Pag cheese - Gastronomy - The Tourist board of the Kolan (Mandre, Kolan, Kolanjski Gajac) - Pag, Croatia

Gourmand experts and all lovers of good food agree that the cheese from the island of Pag – Pag Cheese – is one of the best cheeses in Croatia and the world and that the Pag cheese produced „in the heart of the island“on the Kolan meadows is the best on the island of Pag. There are many reasons for this, but let us mention just a few.

The Pag lamb is a strong and resistant karsts lamb which has been living on the island for ages. It is not large in size; it is balanced and completely adapted for everyday life on the open stone land or the dense underbrush, thick wool protects it from rain, cold, and gusts of the bora – the strong wind which gives rhythm to the life of this island and the originality of the Pag cheese and lamb.

When the bora blows, the cold air turbulently returns down the steep slopes of the Velebit, the powerful blasts make the sea white in the channel and lift billions of drops of sea dust, salt and water, throws them high into the air and carries through the Pag mountains and fields salting the Pag stone, grass, pastures, meadows and fields. This is precisely a very important part of the originality and strength which the Pag cheese has. In it is the force of the Pag bora and scent of sea salt.

Besides this, the bora as a cold and salty north wind on Pag significantly effects the flora of the island. The Pag grasslands have various types of grass but it is not characterized by water but rather the nutritional contents. The Pag plants and low bushes smell beautifully, they are full with the strength of stone, bora, the sun. They are often therapeutic such as sage, moench, rue, brsak, cypress spurge, wild-oat, araceae and many others which are small and with tiny leaves. Their taste and therapeutic properties are a gift from the preserved nature every time we enjoy the taste of mature Pag cheese which «melts in the mouth».

But cheese, and this of course also applies to the cheese of cheeses, the Pag cheese, is not the same in various periods from its beginning to its consummation. Cheese has its own «time limit» and each one has some special characteristics. One thing is young cheese, another is mature cheese, and again another is old cheese. If properly stored, Pag cheese is always good because from the day the milk curdles and the young cheese is taken out of its mold, and while it is maturing and slowly drying in rooms with constant humidity and without drafts, hard working hands turning it every day on a board, spreading it with butter, and caring for it until it is completely mature, when the cheese melts in the mouth and fulfills all the senses, the cheese brings the taste of the bora, salt, grass, stone, strength and tradition, or in other words, all the love and care of the Pag farm worker. They say that Pag cheese is an excellent aphrodisiac. Who doesn't believe this can try it for themselves.

All of this is in the Pag cheese which is served alone or with Pag prosciutto and Pag olives. It is the best with warm homemade bread and quality, moderately cold, white wine or if preferred, red wine.