Chechil vs Parenica
Chechil
Facts
- Milk
- Cow
- Texture
- Semi-soft
- Type
- Stretched curd
- Rind
- No rind
- Country
- Armenia
- Place
- Armenian Highlands
Chechil is a brined string cheese from Armenia, made in the Armenian Highlands. Makers pull the curd into thin strands and braid or coil them into dense ropes. The usual milk is cow's milk, often skimmed, so the cheese is lean and chewy rather than rich. Some ropes are only salted in brine. Others are smoked, which adds a dry, brown edge to the braid.
Parenica
Facts
- Milk
- Sheep
- Texture
- Semi-soft
- Type
- Stretched curd
- Rind
- No rind
- Country
- Slovakia
Parenica is a traditional sheep's milk cheese from Slovakia, steamed and stretched, then wound into a pair of spirals that often meet in an S shape. The paste is supple and fibrous, pale on the inside, and yellow to brown on the outside when the piece has been smoked. The taste is mild, a little salty, and marked by sheep's milk, with smoke as a light extra in the usual version. It is a snack and board cheese, and people unwind the ribbon rather than cut a thick wedge.