The most expensive cheese in the world is a unique cheese that is produced in one place. The Pule Donkey Cheese is made with donkey milk and is manufactured on a farm that It is part of a special reserve in which an endangered breed of Balkan donkey is protected.
The Pule cheese is semi-soft, and according to Food & Wine it has well balanced notes of sweetness, salinity and aroma of fresh grass. It is not packed in large sizes, the molds are of 50 grams.
The Pule costs about $ 1, 000 for approximately two thirds of a pound. The production costs are also very high, it is not an easy cheese to make and that anyone know how to do . Nor is it produced in a short time.
Among various factors that intervene in its cost is the quantity of milk that is needed. 6.6 gallons of milk are required in total to make only 1 kilogram of cheese . Dairy donkeys produce less than a gallon of milk per day.
Special Balkan Donkey Reserve
The donkeys with which Pule cheese is made meet in a Special Natural Reserve of Zasavica. The reserve was founded in 1997 by Slobodan Simić Slobodan, started rescuing battered Balkan donkeys from farms. Currently there are 300 donkeys on the farm.
“Our main idea about donkeys was to save this species, because the number of donkeys in Serbia was less than 1000… When we got to the 200 we had a surplus of milk, I thought we should also make cheese. ”
Making Pule cheese is not easy or cheap
For a kilo of cheese you need six and a half gallons of milk. Donkeys produce less than a gallon of milk a day, while cows produce up to 15 up to date. There are only a few 20 donkeys that produce milk on the farm at the same time.
A donkey only produces milk once she has had a baby , which is gestating for a year and two weeks; then you have to wait another three months, a period in which the baby drinks milk. In addition to this, the work must be done manually, when putting a milking machine the milk is blocked.
On the farm they can be produced as little as 50 Y 70 kilograms of cheese per year, although not that amount is sold, but a third part.
Slobodan told Insider that keeping the farm running is very expensive. They require $ 200, 000 per year to maintain the land, feed the animals and pay the workers.
Not everyone makes donkey cheese
Donkey’s milk has little fat and little casein that allows cheeses to coagulate , therefore, goat’s milk and a mixture of additives and bacteria are incorporated to make the cheese. The Pule is made with a 60% of donkey’s milk and a 40% goat milk.
The Serbian donkey cheese maker points out that renowned milk experts from many countries have tried and failed.
Pule cheese cannot be sold worldwide
The Pule is made with fresh milk, without boiling, the manufacturers believe that doing so “will lose all those precious ingredients and then have something that does not is valuable”. Some countries do not allow the sale of unpasteurized cheeses.
Food & Wine shares that donkey milk has long been revered in the Balkans for its apparent health benefits. “It is believed that it is an immune booster and it is also good for the skin ”.
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