Sirene
Bulgaria's white brined cheese of sheep, cow or goat milk, and the word for cheese in Bulgarian.
Also: сирене, sirenje, sir, Bulgarian white cheese
Sirene, written сирене, is both the Bulgarian word for cheese and the name of the country's beloved white brined cheese, known abroad as Bulgarian feta. Sheep, cow, goat or buffalo milk is set with rennet, the curd pressed into blocks, cut, salted and matured for at least forty-five days in brine. Sheep milk sirene is creamy and tangy; cow milk sirene is milder and firmer. It is crumbled over shopska salad, baked in banitsa pastry, stuffed into peppers and served with bread at almost every meal. Serbs and Croats use sir for cheese, and Macedonians sirenje. Sirene's sister cheese is the yellow kashkaval.