The Cheese Wheel from Prahova - a traditional Romanian delight

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Put logs in the stove and heat up fresh milk freshly milked from the cow in a copper cauldron. Add rennet to make it into a sweet curd. Gather the warm curd into a vessel and let it ferment for a while. When it becomes elastic and you can stretch it without fear of tearing it, cut it into thin slices. Mix them in a cauldron with hot salted water and rotate them slowly. Remove the curd, knead it well, and place it in a mold to drain all the whey. Soak the cooled cheese in brine for a day. Look at how smooth and beautiful it has become. After refrigerating it, leave it in the smokehouse with plum, beech, or birch wood for two nights. When you take it out, it will have a pale yellow-brown color and will be perfect for eating or using in other old recipes.

This is the vault (cașcaveaua) from the Doftana Valley, a yellow and velvety wheel with a unique unmistakable taste. Its circular shape symbolizes the rhythms of the seasons, the passage of time, and the perpetual movement of nature. In the perfect aroma of the vault, the wonders of the Doftana Valley have gathered: the wild meadows, the field flowers, the souls of the people, and the wood of the forests that abound here.

Along the Doftana River, in the villages of Teșila and Trăisteni, people have known how to preserve the memories of their ancestors in gastronomic culture. It tells stories of clear waters with silver trout, ancient forests full of mushrooms, or different and delicious cheese products. Whether you go for a visit to a mountain hut and discover the best polenta paired with unique panoramas, stop by the trout farm, or have lunch at Mama Lili's, you will find that the places and people will conquer you. And you will have no choice but to return with a desire for life and culinary experiences in the fresh and good mountain air.

The specific delights of the Doftana Valley, such as the vault, vegetable zacusca, ember-cooked polenta, pork knuckle with beans in a cauldron, mushroom stew, porcini mushroom stew, scovergi with vault, vault in polenta, jams, syrups, or local brandy, can be tasted in the welcoming home of Mama Lili. It is the unique Local Gastronomic Point and awaits you for lunch or dinner at the end of the week with local natural products. And if you arrive in the autumn in the Doftana Valley, you will find it dressed in the attire of a unique celebration - the Vault Festival. For over 20 years, the people of Doftana have gathered to celebrate the famous vault, which, they say, is neither cheese nor cheese. But it has a bit of both and maybe more than both together. One thing is certain, it is produced by almost all households, and that makes it diverse. They say that the incomparable and unforgettable taste of this unfermented cheese, very lightly salted and smoked, captures the aroma of field flowers with a hint of sea buckthorn. So you too are expected to discover this local product celebrated for three days in the Doftana Valley.

And don't forget that you can experience many things in the Doftana Valley:

bicycle or ATV tours, hiking in places that are only found here, delicious picnics. Whether you climb to Mount Secăria where you can see far away the peaks of the mountains, descend to Lake Paltinul - that small mountain sea with impressive shades of emerald, or discover the ancient Glodeasa Forest - a virgin beech and fir forest reserve with remarkable landscape diversity, you will find here peace and the joy of life.
visits to various craftsmen in the area.
Sânzienelor Workshop is a place where you leave with difficulty because here Loredana Florentina Clinci will delight you with her bright smile, the collection of traditional old objects, the weaving loom where you can even learn to work, and the handmade products with a lot of skill by her and a few locals (shirts, blouses, belts, jewelry, toys, and many more).
The Chainsaw carving workshop of spouses Gabriel Cernat and Roxana Lucaci, the only woman in the country who makes such sculptures. It's a spectacle to watch them transform wood into different creatures, bears, horses, or rabbits.