Livanjski sir 
Livanjski sir is a hard cheese from the Livno area of Bosnia and Herzegovina, made since the 19th century on the model of Gruyère. It comes from sheep's milk, cow's milk, or a blend of the two, and ripens for roughly 60 to 66 days.
Key Facts
| Country of Origin | Bosnia and Herzegovina |
| Specific Origin | Livno, Tomislavgrad, Kupres, Glamoč, Grahovo, and Drvar municipalities |
| Protection | PGI (2022) |
| Milk Type | Cow's milk, sheep's milk, or a mixture |
| Milk Treatment | Pasteurized, thermalized, or raw |
| Fat Content | At least 45% in dry matter |
| Rind | Smooth, hard, golden yellow |
| Texture | Compact, weakly elastic, easy to cut, dense texture |
| Flavor | Slightly sweetish, piquant |
| Aroma | Pronounced, typical for mature hard cheeses, reminiscent of aromatic herbs |
| Colors | Light yellow to dark yellow |
| Forms | Cylindrical wheels |
| Age | Minimum 60 days, optimally 90 days |
| Also Known As | Vollkäse |
What is Livanjski sir Cheese?
Livanjski sir was born in the wide Livanjsko polje in northwest Herzegovina, and production later spread to the Glamoč and Tomislavgrad areas. After the Congress of Berlin in 1878 put Bosnia and Herzegovina under Austro-Hungarian administration, the new government pushed farming and livestock programmes. A state agricultural station opened in Livno in 1886 with a cheese dairy attached, working mostly with sheep's milk from nearby villages and from the mountain holding at Kruzi below Cincar.
The first cheesemakers sent to Livno were Karlo Oksner, Felix Lacombe and Rikard Berger. The dairy did best under the French cheesemaker Cyprian Jaillet, who worked there from 1900 to 1926 and became a respected citizen of the town. Livno also turned out a well regarded Roquefort, ripened in a cave at Duman above the source of the Bistrica, which won a Grossenmilleniums Medalle at the 1896 Budapest exhibition. That line was dropped, and from 1905 the main product was Livanjski sir, sold in the Monarchy as Vollkäse.
The original cheese followed the recipe for Swiss Gruyère, or Greyerzer, using sheep's milk in smaller wheels. Today it is usually a mixture of 60 to 70 percent sheep's milk and 30 to 40 percent cow's milk, or cow's milk alone. The Livno dairy now works only with pasteurized and bactofuged cow's milk and a freeze-dried starter culture, replacing the whey culture used earlier. Households still make it from raw milk with no added culture. Ripening takes an average of 60 to 66 days under controlled conditions.
The rind is smooth and yellowish, sometimes marked by the cheesecloth. Inside, the paste runs yellowish to yellow with regularly spaced eyes of medium size. The smell is strong and typical of karst and sheep's milk hard cheeses. Flavor is full and pleasant, turning somewhat piquant in older wheels. Farmhouse versions vary in quality, composition, shape and size, as they always have.
Younger cheese is sliced, older cheese is usually grated. The recipe left the dairy and the old agricultural school where Jaillet taught, reached local farmers, and their cheese sold particularly well in nearby Dalmatia.
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