The history behind the TOP 3 Hungarian cheese

It is hard to deny that all of us long for this ooey-gooey melty comfort food, at least 7 days a week. It is the reason why we wake up in the morning, break our diets, or fall out with our loved ones or roommates when our favorite yellow stuff mysteriously disappears overnight from the fridge. As every country, Hungary also boasts with some national culinary treasures that accompanied cheese-lovers from the old times till the present days. Come with us on a journey to discover the real story behind the top 3 legendary Hungarian cheese! 

Medve cheese 

The nation’s all-time favorite Medve cheese is one of the simple joys of everyday life for people living in Hungary. The bear, which the cheese was named after, greets you with its furry paw like an old friend whenever you stop by the dairy section in the supermarket. 

Unboxing those creamy little cubes has put a happy smile on every Hungarian child’s face for almost a century. However, it might come to you as a surprise that Medve cheese originally came from Switzerland.

A skilled cheese manufacturer Frigyes Stauffer brought his culinary invention to Hungary in 1925, and it quickly became everyone’s go-to guilty pleasure. 

Several theories have been born on the origin of the signature bear image. It might be puzzling to find any connection between a predominantly herbivore bear and this happiness-inducing fatty treasure. The most likely explanation though is that Stauffer had simply chosen the heraldic animal that was portrayed on the blazon of his canton, Bern. Boom, mystery solved! 

Medve cheese enjoyed a wide popularity over the decades and served many different purposes. In the ’30s, women magazines recommended their readers to munch on some tasty bites to keep the extra pounds away. The tiny cubes also served as ornaments when some creative mind came up with the idea to hang them on Christmas trees. In the 1940s, fishermen swore by this yummy cheese as an excellent bait for the hake. 

See? This superb Hungarian cheese has always got your back whenever you need it! 

Trappista 

Did you know that the mouthwatering trappista is a fraud? The first sample of this semi-soft wonder was made by Hungarian cheese makers with the vision to recreate the French Port Salut cheese which was the trappist monks’ favorite innocent indulgence. There was only a tiny negligible issue, they did not have the recipe! Now, it was in God’s hand whether it was going to end up as a disaster or not. 

The cheese actually came out better than edible and the manufacturers were quick to polish off even the last crumbs. At this point, we could end the tale with a motivational quote like: you just have to get off the beaten track in order to create something unique. However, it was more of the romanticized version of the actual story.