The World’s Most Expensive Cheese Comes From Balkan Donkey Milk
In Zasavica, a marshland nature reserve in the west central Serbian region of Mačva, coffles of domesticated donkeys roam amongst the bogs. But they’re not just any donkeys. Unbeknownst to them, they hold precious milk that’s made into pule, a cheese that can cost up to $1,700 a pound. According to Atlas Obscura, the white cheese is similar in both flavor and texture to manchego, a crumbly sheep’s milk cheese made in Spain (per Castello Cheese).
The outlet explains that pule’s high cost is largely due to the donkeys’ limited supply of milk. While a dairy cow produces an average of 60 liters of milk per day, a Serbian donkey will only produce two liters at most. Less milk means fewer milk solids, which means more time is required to make the cheese, which means labor costs are high. Each of these factors makes a delicacy out of a mere morsel of pule.
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