🧀 Redykołka

Redykołka is a Polish semi-hard smoked PDO cheese made from sheep's milk in Podhale, below the Tatra Mountains. It is a small half-fat cheese shaped like a miniature animal, bird, heart or spindle: the smallest spindle weighs 30–60 g and other shapes up to 300 g.

The base is milk from the Polish mountain sheep; up to 40 % milk from Polish red cows may be added. The milk is raw and the cheese is seasonal, made during the grazing period in log huts on the mountainsides. The curd is soured, renneted, ground, pounded by hand and shaped, then soaked in brine for up to 24 hours, dried for 12–24 hours and cold-smoked for 3–7 days.

The name comes from redyk, the ceremonial driving of sheep up to mountain pastures and back. The figures were given as gifts, often to children, and by tradition are always made and offered in pairs.

The taste is slightly salty with a pronounced smoky aroma; the cheese is dense, elastic and slightly hard, with a glistening straw-coloured rind.

Why it matters to you: it is a Podhale relative of oscypek, smaller and figure-shaped; look for the name Redykołka with the PDO mark, and read about Polish mountain cheeses under Cheeses of Poland.