When it comes to expensive cheeses, it’s a lot like couture. Really. To make a great cheese is to create something completely singular: incredibly intricate, with the best milk around, plus intense care and lots of time. And that inspires a price tag that might blow your mind… until you get a taste.
I had the chance to taste a couture-level cheese once in northern Spain: El Teyedu, an otherworldly Cabrales cheese aged in a cave in the mountains at an altitude of nearly 4,000 feet. In 2023, a single 4.8-pound wheel of El Teyedu set a Guinness World Record when it sold at auction for 30,000 euros. While the cheese doesn’t usually cost quite that much, it still showed me that you can’t rush–or fake–a good cheese, and that’s worth a lot of money. Just like high fashion.
This is also true for the world’s currently most expensive cheese outside of an auction. That honor goes to pule cheese (or magareći sir), a rare cheese produced in Zasavica Donkey Reserve in west central Serbia. The price? Around $600 a pound. To put this in perspective, a pound of Parmigiano Reggiano costs $15 to $25 per pound and up, depending on the producer and how many months the cheese is aged.
Let’s start with where the milk comes from: not cows, not goats, not sheep, but donkeys. And unlike their fellow milk-producing animals, donkey milk is super rare. Further, the 120 or so Balkan donkeys are a rare and endangered breed, but now protected at Zasavica, one of the last remaining, authentically preserved wetlands in Serbia.
Rare donkeys in a rare environment is just the beginning of what makes pule cheese so special. The cheese is made from 60% donkey milk from the jenny (female), 40% goat milk, rennet, and a very secret recipe. But it takes 25 liters of donkey milk to make 1 kilogram (around 2.2 pounds) of cheese—and a jenny produces only about 1.5 to 2 liters of milk per day. (Compare that to a cow, which can produce up to 60 liters per day.)
Further, milking must be done three times a day by hand, according to Slobodan Simić, founder of the reserve, (the donkeys can’t be machine milked because of their anatomy). After that painstaking gathering of enough donkey milk, the cheese is put into 50-gram molds for 24 hours and aged for a month. That adds up to a lot of time.
Then there’s flavor: Pule’s flavor has been likened to Spain’s hyped manchego, with more richness and intensity and a uniquely soft and crumbly texture. Donkey milk contains 1% fat and 60 times more Vitamin C than cow’s milk–another influence on flavor, creating a nuanced sour tang. Is that a flavor worth paying top dollar for? Perhaps, especially when you consider that the high price is helping to fund the protection of this rare breed of Balkan donkey and its domestic habitat.
Where Can You Buy Pule?
Want to get a taste? You can’t buy pule in a cheese shop, so you’ll need to hop a plane to Belgrade and drive out to Zasavica Donkey Reserve for a firsthand visit. Or hop online and order your own from the reserve. Either way, that couture cheese moment is there to be invested in–and enjoyed.
That honor goes to pule cheese (or magareći sir), a rare cheese produced in Zasavica Donkey Reserve in west central Serbia. The price? Around $600 a pound. To put this in perspective, a pound of Parmigiano Reggiano costs $15 to $25 per pound and up, depending on the producer and how many months the cheese is aged.
Pule cheese is known for its strong, pungent flavor and unique texture. The flavor is often described as that of young manchego which is nutty and earthy, with a hint of saltiness (via Cheese and Such). It has a tangy, slightly sour taste that is balanced by the rich, buttery flavor of the donkey's milk.
Pule cheese or magareći sir, is a Serbian cheese made from 60% Balkan donkey milk and 40% goat's milk. The cheese is produced in Zasavica Nature Reserve. Pule is reportedly the "world's most expensive cheese", fetching US$1300 per kilogram.
As you can see, goat cheese has a slightly more protein, carbohydrates, calcium, and vitamin A content compared to cow cheese. Additionally, goat cheese fat content is slightly lower than cow cheese. Regardless, both cow and goat cheese can support keto-diets and recipes.
Four cups, which begins to explain why Pule, a Serbian donkey and goat milk cheese that's regularly reported as the world's most expensive, commands $600 per pound.
The most coveted cheese on the market is produced from donkey milk and is valued at about US$1,320 per kilogram. It's hard to believe that the humble donkey is the source of the world's most expensive cheese.
In many ways, the 2019 World Cheese Awards were like every other year, except for in one, very important way: for the first time, an American cheese, the Rogue River Blue from Rogue Creamery in southern Oregon, was crowned the World Champion.
What Makes Pule So Expensive? Let's start with where the milk comes from: not cows, not goats, not sheep, but donkeys. And unlike their fellow milk-producing animals, donkey milk is super rare.
Technically, you can freeze goat cheese. This extends its shelf life, but can change its texture. Especially hard and semi-hard cheeses are more suitable for freezing than soft cheeses, because soft cheeses have a higher moisture content that affects the texture more after freezing.
When it comes to cheese, limit the amount you eat to 30 g a day and choose cheeses that are low in saturated fats. These include: unripened goat cheese, Mozzarella, Camembert, and other ripened log cheeses. So, much to everybody's delight, you don't need to say goodbye to dairy products if you have high cholesterol.
Cheddar is one of the most popular cheeses in the world, especially in the United Kingdom and the United States, where many award-winning cheddars are produced. We are proud offer many of these hard to find cheddars at our Atlanta cheese shop and for sale online.
Thanks to its clinical tolerance, palatability and nutritional adequacy associated to the low levels of caseins and other proteins with high immunogenic power, donkey milk is particularly suitable for children suffering from cow's milk protein allergy (CMPA).
The Balkan donkey produces the world's most expensive milk, known as "donkey's milk." It is rich in nutrients and offers health benefits like better digestion and skin health. Nakawaza is a Japanese brand producing super-premium cow's milk. It sells for over $40 (Rs 3,335.42)per liter in Tokyo.
But donkey milk is exceptionally rare and difficult to produce. A jenny (female donkey) produces only about 1.5–2 liters of milk per day, while one cow produces up to 60 liters.
Donkeys yield only a tiny amount of milk, making it scarce and challenging to produce. The cheese has a unique flavor and is described as delicate and slightly sweet. Additionally, its creamy texture is similar to buffalo mozzarella, but its high demand and high price attract food enthusiasts and connoisseurs.
PULE – $576 PER POUND. This crumbly delicacy comes from Serbia and isn't made from the milk of a cow, goat, sheep, or buffalo … it comes from a donkey. It takes 25 liters of donkey milk just to make one kilogram of cheese.
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