Slovenes

Slovenes (Slovenci) are the people who make up the main population of Slovenia, a country where the Alps, the Pannonian Plain and the Adriatic meet. On this site their traditions are Carniolan sausage, mountain cheeses, Teran and Cviček, Slovenian Istria olive oil, the honey of Carniolan bees and juniper Brinjevec. Most of these names are protected in the EU and come with official rules.

Kranjska klobasa (Carniolan sausage) is a PGI pasteurised pork sausage made throughout Slovenia. 75–80% coarsely minced pork from the leg, shoulder and neck is mixed with 20–25% hard back fat, salted with nitrite salt and seasoned with garlic and pepper; meat paste and polyphosphates are banned. The mix goes into 32–34 mm pig small-intestine casings in pairs of 200–250 g, and the ends are joined with a wooden skewer. The sausage is hot-smoked over beech for at least two hours until the core reaches 70 ± 2 °C, which pasteurises it. The oldest recipes were written down by Katharina Prato (1896) and Felicita Kalinšek (1912), and a Kranjska klobasa festival has run since 2003. The name comes from the region of Carniola (Kranjska), although oral tales trace it to the town of Kranj.

Slovenian wine means about 17,500 ha of vines, three regions — Podravje, Posavje and Primorska — and mostly white grapes, led by Laški rizling (12% of the area). Teran is a PDO for dry red wine made only from Refošk on the Karst plateau, at up to 9,000 kg/ha. Cviček from Dolenjska, contrary to a common belief, is neither white nor rosé but a light ruby red wine with 8.5–10.0% alcohol.

Slovenian cheeses are mountain cheeses. Tolminc is made from cow's milk in the upper Soča valley, and Bovški sir from at least 80% milk of the Bovec sheep; both names appear in a price list from Udine dated 1756. Nanoški sir from the Vipava valley weighs 8–11 kg and carries a narcissus stamp on its rind, while Mohant from Bohinj ripens in large vats without air and is sold in jars.

Olive oil comes from Slovenian Istria around Koper, Izola and Piran. Ekstra deviško oljčno olje Slovenske Istre is a PDO with at least 30% Istrska belica, acidity up to 0.3%, olives picked by hand and pressed within 24 hours of harvest.

Slovenski med is a PGI from the whole country: seven types, from acacia and lime to fir and forest honey; the bees are the local Carniolan breed, and the label shows the type of honey, the batch and a QR code. Brinjevec is distilled not from spirit flavoured with berries but from fermented berries of common juniper: 100 kg of berries give about 20 litres of a drink of at least 40% vol., matured for at least six months. The earliest written mention is in Valvasor, 1689.

Why it matters to you: you can recognise genuine Carniolan sausage by the pair with a wooden skewer and the name "Kranjska klobasa" with the EU symbol. Warm it in hot but not boiling water, as the specification advises; the typical Slovenian way to serve it is with sauerkraut. WHO reminds that no level of alcohol is safe.