Oscypek is a hard, smoked sheep's milk cheese, characteristic of the Polish mountains and above all of Podhale. It has the shape of a small spindle with a pattern pressed in a wooden mould. Since 2008 its name has been protected in the European Union, so not every cheese sold under the name oscypek meets the requirements. Below: how it is made, what the specification says and how oscypek differs from bundz and redykołka.

How oscypek is made in the mountain pasture

Traditionally the cheese was made by head shepherds (bacowie) in the mountain pastures, in a shepherd's hut (bacówka). After the sheep were milked, the milk was poured through linen cloth, to strain out blades of grass, into a wooden vat called a puciara. Klag was added, that is dried and powdered rennet, which made the milk curdle into a cheese mass. Kraków's culinary portal describes how the curdled mass is broken up with a wooden paddle called a ferula, and then some hot water is added so that the pieces of curd stick together and settle to the bottom.

The mass, pressed free of whey, is shaped into the characteristic spindle. The pattern on the edges is pressed in a splitting wooden mould, called an oscypiorka. According to Wikipedia the name of the cheese itself most probably derives from the splitting, or “scypanie”, of these moulds, although this is only a supposition.

The shaped cheese is soaked for a day in brine. Then it is smoked in cold smoke, according to Kraków's culinary portal for from several to a dozen or so days. Wikipedia adds that in the shepherds' huts pine or spruce wood was burned, and the cheeses matured on the top shelf and were smoked in the smoke from the hearth.

Oscypek as shepherds' currency

The cheese was also a means of settling accounts. According to Wikipedia, when the flock set out on the spring drive (redyk), the amount of milk given by the sheep of each farmer was measured, and the measurement was repeated on return from the pastures. On this basis it was determined how many oscypki were due to the owners of the flocks and the highlanders who grazed them. Oscypki thus served for settlements between the farmer (gazda) and the head shepherd, and between the head shepherd and the shepherd's assistants (juhasi). Equipment connected with sheep farming and Vlach culture can be seen in the Museum of Highlanders and Brigands in Rabka-Zdrój.

Kraków's culinary portal states that the first mentions of the production of oscypek date from the 15th century and are found in the founding documents of the village of Ochotnica in the Gorce. According to the same source an exact description of the product is contained in instructions from the Ślemieński family of the Żywiec region from 1748, and the recipe is said to have remained unchanged since then.

What the specification says

According to Wikipedia, oscypek has been, since 14 February 2008, the second Polish regional product, after Podhale bryndza, protected by EU law, with the status of Protected Designation of Origin. The requirements described in the available sources are as follows:

The English-language Wikipedia entry gives a longer production period, from the end of April to the beginning of October. The Polish entry and Kraków's culinary portal speak of a period from May to September, and we adopt that version here.

The dispute with Slovakia over oštiepok

The Slovaks make a similar cheese, which they call oštiepok. According to Wikipedia the delay in registering oscypek was connected with an objection from Slovakia, lodged at one of the last possible dates. In the end an agreement was reached: it was established that the Slovak oštiepok, despite a shared history of origin, is a separate regional product. We do not know the exact course of the negotiations or the content of the agreement from the sources to which we have access.

Oscypek, gołka, bundz and redykołka

According to Wikipedia oscypek is spindle-shaped, while gołka, a cheese sometimes sold under the name oscypek or “scypek”, has a more cylindrical shape. Wikipedia notes that using the name oscypek or its distortions for a cheese that does not meet the requirements misleads consumers.

Bundz begins in the same way as oscypek: the milk is curdled, that is set with rennet. The curd is then scalded for several minutes at a temperature of about 70 degrees and drained on cloth in large lumps. The cheese is mild in taste. Wikipedia writes that the tastiest bundz is that from spring grazing, up to St John's Night, called May bundz. Redykołka, in turn, is a small smoked cheese in the shape of little animals or hearts, traditionally made from the scraps of cheese left over when there was not enough for an oscypek. It has separate protection in the EU.

The broader background of the sheep grazing in which oscypek is made is described by the Chochołowska Valley, according to Wikipedia the largest centre of sheep farming in the Tatras.