghita
*Telemea de
Huedin
*Telemea de
Ibănești (PDO)
*Telemea de
Nucet
*Telemea de
Oaş
*Telemea de
Sibiu
Sibiu ( , , german: link=no, Hermannstadt , la, Cibinium, Transylvanian Saxon: ''Härmeschtat'', hu, Nagyszeben ) is a city in Romania, in the historical region of Transylvania. Located some north-west of Bucharest, the city straddles the Ci ...
(PGI)
*Telemea de
Vâlcea
In 2017, the
EU acknowledged ''Telemea de Ibănești'' as having
Protected designation of origin (PDO), followed by ''Telemea de Sibiu'' as having
Protected geographical indication (PGI), in 2019.
See also
*
*
*
References
External links
TelemeaWhat Wikipedia can’t tell you about making cheese
{{Cuisine of Romania
Romanian cheeses
Romanian products with protected designation of origin
Cheeses with designation of origin protected in the European Union
Sheep's-milk cheeses
Cow's-milk cheeses
Brined cheeses