Hungarian Easter egg cheese is a tricky food as it looks like a cheese, but it tastes like a solid sweet custard. Sárgatúró is an egg and milk based dish, which is an important part of the Easter menu in North-eastern Hungary.

According to the religious traditions of Greek Catholics and Catholics Easter foods (ham, paschal bread and Easter cheese) are taken in a basket covered with embroidered linens to the church for blessing and after that they are served for breakfast on Easter Sunday.

Easter egg cheese is usually flavoured with vanilla extract or vanilla sugar, however lemon zest and raisins can be also often found among the ingredients, it’s up to you if you add them to your egg cheese or not.

Ingredients:

• 1 liter (~4 1/4 cups) milk
• 50 ml (~3 1/3 tbsp) water
• 10 eggs
• pinch of salt
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 3-4 tbsp sugar

(If you like lemon zest and raisins, feel free to add them to the “cheese”.)

Pour milk in a saucepan, add water that prevents milk from sticking to the bottom of the pan, and start to warm.

Meanwhile break the eggs in a bowl, add sugar, salt and vanilla, and whisk until frothy.

When the milk is boiling, pour in the egg mixture and lower the heat. Stir constantly (it can burn easily) and cook until eggs curdle, milk whey appears and the custard becomes chunky (it takes about 5-7 minutes).

Turn off the heat and transfer the eggy milk into a colander lined with a cheesecloth or tea towel. Let it strain and cool a little bit, then gather the ends of the cloth and gently wring out as much of the remaining liquid as you can.

Form a ball and tie the cloth tightly at the top of the ball. Hang the “cheese” and let it drip for 4-5 hours. Once done, keep it in the fridge until use.