5 ms·

There are sheep and goat's milk cheeses made in the Mediterrannean and in the Balkans and as far as Romania, yes, but those cheeses are not made in the same way

There are sheep and goat's milk cheeses made in the Mediterrannean and in the Balkans and as far as Romania, yes, but those cheeses are not made in the same way as feta and they have a different character than feta. For example Sirene, a Romanian cheese is sometimes made with sheep and goat's milk, but it's a softer and overall milder cheese than feta. They would taste same-y to anyone unused to eating for example feta or sirene, but not to Greeks and Romanians. Cheese made across the border from Epirus in Albania (careful: the Greek-speaking Orthodox minority in Albania are Northern Epirotes, not "Greek Albanians") may be very similar, but it's not called "feta" in Albanian. I don't know what it's called to be honest, but "feta" is the name traditionally used by Greeks. So in this case it wouldn't make sense to call it "feta" even if it has a similar character to feta. Which, to be honest, I don't know because I haven't tasted that cheese. Anyway the point is that you can tell feta apart from ""Feta-like" cheese produced in any number of places around the world", contrary to what you said. And in any case, it seems to me very likely that before reading my comment you didn't realise that feta is not made with cow's milk, as most people don't, so I think you should concede that your original comment was made given incomplete information.

DiogenesKynikos 5y ago
> those cheeses are not made in the same way as feta and they have a different character than feta That depends on which cheese we're talking about. There's enough variation between different Greek fetas that lumping then all into one group and excluding other closely related cheeses does not make sense, from a purely culinary point of view. > Cheese made across the border from Epirus in Albania ... may be very similar, but it's not called "feta" in Albanian. And that's the point. The distinction is purely national and linguistic. White briny cheese made with goat's and sheep's milk in Epirus and southern Albania are not treated differently by the EU because of intrinsic differences between the cheeses. They're treated differently because the Greek government was able to successfully lobby for a geographical indication that excludes cheeses produced outside its borders.
- cheese_goddess 5y ago
  Nope, that's a load of ignorant horseshit. Do yourself a favour and read about the PDO process. It's nothing to do with "lobbying" anyone. "The Greek government" did not "lobby" anyone, rather the producers of feta cheese in specific regions of Greece applied for their product to be given a PDO by the EU. The application was of course supported by the Greek government. At the same time, it was contested by the Danish, German and French goverments because industries in those countries had been selling cow's milk cheese as "feta" for sometime and didn't want to lose the revenue. These three countries also didn't "lobby" anything - they contested the PDO application in the courts. They lost, so feta is a Greek PDO cheese. "Lobbied"! Seriously.
- cheese_goddess 5y ago
  > There's enough variation between different Greek fetas that lumping then all into one group and excluding other closely related cheeses does not make sense, from a purely culinary point of view. "Culinary point of view"? Give me a break. You haven't even tried Greek feta, let alone all those other cheeses...
  - DiogenesKynikos 5y ago
    I've eaten Greek feta in Greece and identical cheeses elsewhere in the Balkans. I obviously can't prove that to you over the internet, but I'm okay with that. I simply think it's a bit absurd to try to claw back a generic food name, simply because it originated in one country. I can at least sympathize with Champagne as a geographic indication, since there is a region with that name, but "feta" is just a Greek word (borrowed from Italian) that's become international thanks to the Greek diaspora.
    - cheese_goddess 5y ago
      The word, maybe. The cheese, not. You can't make feta that tastes like feta outside of Greece. And you haven't eaten all those "identical cheeses" or you'd know they're not identical. Although I suppose you may just have a very poor sense of taste. Edit: No, really, I straight up don't believe you that you've tried different cheeses around the Balkans. Maybe you tried one or two, but not the way you make it sound, like you tasted a great variety and found them all the same. First because that's absurd -even if all those cheeses were similar in taste they wouldn't be identical, because that's not how cheese works. And second because you've already made up a whole bunch of stuff in this conversation, like all that nonsense about lobbying. You're clearly trying to "wing" it. So I don't believe what you say.

DiogenesKynikos 5y ago

> those cheeses are not made in the same way as feta and they have a different character than feta That depends on which cheese we're talking about. There's enough variation between different Greek fetas that lumping then all into one group and excluding other closely related cheeses does not make sense, from a purely culinary point of view. > Cheese made across the border from Epirus in Albania ... may be very similar, but it's not called "feta" in Albanian. And that's the point. The distinction is purely national and linguistic. White briny cheese made with goat's and sheep's milk in Epirus and southern Albania are not treated differently by the EU because of intrinsic differences between the cheeses. They're treated differently because the Greek government was able to successfully lobby for a geographical indication that excludes cheeses produced outside its borders.

cheese_goddess 5y ago
Nope, that's a load of ignorant horseshit. Do yourself a favour and read about the PDO process. It's nothing to do with "lobbying" anyone. "The Greek government" did not "lobby" anyone, rather the producers of feta cheese in specific regions of Greece applied for their product to be given a PDO by the EU. The application was of course supported by the Greek government. At the same time, it was contested by the Danish, German and French goverments because industries in those countries had been selling cow's milk cheese as "feta" for sometime and didn't want to lose the revenue. These three countries also didn't "lobby" anything - they contested the PDO application in the courts. They lost, so feta is a Greek PDO cheese. "Lobbied"! Seriously.
cheese_goddess 5y ago
> There's enough variation between different Greek fetas that lumping then all into one group and excluding other closely related cheeses does not make sense, from a purely culinary point of view. "Culinary point of view"? Give me a break. You haven't even tried Greek feta, let alone all those other cheeses...
- DiogenesKynikos 5y ago
  I've eaten Greek feta in Greece and identical cheeses elsewhere in the Balkans. I obviously can't prove that to you over the internet, but I'm okay with that. I simply think it's a bit absurd to try to claw back a generic food name, simply because it originated in one country. I can at least sympathize with Champagne as a geographic indication, since there is a region with that name, but "feta" is just a Greek word (borrowed from Italian) that's become international thanks to the Greek diaspora.
  - cheese_goddess 5y ago
    The word, maybe. The cheese, not. You can't make feta that tastes like feta outside of Greece. And you haven't eaten all those "identical cheeses" or you'd know they're not identical. Although I suppose you may just have a very poor sense of taste. Edit: No, really, I straight up don't believe you that you've tried different cheeses around the Balkans. Maybe you tried one or two, but not the way you make it sound, like you tasted a great variety and found them all the same. First because that's absurd -even if all those cheeses were similar in taste they wouldn't be identical, because that's not how cheese works. And second because you've already made up a whole bunch of stuff in this conversation, like all that nonsense about lobbying. You're clearly trying to "wing" it. So I don't believe what you say.