Birth and childhood: cheeses that mark them
Cheeses made to mark a birth, and the first foods of a child.
Few cheeses are made only to mark a birth, but milk and fresh cheese belong to the first days of many young lives, of children and of calves. In India, sweets of chhena are shared to announce a new baby. Across Europe and India, the first thick milk a cow gives after calving, called beestings, has long been turned into special cheeses and puddings. And soft fresh cheeses are among the first foods many families give a child.
Beestings and first milk
Beestings, or colostrum, is the thick, yellow first milk a cow or buffalo gives after calving. It sets on gentle heating without rennet, and many dairy cultures made something special from it. Finland's leipäjuusto, bread cheese, was traditionally made from beestings, and Norway's kalvdans is a baked beestings pudding. In India, kharvas in Maharashtra, ginna in Karnataka and junnu in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana are steamed puddings of colostrum with jaggery and cardamom, made when a cow or buffalo has calved.
Sweets for a new child
In India, families announce a birth by sharing sweets with neighbours, friends and colleagues, and in Bengal and Odisha, rasgulla and sandesh are common choices. Sweets are shared again at the naming ceremony and at annaprashan, a child's first meal of rice, which is followed by a feast. Old English custom kept a groaning cheese and cake for a birth, shared with visitors, and slices were sometimes kept for luck.
First foods
Soft fresh cheeses are among the first dairy foods many families give young children: paneer crumbled into dal and rice in India, quark and cottage cheese in Europe, queso fresco in Latin America. In Russia and Ukraine, children grow up on tvorog with sour cream and sugar, and syrniki, small fried tvorog cakes, are a classic children's breakfast. Practice and advice differ between families and countries.
Worth knowing
- Leipäjuusto: Finnish bread cheese, traditionally of beestings
- Kalvdans: Norwegian beestings pudding
- Junnu: Colostrum pudding of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana
- Rasgulla: Shared to announce a birth in Bengal and Odisha
- Sandesh: Sweet of chhena for naming feasts
- Syrniki: Tvorog cakes for children's breakfast
Sources and further reading
Original text by the EveryCheese desk, written with AI assistance and checked against the sources above. Customs are described as tradition, not as advice. If we have something wrong, tell us.
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