Wallachian nation
In the Medevial Ages the region of the Carpathian Mountains was sparsely populated and the shepherding was the main form of economy performed by Carpathian Mountaineers. The places available for living were covered with small settlements where their inhabitants were seasonally shepherding, at the few clearings, small heards (kierdle, kyrdle) of sheep and goats. The cattle originating from small, wild brahyceric cattle (short horn) - living originally in the eastern part of the Central Europe, was pastured directly near the settlement. That had been changing at the beginning of XIIIth century, when Wallachian shepherds started to move from Balkan Mountains parallel to the Carpathian Mountains arc to the north direction. The oldest description of Wallachs is, known from VIIth century Greek word “Vlah” (Vlachoi –plural), which was adopted by Southern Slavs in not changed form as Vlah, Vlahi, Vlasi, Vlachie, Vleh [1, 2]. Colloquially in the South Slavs (Serbia, Croatia) the word “Vlach” was describing all sheep shepherds. The wars with Byzantium and connected to them repressions against peasants caused that the nomadic population, occupied with shepherding (Vlahs) started to move with their herds of sheep and goats, to the north, along the Carpathian ridge, to find new places for pasturing and free living. The Ruthenian population named the wandering shepherds Wallachians. The Wallachians were Eastern Rite Christians and it is rather difficult to recognize them as a national group or nation. They were rather a professional group engaged in mountain shepherding of the so-called small cattle, i.e. sheep, goats and, less often, pigs (pigs are not suitable for mountain hiking) [3, 4].
The Vlah shepherds used for their herds Carpathian forests, halls, glades (clearings) and where they met with the local inhabitants Ruthenians, Poles, Slavaks. The settled tribes accepted vocabulary, rituals culture and also the mountain economy shepherding system called hut or summer mountain slopes shepherding. At the beginning of XIIIth century numerous groups of Vlahs settled onto Polish lands mainly on Red Ruthenia, Podolia, Lublin region accepting local culture, but staying involved in shepherding and animal breeding [1, 5, 6]. Then nomadic groups of Vlachs - shepherds headed west (along the arc of the Carpathians), grazing their flocks of sheep and goats, leading a semi-nomadic lifestyle. When the grass for animals in the pastures and pastures ran out, they wandered further west. In this way, groups of wandering Wallachian shepherds reached in 1373 the area of Dynów nad Sanem (Carpathian Foothills) [7] and at the end of the 15th century, itinerant Wallachian shepherds reached the region of Wadowice and the Żywiec region, where they developed their form of pastoral economy. In the 16th century, there was a new wave of Wallachian settlement and colonization under Wallachian law in the Polish part of the Carpathians, which resulted in the location of new settlements under Wallachian law located in the so-called Muszyna key in the Beskid Sądecki (Szczawnik, Zubrzyk, Krynica, and Izby) and to the location of villages in Skalne Podhale and the Silesian Beskids, where the first mountain shepherd settlement in Cieszyn Silesia was Mosty Jabłonkowskie established in 1590 [8]. Wallachian settlement in Slovakia proceeded from two directions - eastern corridor (Maramara-Zakarpattia) and the southern corridor from the Balkans through the Hungarian Plain to the Gemeru Mountains. The oldest Wallachian villages of Koromla (1337), Jasenove (1348) and Orlik Niżny (1357) in Šariš are known in the 14th century. Wallachian settlement intensified in the 15th century, when shepherds penetrated the forests and mountains in Šariš and Spiš, inhabiting previously established villages in the Poprad valley (Jakubiany) and upper Topla south of the Čergov Mountains (including Ruska Wieś near Prešov, Šarišske Jastrabie) and reaching west as far as the area of Valaská Dubová (Orava) and Žilina (Kisuce). In the 16th century, another wave of settlements took place, as a result of which empty settlements were settled and older settlements were re-settled (Upper Orava). The western most village in Slovakia founded by Wallachian-Ruthenian shepherds is Osturnia (Osturňa) in Zamagórze Spiskie [9]. The most recently occupied by Wallachian settlements and the farthest west of the Carpathians is Moravian Wallachia (Valašsko), located in the territory of Czech Moravia and covering, among others, Silesian-Moravian Beskids. Wallachian colonization took place here from the mid-sixteenth and seventeenth centuries and was mainly based on migration from the nearby Cieszyn Silesia [10].
Transhumance Pastoralism
Nomadism and transhumance pastoralism, i.e. an extensive form of pastoralism consisting in year-round grazing of herds and seasonal transhumance (in the summer in the mountains on high mountain pastures (clearings, halls), and in winter in valleys and foothill plains where, thanks to the milder climate, it was possible to feed the herds (the center was a permanent settlement, village). Transhumance grazing is not only the movement of the herd "vertical" within the same mountain range, but also seasonal movement over considerable distances between different geographic regions. Over the centuries, the shepherd people who wandered along the Carpathian arch mixed with the local population flowing from the north through the river valleys. Their today's descendants are the Ruthenian highlanders: Hutsuls, Boykos, Lemkos and Polish highlanders: Babiogórcy, Czadecki highlanders, Pieniny highlanders, Sądecki highlanders, Silesian highlanders, Żywiec highlanders, Kliszacy, Orawiacy, Podhalanie, Spisz and Zagórzan highlanders. The Wallachian expansion brought to the Carpathian Mountains a system of shepherd economy - farming, production of Wallachian cheeses, animals adapted to life in difficult mountain conditions - mainly sheep of the Cakiel breed group (Vlachian sheep - Valaška, Transylvania; Podhale, Raczka, Curkana, Cigája), goats (Carpathian goat), cattle (red cattle), horses (Hutsul horse), breeding nomenclature, specific dialectal terms, nomenclature of places in the mountains, names of places located under Wallachian law, characteristic architecture and clothing, and simple cuisine. Sheep of the Cakiel breed group are characterized by versatile utility and perfect adaptation to the harsh climate in the region, resistance to diseases, high meat quality and a strong herding instinct. The Valachian breed is the most represented sheep breed in Slovakia (42%), the second most represented breed is Tsigai (38%). Breed of the Wallachian sheep is mostly kept in the extensive/semi-extensive production system localized in foothill and mountain areas more than 800 m above the sea level. Lambs are mainly born from February to April. After weaning the lambs, milking sheep starts and lasts until autumn [11]. The Carpathian sheep is distinguished by similar features. Both sheep and goats belong to seasonal animals whose estrus is synchronized with the length of the light day. It was customary for the farmer to decide who would graze his flock from Saint Adalbert (April 23). Sheep were driven to the pastures in April or May, this day was called "redyk" or shepherd's holiday. At the end of September, on Saint Michael's Day (September 29) or at the beginning of October, "ozesad" was celebrated, i.e. the return of sheep from pastures [4, 12]. During lactation lasting about 150 days, mountain sheep provide about 60–70 liters of milk [13], while the Carpathian goat gives 350 to 498 kg of milk during 230–260 days of milking. Mountain sheep's milk is used to produce traditional cheeses: bundz, bryndza podhalańska, oscypek, redykołka - on the Polish side and Slovenská bryndza, Slovenská parenica, Slovenský oštiepok, Ovčí hrudkový syr salašnícky - on the Slovak side. Bundz is a rennet, scalded sheep's cheese, which is made as the first product of clapped milk right after milking. After crushing, salting and maturing (for about 2 weeks), bundz is used to produce bryndza, a soft rennet cheese known in Poland, Romania, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Ukraine and Slovakia. The word "bryndza" comes from the Wallachian language (Romanian brânză "cheese"). Other cheeses are made from bundz, which can be smoked to preserve them; sheep cheese, redykołka, Slovenská bryndza, Slovenská parenica, Slovenský oštiepok, Ovčí hrudkový syr salašnícky. These cheeses are very old products of Wallachian shepherds grazing their sheep in mountain glades. They came to Podhale together with the entire Wallachian culture, the organization of grazing, the way of running a shepherd's hut, processing milk. The first mention of cheese production in Podhale and the adjacent areas can be found in the location of the village of Ochotnica in the Gorce Mountains (in 1416 Dawid Wołoch - David Valachi received the location privilege). Slovenský oštiepok was produced as early as the beginning of the 18th century. The oldest references to bryndza date from 1527. There are also numerous references confirming that bryndza was used in this area as a method of payment or as one constituent of rents or paid duties (1683). Although the world's oldest evidence of cheese production was found in Kujawy (according to archaeological research, cheese was produced here as early as 7,500 years ago) [14], the cradle of Polish cheesemaking is the Carpathians, where cheesemaking developed in Poland as early as the 11th and 12th centuries. Due to the seasonality and short period of milk production, Wallachian shepherds used simple methods of cheese preservation (maturing, salting and smoking. Wallachians and then shepherd communities took special care of fire (vatra) and water. During your stay in the pastures, you should be sure that even during a drought, you will not need to go down. The so-called slanice, salty waters, which provided the grazing animals with salt and were used to soak the oscypek cheese in salt water, the so-called "rosolenie", were also of exceptional importance. to this day - both "cold water" and "slanice" have their permanent places on the map of the "route of the Carpathian pastoral culture". The fire, continuously burning zawaternik, (zawaternik, kłotek - a block of wood, most often spruce, put into the watra so that it would not go out overnight), which was traditionally supervised by a shepherd, was lit on the first day of stay in the hall. Sheep were also led through the fire, which had a purifying effect. In cold smoke, cheeses were and still are smoked, which were previously immersed in salt water for almost a day, the so-called cheese broth. The smoke is also used to smoke meat. Thus, water and fire are the elements that determine the success of grazing, and the salting, maturing and smoking of cheeses and meats is the basic method of preservation. In the traditional smoking the source of heat and smoke is hard wood with appropriate humidity, burned in a hearth located within the hut (shepherd's hut) above which there are cheeses on shelves placed under the roof. This method still dominates in the cottage cheese production of sheep or mixed cheeses. During cold smoking, which lasts for several days, the cheeses are placed on shelves under the roof of the shepherd's hut. Shepherd's hut is a characteristic wooden building standing in the pastures, where for several months a year (during grazing) there is a shepherd with juhas. It consists of two parts - a working one where the cheese is produced and a residential one. In the working part, the most important place is occupied by a watra, i.e. a bonfire. It is covered with flat stones taken from the stream. The word "watra" comes from the Wallachian language, it is found throughout the Carpathian Mountains and means fire burned in the form of a cone. This is the term for the fire that the shepherd ignites after reaching the pasture with the sheep and which cannot go out until the last day of grazing in the pasture. Cheese is smoked using the smoke from the watra in which alder or beech wood is burned. Above the hearth there is a pole called "jadwiga or rozwodnica" on which a cast-iron boiler (kotlik, kocieł) is hung, used to heat sheep's milk and brew entica. During smoking, the smoke components give the characteristic golden color of oscypek or ostiepek and preserve the product. Smoke consists of several hundred ingredients, both positively affecting the quality of the smoked product, indifferent to the consumer's health, and compounds that raise doubts in terms of health. Some smoke compounds have bacteriostatic and antioxidant effects, and may act as preservatives. Formaldehyde from smoke, in reaction with proteins, reduces the digestibility of products that are smoked too much. Due to their properties, phenols play an important role in smoking, as they have a specific smell and shape the sensory properties of smoked products. In addition, they have an antioxidant effect. Among several hundred smoke components, there are also polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, which, on the one hand, give the smoked product its taste and aroma, and on the other hand have carcinogenic and mutagenic properties. The result of many years of research on the harmfulness of PAHs was the recognition in 2002 by the Scientific Committee on Food of the European Commission of 15 compounds from the PAH group (benz[a]anthracene, benzo[b]fluoranthene, benzo[j]fluoranthene, benzo[k]fluoranthene, benzo[g,h,i]perylene, benzo[a]pyrene, chrysene, cyclopenta[c,d]pyrene, dibenz[a,h]anthracene, dibenzo[a,e]pyrene, dibenzo[ a,h]pyrene, dibenzo[a,i]pyrene, dibenzo[a,l]pyrene, indeno[1,2,3-cd]pyrene and 5-methylchrysene) are potentially genotoxic and carcinogenic to humans. The Scientific Committee on Food (SCF) suggested using benzo[a]pyrene as a marker of occurrence and effect of the carcinogenic PAHs in food, based on examinations of PAH profiles in food and on evaluation of a carcinogenicity studies in animals [15, 16]. The result is a number of Commission Regulations (EU) aimed at limiting the presence of PAHs in food. Today there are no regulations about smoked cheese and their maximum PAH concentrations.
As part of the project “The uses and the conservation of farm animal genetic resources under sustainable development” co-financed by the National Center for Research and Development within the framework of the strategic R&D program “Environment, agriculture and forestry” – BIOSTRATEG, contract number: BIOSTRATEG2/297267/14/NCBR/2016 and Project "Cultural Heritage of Small Homelands" (CHSH) under the International Partnership Academic Program by the National Agency of Academic Exchange NAWA/CHSH 6918 traditional products of animal origin from Poland and Slovakia, made from milk and meat of native sheep breeds, preserved by traditional smoking, were analysed.