Fried Cheese (Vyprážaný syr)
Ingredients: cheese, egg, flour, bread crumbs, potato, oil, salt, tomato, cucumber, canned pears
Prep time: 20 minutes
If you are looking for something heart-healthy, move on and skip this recipe. Otherwise, let’s fry some cheese! Fried cheese is quite popular. You will likely find this dish offered in most restaurants. Street food vendors also often sell fried cheese sandwiches. These are especially popular in Prague, on the Wenceslas Square (Václavské náměstí). They are kind of like a hamburger, but instead of a beef patty, you get a slice of fried cheese. Just a note of warning. You will be dealing with hot oil and sticky cheese. This could be a bad combination, so be careful when flipping the cheese so you don’t get hurt.
Potatoes take longer, so start by making french fries (hranolky). Peel potatoes, cut them into slices, and fry in salted oil.
Next, heat oil in another frying pan, and then prepare the cheese. My local supermarket had a mysterious shortage of block cheese today, and so I used pre-sliced Provolone. But normally you would want to take the cheese (Provolone and Muenster work well), and cut it into half-inch thick slices. Sidenote: as commented below, Edam is the cheese used in Slovakia
Arrange three bowls in a row. Put flour in the first, well-mixed egg in the second, and plain bread crumbs in the third. Coat the cheese slice in flour, …
… in egg, …
… and in bread crumbs. Fry, carefully flipping once the cheese starts melting (about two minutes). I use two spatulas to flip the cheese. Fry the second half for a shorter time, not even a minute.
Garnish with tomato and cucumber. Serve with tartar sauce. Sliced canned pears go well with this dish. Enjoy!
I wanted to thank my roommate Omar for helping out with the french fries. He is on his way to be a great cook!
Boze tak by som si dala! mnam!!!
Fried cheese forever!
EDAM CHEESE SHOULD BE THE CHEESE YOU USE IN SLOVAKIA.. IT’S IN EVERY STORE HERE IN THE U.S…..OTHERWISE,YES,IT’S GREAT..
Thanks Kip! Yeah, I wasn’t sure which cheese works the best. I have tried this dish with a variety of cheeses, and I have concluded that frying makes anything taste great…
what kind of supermarket doesnt have block cheese? maybe you can go to the deli and ask them to give you 1/2″ slices.
I just wanted to say that I love this site.
Greetings from Tim. 🙂
I love this recipe, my husband said” there is a special sauce that goes with this dish & it is not TARTAR SAUCE. He said he had it when he when to restaurant in Slovak. He said it made the dish really taste awesome. Do you know how to make this sauce, or maybe you can ask your mother. I really would aspirate it
Thank you a fan your web site
Karen, it actually is tartar sauce – but not the American kind. Check the About page for the Slovak tartar sauce recipes: Miro’s recipes and Gabriela’s recipe.
Cheese…
LOok for LOW FAT EDAM cheese, usually 20-30% of fat. As better as lower.
The reason is not the health. Just simply, low fat edam cheese doesn’t melt so quickly.
Never, but really NEVER, go under 45% (in worst case 40%). Yes, it is a bit more tricky, but it is worth it. Use a small pan (only a little bigger than the slice of the cheese), fill with 2-3 cm of sunflower oil (no, oil made of extra virgins 😎 does not work well here) and let it heat up properly. Provided that the temperature is high enough, the bread crumbs quickly create sort of crust around the cheese, so the cheese will not “run-away”. Just make sure the oil covers also the top of the cheese.
I have an anecdote about fried cheese. The last time my husband and I went to Slovakia, his sister cooked fried cheese for us, with french fries and tartar sauce. I loved it! So, when we went to Bratislava, we had lunch in a restaurant on the road. My husband told me there was fried cheese, and I asked for that dish. The waitress asked us: “Tatarku?”. My husband was very surprised because his last name was Tatarka, so he thought the waitress knew him! But I understood she was asking for the sauce. It was very funny!
Hehe, you know, that’s the first thing that came to my mind when you posted your first comment few months ago. Tatarka means “tartar sauce” in Slovak. So I hope you like this dish, you are almost named after it, after all…
Oh Lubos, thank you so much.
I live in New Zealand, just got back from Slovakia and apparently the new Slovak dish is now the fried cheese with chips, not bryndzove halusky anymore. It’s sad though, as that was our national dish since I can remember.
BTW, I found this website somehow on google and I love it!!
Cau Lenka,
When was the last time you’ve been to Slovakia before this trip? I remember fried cheese with fries being very popular even when I was still a kid. Bryndzove Halusky are the official national dish, but are not all that common. You pretty much have to go to a Koliba restaurant (like U. Sv. Kristofa which is above my hometown of Banska Bystrica) to find them on the menu.
Thank you very much for your kind words. Please let your friends know about slovakcooking.com, and also get your e-copy of the recipe book.
I love fried cheesee..I live in Uk and I never know which cheesse to buy for it. This dish is always first dish I order when I go back to Slovakia.. Sometimes I have it with ham in middle…yummy
I have found that is almost impossible to find cheese in UK which will not run out whilst frying. Now I just buy already coated cheese from Aldi. It taste very good and it is baked in oven so not too unhealthy.
Katarina, I really think that you may find a cheese that’ll do OK. It has to be a semi hard cheese, Edam does good but frankly I like a Provolone. I am sure you can find it somewhere in England, as it’s a typical in many Italian dishes, etc, and there are Italian’ delicatessen shops in England. I go and ask to make me a slices about 1/2 inch (none of that packaged thing slices).
The way to do it without “running.” Heat the oil on a high temp (vegetarian oil like canola in the US, is better than olive oil, if you use olive oil use the regular not virgin oil, as it can be heated to much higher degree, but vegie oils are even better for a higher temp without burning and catching on fire.)
Use more oil than you would say to sear the meat. Cheese should be submerged in oil, don’t worry it’s even healthier that just baking it dry. If you don’t submerge it in oil, a bottom of cheese piece will get heated fast but the top of it will not, it’ll just melt and run. When submerged, it’ll create the crust around the whole piece without running.
Now if you use less oil, you still can do it, but you better be fast at turning it over and get the heat to the other side, to evenly distribute the heat while closing the crust.
Yes, the cheese is tricky, unlike the meat, it’ll run when not fried properly.
Musi byt ,,low fat,, a preto je tvdsi a neroztecie sa. najlepsi je udeny edam. Ja v johannesburgu vyberam tvdy syr ked nemaju ,, low fat,, a pred vyprazanim ho dam na pol hodinu do mraznika. m
Our stores don’t sell Edam cheese.
Which cheese would be the most similar in Midwest US to buy? We tried so many and none of them come close.
We used to bring the Edam cheese from Europe, however flying these days is not as much fun anymore – and therefore no more fried cheese for us. We love to eat it.
We do fry once in a while Brie cheese (similar to Hermelin), which is good, but it leaks too much. Hermelin is much smaller size and maybe therefore it stays intact better while there is more of the white portion around?
I read on the Internet recently that freezing the cheese before frying will prevent it from leaking while frying. Does anyone have experience with this? I do double cover the cheese, but this does not help too much. I use quiet bit of oil for the frying, so it wouldn’t cool down too fast, however I have only seldom fried cheese intact.
We make our own tartar sauce as well, just mayo, sour cream, finely chopped polish pickles, and pepper. Let it sit in a fridge for little and it tastes great. I am sure it is not as good as the original Tatarská omáčka purchased in Slovakia or Czech Republic, but is way much better that the one sold in our stores.
Oh and did you have the fried cheese covered in potato pancake yet? Ďalšia mňamka!
Aby syr z trojobalu nevytiekol, vyprážajte ho v malom množstve oleja, maximálne do polovice výšky syra.
i just recently made this with ostiepok (smoked sheep’s milk cheese) which some friends brought from slovakia on their visit to ohio. absolutely delicious! reminds me being a child in bratislava during the 70s.
Ahoj ja vam mozem dat recept na domacu tatarsku ktoru robim doma s Americkych surovin.
2 lyzice mayo
2 lyzice kysley smotany
postruhanu kyslu uhorku
trosku citronovej stavy
cerstvu petrzlenovu alebo koprovu vnatku
a az sa ziada trosku cukru
Doma tatarsku papame k vyprazanemu syru alebo k reznom s opekanymi zemiackami.
Dobru chut.
Ja davam este nadrobno posekanu cibulku, trochu horcice, sol ,cierne korenie, cukor ako spominate. Aby syr nevytiekol , treba ho dat na pol hodiny obaleny do mraznika a potom hned vyprazat. Dobry je aj Camembert/Encian/ tiez v trojobale. V auguste idem do Banskej Bystrice tak sa neviem dockat na udeny syr specialne na vyprazanie, a drzkovu polievku. Zase priberiem 10 kg ale stoji to zato. LOL
muy buenas recetas de eslovaquia y comida y postres deliciosos
Gracias Carlos.
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ahoj !
anyone know which cheese is the most suitable for this dish in western Australia ?
can I use the “tasty” cheese ?
Viktor, Edam cheese is very common in Australia; I can always find blocks of Edam at Coles or Woolworths. When I was growing up in Australia, my parents always just used regular tasty block cheese(COON brand)though.