Vlašić

Rate it

Vlašić, also sold as Travnik cheese, is a white brined cheese from the Vlašić mountain above Travnik in central Bosnia and Herzegovina. Traditionally made from sheep milk, it ripens in brine and comes out mostly dry and quite salty.

Key Facts

Country of Origin	Bosnia and Herzegovina
Specific Origin	Vlašić Mountain
Milk Type	Ewe’s milk
Milk Treatment	Strained
Fat Content	Mostly low-fat
Texture	Solid, spreadable
Flavor	Milky sour, moderately salty
Aroma	Pleasant, of sheep’s milk
Colors	White
Forms	Wedges, 1–3 pounds (500 grams–1.5 kilograms)
Age	Minimum 60 days
Rennet Type	Local natural calf rennet
Also Known As	Travnik cheese, Vlašićki sir, Travnički sir, Arnautski sir

What is Vlašić Cheese?

Vlašić cheese takes its name from the mountain of Vlašić, which rises above the town of Travnik in central Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is also called Travnik cheese. The mountain name comes from Vlasi, the Serbo-Croatian word for Vlachs, the transhumant population of the region.

Accounts of its beginnings differ. Academics such as the late Marko Vego held that the Vlachs, remnants of the Roman Empire, worked out the recipe around 1000 AD or earlier and passed the tradition to cattle breeders on the surrounding mountains. The United States Department of Agriculture, in its 1953 handbook Cheese Varieties, instead traced Travnik cheese to Albania in the early 19th century, where it went by Arnautski sir before spreading to Yugoslavia.

It starts as fresh sheep milk, though cow milk or a blend of the two has come into use more recently. The curd is brined and left to ripen for two to three months. The milk itself carries a particular flavor from the many herbs the sheep eat while grazing on Vlašić and the mountains nearby.

The paste is white and mostly low in fat. Some wheels show small irregular holes scattered through them, others are solid with none. How much brine the cheese is kept in decides the rest: drained, it goes mostly dry and tastes quite salty.

Production now spans Bosnia and Herzegovina, but the cheese is still counted as a tradition of Central Bosnia, the Vlašić mountain and Travnik, alongside the Tornjak dog and the Pramenka sheep. It has collected a string of prizes, including a gold medal at the 12th Die internationale Käsiade in Austria in 2014.