If you’re in the area, the Johanssons will offer a tour of the Elk House Farm. Perhaps it’s the fact that milking a moose must be difficult, coupled with the limited season, but the four types of cheese produced by the Johansson family on their Moose House farm are really only available close to home and at select local restaurants. They lactate only from May through September, producing about five liters of milk daily. The Moose House in Bjurholm, Sweden, produces four varieties of cheese from the milk of three sibling moose (they are known as elk in most of Europe). It’s not widely available, but if you have an opportunity, you’ll want to have a bite of the world’s most expensive cheese. Pule is characterized by a relatively soft, crumbly texture, and a slightly sweet and nutty taste that some compare to Spanish Manchego or Gruyere, but with a rich, more complex flavor. It is known for its health and beauty benefits, and Cleopatra is said to have bathed in it! Donkey milk contains 60 times the Vitamin C of cow’s milk, but only one percent of the fat content. The small herd numbers only 130 milk-producing jennies. A single pound of cheese requires more than three gallons of milk. The donkeys must be milked by hand three times a day, and each milking yields little milk, less than a gallon day from 15 animals. The same recipe has been used to produce Pule since the 1700s. It is produced in the Zasavica Special Nature Reserve in Serbia from a breed of rare Balkan donkeys housed on a nature preserve in Zasavica. Price: Around $600 a pound, but can reach $1,300 on the open market. Here are 12 of the most expensive cheeses currently produced: Aging and rarity also factor into the price.

The value can be influenced by fad as much as by flavor. Much like fine wine, well-marbled beef, rare seasonal mushrooms (truffles), and other sought-after edibles, cheese is a commodity subject to human whim. By 2022, it is estimated that the value will have increased to more than $124 billion. In 2016, the value of the global cheese market was reportedly just over $92 billion U.S. It began radiating throughout the world and across all cultures.įew people don’t appreciate cheese, although there is an enormous variance in quality, popularity, and price.

Over the centuries, as more milk-giving animals became domesticated, and as civilizations spread to regions with colder climates, cheese became a staple of the human diet. Salt would have been a natural additive to preserve it. Historians and “food sleuths” surmise that as early sheep and goats were domesticated, the first cheese was an accidental occurrence.Ī thick, fermented substance, with a texture somewhat like cottage cheese, probably occurred naturally as milk was stored and transported. There is no way to know where the first cheese was intentionally produced. However, early cheese was most likely salty and sour, perhaps curd-like and not very appetizing.

Some of the most expensive cheeses in the world don’t even come from cow’s milk.Ĭheese in the modern world is widely available and delicious in all its variety. With the help of the wine industry, the demand for high-end and luxury cheeses is increasing every year. People are buying more and more cheese these days.

Vintage wire cheese slicer