🧀 Džiugas

Dziugas (Džiugas) is a Lithuanian cheese with a protected geographical indication (PGI), registered in the EU in 2019. It is a cheese made from cow's milk that is standardised, pasteurised and curdled with enzymes. The curd and cheese mass are then specially processed and ripened.

Only milk obtained during the grazing season, from May to October, may be used, and the cows receive no supplementary feed during that time. The other ingredients are starter cultures of rod-shaped lactic bacteria (Lactobacillus) and thermophilic Streptococcus, an enzyme coagulant, and table salt.

The cheese is a flat cylinder 9.0-10.0 cm high and 22.0-24.0 cm in diameter, weighing 4.2-4.5 kg. It is ripened for at least 12 months, and the single document describes versions ripened for at least 12, 18, 24, 36, 48, 60, 100 and 120 months. The body has no holes, although occasional irregular holes and fine cracks may occur, and small white crystals of calcium salt and tyrosine are visible. It is hard but breaks easily, and the longer it ripens the harder it becomes and the more crystals it contains.

The standard values are 37-43% fat in dry matter, 31-37% moisture and 1.6-2.0% salt.

Džiugas or another long-ripened hard cheese? Džiugas is a Lithuanian PGI cheese from standardised, pasteurised cow’s milk, made only in the town of Telšiai in Samogitia. It is a hard cheese without holes that still breaks easily, with small white crystals that increase with age. Only milk from the grazing season, May to October, may be used, and the cheese is ripened for at least 12 months, so it is a distinct cheese, not a generic hard cheese.

Look for the name “Džiugas” and the EU PGI (protected geographical indication) logo, shown in Lithuanian as saugoma geografinė nuoroda. The wheel is a flat cylinder, and the pack should state how long it was ripened: the single document lists versions from 12 to 120 months. Delicatessens and cheese counters sell it in wedges or pieces.

Preparing the milk mixture, making the whey starter, curdling, processing the curd, moulding, pressing, salting and ripening must all take place in the defined area. It is the town of Telšiai in the Telšiai district of Samogitia, north-west Lithuania, bounded by the settlements of Ryškėnai, Degaičiai, Gadūnavas and Viešvėnai.