Time for oscypek
“Oscypek”, (read: os-tzee-pheq), a traditional highlander’s smoked ewe’s milk cheese, is the most famous culinary attraction of Podhale. It started to be produced in Polish lands as early as in the 14th century, it arose here along with the people derived from Wallachia, who came from the southern Balkans and settled in the foothill areas in the 12th century already. Today, it has the status of a Polish regional product protected by a European Union certificate. Like a “bryndza”, a kind of sheep cheese quark that got this honorable name first.
In ancient times, cottage cheese made from sheep’s milk was not only the main food for shepherds living in huts in the halls from spring to autumn during the grazing of sheep. First of all, it was the currency in which the shepherd was dealing with his proprietor (in Poland this time a feudal system was in operation), and the law strictly defined the number of cheeses, which – depending on the size of the flock – shepherd had to deliver.
Secrets of production
Oscypek were produced, as well as today, from May to September. That is, when the lambs were already slightly raised, and their mothers still gave milk. And it was allowed to sell cheeses until the end of October. If today we buy oscypek in April or in December, remember that it is not freshly made. A real oscypek is one made in one of the huts in the Podhale region, with traditional methods, smoked in a hut full of acrid smoke from the fire. We can meet with the invention such as a vacuum wrapped with cheese, so that it does not lose its freshness, but then it certainly has a large admixture of cow’s milk. Staying in the fridge would simply crumble into small pieces. Illuminati claim that today nothing is exclusively made from sheep’s milk, even if they are so praised, it is matter of their durability and resilience. However, it is known that the maximum allowed amount of cow’s milk is 40%.
Where to buy real cheese?
The shepherd hut is the best place to buy oscypek. And spring is the best time for it. Then the milk is the most fat and the most nutritious. We often meet huts on tourist routes. Near Zakopane, we can find them, among others in Kuznice, on Polana Kalatowki, near the entrance to the valley Dolina ku dziurze, there is “Bacówka pod Reglami”, there are also in Chochołowska Valley, Koscieliska Valley, Gliczarow Gorny, Biały Dunajec – Lubelka, Lapsze Wyzne, Lapsze Nizne, Brzegi, Murzasichle, on the Polana Rusinowa at the entrance to Tatra National Park on Cyrhla, on Harenda. You can also, during a few days stay in Zakopane, just ask a saleswoman in the store, if there is any contact to someone who sells the original oscypek. Unfortunately, they are not allowed to be displayed in regular sales in shop refrigerators, which was possible a few years ago, but the distribution still works. Of course, not on a large scale, but if we are equally nice and desperate, we can usually count on help, or at least they will head us up to the right place.
What to be attentive to?
In regular sales in Zakopane stores you can buy foiled cheeses called “golka” or “Rolada Ustrzycka”, which with oscypek have as much in common as the Baltic Sea with date palm. We can not necessarily recommend stalls on Krupowki (in the shape of carts on wheels) – the oscypek sold there are often just old, lying in the sun for hours. In some popular tourist places, grilled oscypek are sold – at the end of the day, those that have remained are washed from the arisen sediment, and again proudly strike on the truss tomorrow. We will not die after eating such a specialty rather, but let us dose it carefully.
Oscypek feast
If we find a place when it is sold a real oscypek, we can splash out. It is worth trying those white ones, non-smoked and those smoked, slightly orange in colour. Bundz and bryndza will not taste good to everyone, they have quite an acrid taste and the consistency of crumbled curd. Comparing with them, beautiful, decorated, spindle oscypek must win. Its shape inspires architects, there are buildings decorated with elements resembling a rhombic grid on a cheese. In many shops with chocolates on Krupówki, we can buy ones with the shape of oscypek in many excellent, refined flavors. “Korboce”(also kind of ewe’s milk cheese) look different, like thick threads and you can try them too, they are quite delicate in taste. How to eat oscypek? It’s best just raw, without additives, cut into medium thick slices. In this form he is a frequent snack at social meetings, weddings and other parties in Podhale. Grilled oscypek with cranberries is an invention that does not have much in common with centuries-old tradition, but it is simply tasty, so it reigns as the main appetizer in all taverns. There, however, we rarely find this authentic, sheep, straight from the huts. It is worth remembering that this dish is quite hard to digest and it is better not to give it to children.
Make your own oscypek
The shepherds are reluctant to let visitors into the huts. The huts are usually tiny, smoky, and each of them hides its secrets of making “the best” cheese. However, if we want to learn everything about the production of oscypek, and also try to do it ourselves – we have the opportunity. In the very center of Zakopane, at 28 Jagiellońska St., there is the Oscypek Museum (Muzeum Oscypka). By phone number +48 888 920 506, we can ask for all the details, plan your visit with a larger organized group (from 20 to 55 people). We recommend a visit to this place to all lovers of cheese, but also traditional, manual production. This is one of the best-preserved relics of the past in Podhale. He resisted the EU hygiene guidelines, the shepherds refused to let traditional huts be tiled. And it’s cool, tradition is the greatest value in Podhale. And about other elements which are still alive in this region, we write more in the text “Tradition or modernity? What has remained of the core culture of Podhale. “
Anna Markiewicz
