The world’s “most expensive” cheese comes from donkeys. Balkan donkeys, to be exact.
These animals live in Serbia’s Zasavica Special Nature Reserve, and are milked to make pule cheese. The food itself is crumbly in texture, and has an intense and naturally salty flavour.
The cheese is expensive as these donkeys do not yield that much milk — it costs about US$1,328 per pound. One must milk 15 donkeys to get a gallon of milk, and it takes 3.5 gallons of said milk to produce this rare cheese. The reserve makes about 200 pounds of pule cheese.
These Balkan donkeys became endangered when the country began industrialising — many farmers abandoned and slaughtered them. However, it seems like the sanctuary has found a unique way to urge people to conserve them.
“We’d been producing donkey milk all the time, at the price of 40 euros per litre. Donkey milk is very nutritious and can strengthen a baby’s immunity. As we have plenty of donkeys and an abundant supply of donkey milk, we thought, ‘Why not try donkey cheese?’” said farm manager Jovan Vukadinovic.
Pule cheese started becoming popular in 2012 as it was rumoured that Serbian tennis star Novak Djokovic used his tournament winnings to purchase all of the available cheese. However, that rumour proved to be false
Watch the video to find out more:
[via Oddity Central ]
