It began in late nineteenth century when heartbreaking love stories and the stories of the first agronomists interwove in the background of major European events.
Indeed, a day after the 1878 Congress of Berlin, after Livno became part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, it has started attracting the attention of the emperor as an economic outpost of the territory under his rule. Francis Joseph (Franz Joseph) soon decided to open a school and an agricultural station, and without even knowing it, determined the fate of the French agronomist, Jaillet Cyprian of Lorena, who got invited to come and manage them in 1900.
Excellent cheeses were already produced even at that time: Roquefort, Liptauer, Trappist, which owing to the vegetation growing on the surrounding mountains, distinctive climate and milk of the indigenous sheep Pramenka, which is famous also for its wool, became unique.
However, Jaillet experimented with other combinations, and owing to his work and enthusiasm, as well as his knowledge of Swiss dairy tradition, Balkan Emmental was made – the Swiss cheese (formaggio Svizzero) that after the First World War became known as “Livno cheese”.
The precise recipe that is used even nowadays with small deviations requires a mixture of unpasteurized sheep and cow milk in the ratio of 80:20, according to the specifications.
Julliet’s story is a human story that alone is worth a trip to Livno, his beloved little town, which he had left the 1926, leaving his heart and part of his family there.
