Bryndza (from Romanian brânză cheese) is a sheep milk cheese made across much of East-Central Europe, primarily in or around the Carpathian Mountains of Slovakia, Ukraine, Romania and southern Poland. Bryndza cheese is creamy white in appearance, known for its characteristic strong smell and taste. The cheese is white, tangy, crumbly and slightly moist. It has characteristic odor and flavor with a notable taste of butyric acid. The overall flavor sensation begins slightly mild, then goes strong and finally fades to a salty finish. Recipes differ slightly across countries. Etymology Bryndza or Brynza, a word borrowed from Romanian brânză ("cheese"), is used in various European countries, due to its introduction by migrating Vlachs. Though the word brânză () is simply the generic word for "cheese" in Romanian, there is no special type of cheese associated with it (the name of the animal is added to differentiate Brânză de vaci). It is a word presumably inherited by the Romanian language from Dacian, the language of the pre-Roman population in modern-day Romania. Alternatively it was possibly borrowed from Albanian brëndës (“intestines”). Originally it referred to cheeses prepared in a sheep's stomach by reacting with the rennet inside. Outside Slovakia, Romania and the flanking regions of southern Poland, it is still popular nowadays in the Czech Republic under the Czech spelling "brynza". According to the Romanian Explanatory Dictionary the etymology of ”brânză” is unknown. Other regional names for the product include juhtúró in Hungarian, брынза in Russian, brenca in Serbian, Brimsen in German, бринза and бринзя in Ukrainian and ברינזע in Yiddish. History The word was first recorded as brençe, described as "Vlach cheese", in the Croatian port of Dubrovnik in 1370. Bryndza was first recorded in the Kingdom of Hungary in 1470 and in the adjacent Polish region of Podhale in 1527. In Slovakia, bryndza is regarded as a typically Slovak product and it is one of the main ingredients in the national dish bryndzové halušky. The modern version of the soft spreadable bryndza is believed to have been developed by entrepreneurs from Stará Turá (Western Slovakia) toward the end of the 18th century. They founded bryndza manufactures in mountainous regions of Central and Northern Slovakia, where local sheep cheese manufacturing had deep roots. They traded bryndza and popularized it all around the Austrian Habsburg monarchy. In Austria, it was called Liptauer, after the northern Slovak Liptov region. The Viennese speciality Liptauer,