Liptў Cheese Spread (Liptauer)
Submitted by Chef |
The cheese which is the base of this spread originally came from a north Hungarian area called Liptў. The Austrians who make a similar mixture call the spread itself Liptauer or, more correctly Liptauer garniert. Since in Hungary, Liptў is only the name of the cheese itself, this causes unneccesary mixups in non-Hungarian recipes. If you are unable to buy the real sheep's milk cheese a very similar product called Brindza which comes from Romania, can generally be purchased in the better cheese stores.
The basic MUSTS are the sheep's milk cheese, paprika, onion and caraway
seeds. All the other ingredients are optional. In my home town I would not eat this cheese spread at my friend's house, because her mother also put capers and sardines in the mixture.
In aristocratic houses and at the National Casino the spread was served topped with Beluga Caviar, which makes a very good combination, particularly if you get tired of eating caviar in the traditional way. Trieste, on the Adriatic was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire until the treaty of Trianon in 1920, but even then it had a strong Italian food influence. The same cheese spread was made in Trieste with Gorgonzola cheese substituting for the sheep's milk cheese and Mascarpone, a fresh cream cheese, substituting for the butter. |
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