Šar cheese

Sharr cheese is a hard cheese made in Gora, Opolje and Štrpce, located in the Šar Mountains of Kosovo. It is made of sheep and cow milk and usually added to salads and main dishes, pitas, served with bread or eaten alone. The hallmarks of the cheese are its saltiness, and the fact that it is a treat for any time of the day or year. The tradition of producing Šar cheese has been passed on to generations for centuries. By the 1890s, the cheese became popular; the Serbian newspaper Carigradski glasnik of 28 July 1901 said that the cheese had overwhelmed the neighbouring markets because of its yellow fatty look and taste which had not been seen in other cheeses. Traditionally, Šar cheese was made using sheep milk. One of the reasons why sheep milk was usually used was because cows were not able to climb the highland and reach the favorite grass and herbs which give Šar cheese its main characteristics. It is known that the main herb which impacts the aroma and taste of Šar cheese is dill, which is very common in the highlands over 1,100 m (3,600 ft) altitude. After the people of the Šar region had begun to use cow milk for the cheese, they started to collect the dill herb for its use as an external ingredient during the production process, with the aim to preserve the original characteristics of the cheese. Centuries ago, there were vast numbers of sheep in the region, up to 100,000; today this number has fallen to 5,000.

Source: Wikipedia