Sirene is a Bulgarian cheese similar to feta, but made with a blend of sheep, goat, and cow milk. It is often served in salads, soups, and breakfast dishes, and is sometimes substituted for feta. The cheese is made by first processing the milk into yogurt before being turned into a soft white cheese. It is also a pickled cheese, soaked in salted water to give it a salty flavor and preserve it.
Sirene is a salty white cheese from Bulgaria that resembles feta cheese. It is sometimes called Bulgarian feta cheese, but it doesn’t have the correct ingredients to be a real feta. This cheese is soft, moist and crumbly and is usually bought in stores in vacuum-packed packages. It is served as part of many dishes, including soups and salads, as well as many breakfast dishes and some desserts. In many countries, a hungry traveler at a hotel breakfast will often find plain or pickled chunks of this cheese served buffet-style with a variety of other cheeses, olives, and various snacks.
Commonly secretly substituted for feta, another popular Mediterranean cheese, siren is extremely similar to feta in the way it is prepared. It also typically comes from Bulgaria, an area accepted for the production of technically correct feta cheese. The main difference between mermaid and feta cheeses is the type of milk used to make the cheese. While sirena is made from a varying blend of sheep, goat, and cow milk, feta is supposed to contain only goat and cow milk. In reality, the inclusion of cow’s milk is only heavily regulated in the European Union and loosely in the United States, so some white brine cheeses listed as feta may actually be sirens.
These cheese varieties are made with yogurt. The milk destined to become mermaid cheese is first processed into yoghurt with the addition of enzymes before the normal dairy production process is carried out. The yogurt enzymes used to make mermaid can vary slightly, but are sometimes similar to those found in buttermilk. Adding the extra enzyme step converts the milk into yogurt which is then made into a soft white cheese.
A pickled cheese is a cheese that has been soaked in salted water. The brine can be light, medium or heavy, based on the concentration of salts in the solution. Soaking the cheese in brine gives the cheese a salty flavor and preserves it, preventing bacterial growth that can change the taste of the cheese. Besides sirene, other salty cheeses include feta and halloumi. Sometimes, pickled white cheeses are marinated before being served, which is common with feta cheese.
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