Urdă
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Urdă is a whey cheese made across Southeast Europe and in Hungary by boiling the whey drained from other cheeses. The paste is finely grained and silky, and most of it ends up in desserts and filled pastries.
Mngck, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Key Facts
| Country of Origin | Bulgaria, Hungary, Macedonia, Romania, Serbia, Ukraine |
| Specific Origin | North Pindos, Konitsa |
| Milk Type | Cow's, goat's or sheep's milk |
| Milk Treatment | Unpasteurized |
| Fat Content | Rich in fat |
| Rind | Yellowish |
| Texture | Creamy, delicate |
| Flavor | High quality |
| Aroma | Fresh |
| Colors | Yellowish |
| Forms | Spherical, about 1.8 pounds (800 grams) |
| Age | Up to 360 days |
| Alternative Spellings | urdha, urdhë, orda, vurda |
| Also Known As | urda |
What is Urdă Cheese?
Urdă is a whey cheese produced widely in Southeast Europe and in Hungary. Its name comes from Albanian urdhë/urdha, which goes back through Proto-Albanian *wurdā to the Proto-Indo-European root *uer-, meaning to boil or to burn. That root fits the cheese, since boiling whey is exactly how it is made.
The Albanian word travelled far. It was borrowed into Romanian as urdă and also into Bulgarian, Hungarian, Serbian, Slovak, Rusyn, Polish, Czech and Russian, which is why the same cheese appears under closely related names across the region.
Makers start with whey from sheep, goat or cow milk, left over from draining any type of cheese. Heating that whey brings out the cheese, which is often packed into molds shaped like a half sphere. The method is close to the way ricotta is made.
The paste is finely grained, silky and palatable, and it carries 18 grams of protein per 100 grams. In Romania it goes into desserts such as clătită and plăcintă. It is very popular in Banat, in the northeast of Serbia. Hungarians also treat it as a dessert ingredient, folding it into ordás bukta and ordás palacsinta.
How Does Urdă Cheese Compare?
The most relevant cheeses to compare Urdă against.
