Pag Island, Zadar County · Croatia
Paški sir.
Paški sir opens with toasted nuts and warm lanolin, then a saline, herbal edge sweeps in — rosemary and sage carried on sea salt. The paste is dense and golden, breaking into crystalline shards with age, and the finish is long, savoury, and unmistakably of the island.
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The story
How it's made.
Why it tastes that way.
Pag is a nearly bare limestone island in the Adriatic, scoured by the bura wind, which carries sea spray across its sparse pastures and salts the wild sage and herbs the native Paška ovca sheep graze.
That brutal terroir is the cheese: small, hardy sheep giving small amounts of intensely flavoured milk, turned into wheels that islanders have made for centuries and aged from a few months to over a year. Once a farmhouse staple bartered along the coast, Paški sir became Croatia's most decorated cheese and earned EU protected designation of origin status, cementing the island's name on the international counter.
Production · spec
- Milk
- Sheep · pasteurised
- Family
- Hard
- Rind
- natural
- Age
Tasting profile
What it tastes like.
Caseo's flavour axes are drawn from each cheese's flavour and aroma profile. This is Paški sir's fingerprint.
Aroma
Nutrition · per 100g serving
What's in a wedge.
A 100g serving — about a finger-thick wedge. Daily values use the FDA 2020 reference of 2,000 kcal. Expect ±5% variation between wheels.
Estimated values — based on similar cheese family data
Serve, cut & store
Out of the fridge,
into its prime.
Guidance for hard cheeses — general practice, not a per-wheel measurement.
Rest
Take it out about 30–60 min before serving — cold stiffens the fat and locks up the aromas; cool room temperature is when the flavour shows up.
Cut
Use a sturdy knife, or break it into craggy chunks with a spike — shards and shavings beat neat slices.
Store
Wrap leftovers in cheese paper or wax paper — never cling film, which suffocates the rind — and keep them in the warmest part of the fridge.
Rule of thumb: the softer and riper, the longer it needs. Thick pieces need longer than thin — and don't leave cheese out much past two hours.
Pairings · Caseo curated
What goes with Paški.
28 pairings across 0 categories.
Bonus & advanced pairings · 28
Wine
Where to find it
Cheese counters.
Counter listings for Paški sir are being verified. Check back soon.
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Substitutes
No Paški sir at the counter?.
These will play a similar role on the board and in the pan.
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