Liptauer is a spicy cheese spread made with sheep milk

Sheep milk

Sheep's milk is the milk of domestic sheep. Though not widely drunk in any modern culture, sheep's milk is commonly used to make cultured dairy products. Well-known cheeses made from sheep milk include the Feta of Greece, Roquefort of France, Manchego from Spain, the Pecorino Romano , the Pecorino...

 cheese

Cheese

Cheese is a generic term for a diverse group of milk-based food products. Cheese is produced throughout the world in wide-ranging flavors, textures, and forms....

, goat's milk cheese, quark cheese or cottage cheese. It is a part of Slovak cuisine

Slovak cuisine

Slovak cuisine varies slightly, though sometimes dramatically, from region to region. It was influenced by the traditional cuisine of its neighbours and it influenced these as well...

 (Slovak "Šmirkás" - a garbled form of the German Schmierkäse), Hungarian cuisine (Hungarian "Liptói Túró" or "Körözött"), Austrian cuisine and Italian cuisine

Italian cuisine

Italian cuisine has developed through centuries of social and political changes, with roots as far back as the 4th century BCE. Italian cuisine in itself takes heavy influences, including Etruscan, ancient Greek, ancient Roman, Byzantine, Jewish and Arab cuisines...

. The name "Liptauer" is derived from the German

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

 word for the region of Liptov

Liptov

Liptó is the name of a historic administrative county of the Kingdom of Hungary. Its territory is presently in northern Slovakia.-Geography:...

 in Northern Slovakia

Slovakia

The Slovak Republic is a landlocked state in Central Europe. It has a population of over five million and an area of about . Slovakia is bordered by the Czech Republic and Austria to the west, Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east and Hungary to the south...

 (Liptau in German, Liptó in Hungarian, a county (Liptó county), before 1918, part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

In the province of Trieste

Province of Trieste

The Province of Trieste is a province in the autonomous Friuli-Venezia Giulia region of Italy. Its capital is the city of Trieste.It has an area of 212 km², and a total population of 236,520...

 in Italy, the cheese is also well known and part of traditional cuisine.

If ready made, generally comes in small tinfoil packages and has a spicy, sharp taste.

In Austria, it is a typical snack served at the Heuriger (Austrian wine-drinking Tavern).

Liptauer cheese spread can be made of any soft cheeses. Cottage cheese, cream cheese, quark cheese, soft goat or sheep cheese
are all suitable for this purpose. About one third of "traditional" Liptauer consists of bryndza

Bryndza

Bryndza is a sheep milk cheese made in Central and Eastern Europe. Recipes differ slightly across the countries.-Etymology:Brânză or brînză is the generic word for "cheese" in Romanian, there is no special type of cheese associated with it...

. The cheese is mixed with local sour cream, butter, margarine or beer and finely chopped onions. Spices are added, like ground paprika, fresh parsley

Parsley

Parsley is a species of Petroselinum in the family Apiaceae, native to the central Mediterranean region , naturalized elsewhere in Europe, and widely cultivated as an herb, a spice and a vegetable.- Description :Garden parsley is a bright green hairless biennial herbaceous plant in temperate...

, usually whole caraway seeds (or ground caraway).
Other recipes involve prepared mustard, Worcestershire sauce

Worcestershire sauce

Worcestershire sauce , or Worcester sauce is a fermented liquid condiment; primarily used to flavour meat or fish dishes.First made at 60 Broad Street, Worcester, England, by two dispensing chemists, John Wheeley Lea and William Henry Perrins, the Lea & Perrins brand was commercialised in 1837 and...

, capers or anchovy paste. Consumed on open sandwich

Open sandwich

An open sandwich, also known as an open face/faced sandwich, Ulrich Sandwich, bread baser, or tartine, consists of a single slice of bread with one or more food items on top.- In various countries :...

, toast, crackers, bagels or as a filling in cold dishes like filled tomatoes, peppers, or hard boiled eggs.
In Slovakia and Hungary there are many Liptauer or “körözött” recipes. All families have their own family recipe and they claim that the right körözött is like their own individual interpretations of the dish.
In Serbia, the dish is available in most restaurants that serve local cuisine under the name "Urnebes

Urnebes

Urnebes is a type of salad characteristic of Serbian cuisine prominent in the city of Niš and southern Serbia. It is made of cheese and hot chile peppers, with salt and other spices...

salata" ("Pandemonium salad"). It is often made spicy with paprika, roasted red peppers and egg yolks.