🇷🇸 The cattle breeds of Serbia

Serbian cattle are met mostly at the table: beef for grills, soups and cured meats, and milk for kajmak, yogurt and white cheeses. Herding shaped the country's food from its mountain pasts onward, though pigs now lead its meat traditions. Dairy remains an everyday staple from one end of Serbia to the other.

• Kajmak, a thick dairy spread, is judged best between the Drina and Morava rivers
• Cured beefs of Užice and Zlatibor hold protected origin status
• Babine white cheese with walnuts won a 2012 best native cheese award
• In 1179 Serbs were called rich in herds, milk, cheese and butter
• Veal and lamb soups are counted among Serbia's delicacies

Cattle in Serbia

Cattle keeping in Serbia sits inside a wider herding tradition. Much of the land is mountainous, and raising animals long mattered more than growing vegetables; a traveller of 1179, William of Tyre, called the Serbs rich in herds, milk, cheese and butter. Reliance on dairy deepened under Ottoman rule, while pigs, which the Ottoman authorities left untaxed, took over the meat supply. Cattle therefore appear in the kitchen rather than as named breeds: beef and veal for soups, grills and cured meats, milk for kajmak, white cheese and soured milk. Their part is modest but steady in a cuisine where pork and lamb dominate the cooking.

Regions and communities

Dairy and beef habits change as you cross the country. East of the Great Morava river, hard cheeses are the pride; west of it, between the Drina and the Morava, kajmak is reckoned the finest, above all around Čačak. In the west, Užice and Zlatibor smoke beef as well as pork into ham-style cuts, several carrying protected origin status. Leskovac, in the south, built a long grilling tradition; migrants carried its ćevapi (grilled minced-meat rolls) and pljeskavica (a grilled patty) north to Belgrade, where they became everyday fare. Lamb leads in Raška and eastern Serbia.

Milk, butter and beef

Milk is the cow's chief gift to the Serbian table. Breakfasts carry yogurt, soured milk, buttermilk, butter and cream (smetana or pavlaka), and white cheeses far outnumber yellow ones; a white cheese with walnuts from Babine took a 2012 award as the country's best native cheese. Kajmak, a thick, creamy dairy spread, is eaten daily. Beef is dried and cured too: pastrma, a heavily spiced dried beef, buđola, akin to bresaola, and smoked beef hams from Užice and Zlatibor under protected origin labels. Fresh beef fills the grill, the cabbage rolls of sarma and the everyday beef soup, with veal soup a delicacy. Serbia's costliest cheese, Pule, comes from donkeys, not cows.

Today

Farming in Serbia trades on purity: producing or importing genetically modified food is banned, a decision welcomed by environmentalists but long a stumbling block in talks to join the World Trade Organization. Five million hectares of farmland underpin this image, and farmers sell directly at markets. For cattle, the clearest sign of the times is protected origin status for cured beefs from Užice and Zlatibor, while milk, cheese and kajmak stay on the everyday table.