From everyday meals to festive celebrations, from mountain sheepfolds to town markets, cheese has accompanied people for thousands of years, becoming part of the culture and collective memory of every region.
In Romania, cheeses such as Telemea, Cașcaval, Brânză de Burduf and Urdă are now regarded as traditional products and as an integral part of the country's food heritage. But how did these cheeses become Romanian?
The answer cannot be reduced to a single moment in time or a specific geographical area. The history of European cheese is far older than the modern states and even the national identities we know today. Cheesemaking technologies travelled alongside people through migration, trade, transhumance and cultural exchange, continually adapting to local conditions, the types of milk available and the needs of individual communities.
In this context, the question is: how a cheese came to be associated with a particular territory and a particular food culture.
This article does not seek to establish the exclusive origin of Romanian cheeses. Instead, it provides the historical and technological context needed to understand how the gastronomic identity of a cheese develops and why cheeses that share common origins or belong to the same technological family can, over time, become symbols of different food cultures.
We will begin with the earliest stages of cheesemaking, trace the emergence of the major technological cheese families, follow the circulation of cheesemaking knowledge across Europe, and examine how these technologies were adapted to different local contexts. Only then can we understand why the cheeses we now consider Romanian are both part of a shared European history and the expression of a distinct Romanian food heritage.
Technology Came First
The history of cheese did not begin with Telemea, Cașcaval, or any of the cheeses we know today. Long before these cheeses came to be recognised as distinct products, people had already developed the technologies that made it possible to preserve milk by transforming it into cheese. Its story begins not with recipes or national identities, but with the discovery of the processes that allowed one of the most perishable foods to be preserved.
The earliest evidence of cheesemaking comes from the Near East and from regions of Europe where animal husbandry had already become well established. Archaeological analyses of pottery fragments have identified residues of milk fats, while perforated ceramic vessels discovered in present-day Poland and dated to the 6th millennium BC are considered among the earliest known tools used to separate curds from whey. These discoveries show that the fundamental principles of cheesemaking were already understood thousands of years before the emergence of the states or peoples we now associate with particular culinary traditions.
The same cheesemaking practice can be identified several millennia later in Dacian settlements. Archaeological excavations at the fortresses in the Orăștie Mountains, as well as at Dacian settlements across the surrounding lowlands, have uncovered numerous clay strainer vessels. Modern chemical analyses of these artefacts have confirmed the presence of milk fat residues from both sheep's and cows' milk.
At first, the objective was not to produce cheeses with distinct identities or refined products. Preserving milk was a practical necessity for communities that depended on livestock farming. Transforming it into cheese made it possible to make use of a resource that was available only seasonally, while also allowing food to be transported and stored for longer periods.
In essence, the process was remarkably simple. Milk was first coagulated through lactic fermentation (a method still used in the production of certain cheeses today) and later through the use of rennet. The curd was separated from the whey before being pressed, salted or left to mature, depending on local conditions and the intended purpose. These fundamental principles have remained largely unchanged to the present day. What has evolved over time are the raw materials, the cheesemaking techniques and the ways in which different communities adapted these processes to their own needs.
In this context, it is important to understand what the term technology means when discussing cheese. In its historical sense, technology does not refer to modern equipment or industrial processes, but to the body of knowledge and practices that make it possible to transform milk into cheese. The choice of coagulation method, the way the curd is handled, pressing, salting, maturation and the conditions under which it takes place all form part of the same cheesemaking technology.
This distinction is essential because technologies travel much more easily than finished products. A community may adopt a method of cheesemaking without faithfully reproducing the cheese that originally inspired it. Once introduced into a different region, the same technology begins to interact with different types of milk, climatic conditions, microorganisms and food traditions. Over time, the result becomes a different cheese, even though the underlying production principles remain closely related.
For this reason, when discussing the origin of a cheese, it is useful to distinguish between the origin of a cheesemaking technology and the identity of the finished product. The two are not always the same, and recognising this distinction is the first step towards understanding how the major European cheese families emerged.
How Cheese Families Emerged
If cheesemaking technologies represent the starting point of cheese history, the next step is to understand how the major cheese families we know today came into being.
During the earliest stages of cheesemaking, there were no standardised recipes and no cheeses associated with particular territories. Communities relied on the same fundamental principles to preserve milk, but the results varied according to the resources available, local climatic conditions and the knowledge accumulated over time. Even when two communities applied similar production methods, differences in milk, temperature, humidity or maturation could lead to distinctly different cheeses.
Over time, these practices gradually evolved into what we now recognise as cheese families. Some cheeses were preserved in brine, others were produced by heating and stretching the curd, while others made use of the whey remaining after cheesemaking. What unites them is not their name or the place where they are produced, but the production method they share.
This perspective is important because, throughout history, what travelled most often was not a particular cheese but the way it was made. A production method could be adopted by another community and adapted to local resources, eventually resulting in a different cheese with its own distinct identity.
Understanding this process also changes the way we think about the origin of a cheese. Rather than looking for a single point of origin or attributing a particular cheese to a single community, it is more useful to trace the evolution of cheesemaking methods and the ways in which they were reinterpreted in different regions. This approach does not diminish the local identity of a cheese; instead, it provides the context needed to understand how that identity was formed.
To understand how local cheese traditions emerged, we must first explore how cheesemaking methods travelled alongside pastoral communities and how they were adapted as those communities moved across different landscapes.
The Spread of Cheesemaking Knowledge and the Role of Transhumance
Cheesemaking methods never remained confined to a single place. Throughout history, people moved constantly, taking with them their livestock, food traditions and practical knowledge of cheesemaking. Over the centuries, migration, trade and pastoralism all contributed to the spread of these methods across different parts of Europe.
Among these forms of mobility, transhumance played a particularly important role. Practised for centuries in many parts of Europe, it involved the seasonal movement of livestock between winter and summer pastures. For pastoral communities, transhumance was not simply a way of making the best use of natural resources; it was a way of life that brought different regions and communities into regular contact.
As these communities moved, they carried far more than their animals. They also shared practical experience in cheesemaking. Methods of coagulation, salting techniques, approaches to preservation and ways of making use of whey could all be observed, adapted and passed on. This exchange of knowledge took place gradually over many generations, without any intention of spreading a particular cheese. What was transmitted was, above all, practical know-how.
This helps explain why related cheeses are found today in regions separated by hundreds or even thousands of kilometres. Their similarities do not necessarily point to a single origin. Rather, they reflect the spread of similar cheesemaking methods and their adaptation to different environments and local traditions.
It is important, however, to view transhumance within the broader context of European history. It was one of the routes through which cheesemaking knowledge spread, but it was by no means the only one. Trade, relationships between neighbouring communities and the expansion of empires also contributed to the spread of this knowledge and to the emergence of new cheeses.
Understanding this broader context helps us avoid oversimplified explanations that attribute the emergence of an entire cheese family to a single community or a single historical period. The history of European cheeses is the result of continuous exchanges of knowledge that took place over many centuries.
Beyond the movement of pastoral communities, the great political and cultural spheres of Europe including the Byzantine Empire, the Ottoman Empire and the Habsburg Monarchy also influenced the spread of cheesemaking knowledge and contributed to the development of the food traditions we recognise today.
Byzantium and the Pastoral World of the Balkans
During the early centuries of the Middle Ages, the Balkans were one of Europe's most important regions for sheep and goat husbandry. Mountain landscapes, extensive pastures and long-established pastoral traditions supported the development of communities for whom cheesemaking formed part of everyday life.
During this period, the Byzantine Empire provided a framework within which people, goods and knowledge moved across considerable distances. Trade routes connected the Balkans with Constantinople and the eastern Mediterranean, and dairy products formed part of this wider economy. Although transporting fresh milk over long distances was impractical, cheese and other preserved dairy products could be traded and consumed far from the places where they were produced.
Historical sources frequently mention shepherds, livestock and dairy products, but they do not describe cheeses in the way we classify them today. Modern cheese names did not yet exist. What mattered instead was how milk could be preserved and transformed into products that could be stored, transported and traded.
Within this context, cheesemaking methods based on milk coagulation, salting and preservation continued to spread, adapting to local conditions and the types of milk available. Pastoral communities across the Balkans shared many of these practices, and the similarities between the cheeses found in the region today reflect this shared history.
It is unlikely that the cheeses we know today existed in their present form. It is, however, highly likely that the cheesemaking methods underlying many modern cheese families were already well established and were being passed between pastoral communities throughout the region.
This helps explain why related cheeses are found today in Romania, Bulgaria, Greece, Serbia, North Macedonia, Albania and Türkiye. They are not copies of a single cheese but the result of common cheesemaking methods being adapted to different local environments over many centuries.
Seen from this perspective, the importance of Byzantium lies in the fact that it formed part of a wider world in which people, goods and knowledge moved continuously. Within this pastoral landscape, many of the practices that would eventually shape the food traditions of southeastern Europe became firmly established.
The Ottoman Empire and the Development of Cheese Traditions in Southeastern Europe
From the fourteenth century onwards, much of southeastern Europe gradually came under Ottoman rule. For nearly five centuries, territories that today form part of Romania, Bulgaria, Greece, Serbia and Bosnia belonged, to varying degrees, to the same political and commercial sphere. This shared framework encouraged the movement of people, goods and food traditions on an unprecedented scale.
Cheese formed part of the everyday diet and was well suited to transport and trade. Local markets and growing urban centres helped to spread established cheesemaking methods while also encouraging their adaptation to the needs and conditions of different regions of the empire.
During this period, we begin to encounter more frequent references to cheeses and names that have survived to the present day. Brined cheeses provide one of the best-known examples. Today, they are known as Telemea in Romania, Sirene in Bulgaria and Beyaz Peynir in Türkiye. Although each of these cheeses has followed its own historical development and acquired distinct characteristics, they belong to the same family of cheeses produced using closely related cheesemaking methods.
Sirene - Bulgaria
The same pattern can be observed in the family of cheeses made using the pasta filata technique, in which the curd is stretched after heating. Across southeastern Europe, these cheeses appear under names such as Kaşkaval, Kačkavalj and Cașcaval. While their differences reflect local development over time, their similarities point to a shared body of cheesemaking knowledge and practices that evolved across the region for centuries.
It is important to emphasise that this process did not lead to the standardisation of cheese production. On the contrary, each region continued to adapt cheesemaking methods to its own resources, the types of milk available and local preferences. As a result, related cheeses evolved in different directions, developing distinct identities while remaining part of the same broader cheese family. Many of the similarities we observe today among the cheeses of southeastern Europe are the result of this shared historical development rather than evidence that they belong to a single culture.
Understanding this period allows us to place Telemea, Cașcaval and other Romanian cheeses within a broader historical context. They developed within a world shaped by continuous cultural exchange, yet their identities were gradually formed through local adaptation, eventually becoming part of the food heritage of each region.
Habsburg Influence and the Emergence of New Cheese Traditions
While the Byzantine world and, later, the Ottoman Empire shaped the development of cheeses in southeastern Europe, the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries introduced a new direction of exchange. As the Habsburg Monarchy expanded across Central and Eastern Europe, it facilitated the movement of people, knowledge and cheesemaking methods from the Alpine regions into new parts of the empire.
During this period, agricultural development and the modernisation of food production became important priorities of the Habsburg administration. Specialists, farmers and dairy producers from different parts of the empire were encouraged to settle in newly incorporated provinces, bringing with them practical experience in milk processing and cheesemaking.
Bucovina provides one of the best-known examples of this process. Following its annexation by the Habsburg Monarchy in 1775, the authorities promoted cattle farming and encouraged the introduction of cheesemaking methods inspired by the Alpine regions. During the nineteenth century, specialised dairies producing cheeses based on Central European models were established, among the most notable being the Alpina dairy in Vatra Dornei.
It was here that Svaiter cheese began to be produced, inspired by the Swiss Emmental family of cheeses. This was not an attempt to reproduce a Swiss cheese exactly, but rather to adapt established cheesemaking methods to local conditions, using the milk available in Bucovina and the experience of local producers. Over time, these cheeses became part of the local food landscape and came to be recognised as Romanian products, even though the cheesemaking methods on which they were based originated in another European tradition.
Șvaițer - Ținutul Cǎlimanilor, Vatra Dornei
This example illustrates the important distinction between the origin of a cheesemaking method and the identity of a cheese. The fact that a production method was developed elsewhere does not prevent the cheeses produced using that method from becoming part of the food heritage of the places where they have been adapted, produced and enjoyed for generations.
Taken as a whole, the Habsburg influence completes the broader picture outlined in the previous chapters. While many cheesemaking methods spread across the Balkans through pastoral communities and commercial networks, in Central Europe the transfer of knowledge was also supported by agricultural reform, specialised schools and the establishment of modern dairy enterprises.
The story of Alpina demonstrates that this process did not end in the Middle Ages. Cheesemaking knowledge continued to spread throughout the modern period, and once adapted to local resources, environments and traditions, it gave rise to new cheeses that, over time, became an integral part of Romania's food heritage.
From Shared Cheesemaking Methods to Local Identities
As we have seen, the history of European cheeses cannot be explained by a single place, a single community or a single defining moment. Over the centuries, cheesemaking methods spread through migration, transhumance, trade and cultural exchange, continually adapting to local conditions and available resources.
This process explains why many European cheeses share similar characteristics without being identical. A common cheesemaking method can give rise to different cheeses when applied in regions with different types of milk, climatic conditions and food traditions. Over time, these differences accumulate, allowing each cheese to develop its own distinctive identity.
The Romanian cheese tradition developed in much the same way. Cheeses such as Telemea, Cașcaval, Brânză de Burduf and Urdă did not emerge in isolation from the rest of Europe, but neither can they be regarded as simple copies of cheeses produced elsewhere. They are the result of adapting shared cheesemaking methods to local conditions and of a process of development that unfolded over many generations.
It is precisely this continuity that explains why these cheeses are now recognised as part of Romania's food heritage. Their identity is not defined solely by the origin of a cheesemaking method, but by the places where they have been produced, consumed, adapted and passed down from one generation to the next.
Today, many of the great cheeses of France, Switzerland and Great Britain are recognised far beyond their regions of origin. Their international reputation developed gradually as economic growth, urbanisation, improvements in transport and the emergence of regional and international markets allowed certain cheeses to move beyond local consumption.
In many parts of Eastern Europe, including Romania, cheesemaking remained closely connected to pastoral economies and local markets for much longer. As a result, many regional cheeses never achieved the same international recognition, despite having equally long histories and deeply rooted local traditions.
Romanian cheeses form part of a shared European tradition without losing their local identity. The ability of each community to adapt and reinterpret shared cheesemaking knowledge is precisely what has given European food heritage its remarkable diversity.
Conclusions
We began with what appears to be a simple question: How did the cheeses we now describe as Romanian become part of Romania's food heritage?
As we have seen, the history of cheese is, above all, a story of adaptation. It is the story of cheesemaking knowledge spreading across regions, being shaped by local conditions and evolving through the experience of generations of producers.
Far from diminishing the identity of Romanian cheeses, this history helps explain how that identity was formed. It also shows that the process did not end with the Middle Ages or with the great European empires. It continued into the modern period and continues today.
Romanian cheesemakers draw inspiration from methods developed in France, Italy, Switzerland, Great Britain and many other parts of Europe, adapting them to local conditions, the types of milk available and their own vision of the cheeses they create.
Looking back, we can see that many cheeses now regarded as traditional followed exactly the same path. They began with shared cheesemaking methods, were reinterpreted in local contexts and gradually became part of the food identity of the communities that adopted them. There is no reason to believe that this process has come to an end.
Some of the cheeses being produced in Romania today, inspired by Western European traditions, may not always be regarded as newcomers. If they continue to be produced, adapted and passed on to future generations, they too may one day be recognised as part of Romania's food heritage.
Perhaps this is one of the most important lessons offered by the history of cheese. Tradition is not the product of isolation, but of continuity. It does not mean preserving the past unchanged. Rather, it reflects a community's ability to reinterpret shared cheesemaking knowledge, adapt it to local conditions and, over time, make it an integral part of its own identity.
Selected Refrences
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