In 1970, the average American was eating about 8 pounds of cheese per year. Since then, that number has increased drastically. Today, Americans eat about 40 pounds a year! As this number went up, so did cheese prices. One specific cheese stands out among the rest when it comes to pricy dairy.
Pule is the most expensive cheese in the world, and with good reason.
It can go for as much as $1700 per pound and remains one of the world’s most expensive foods alongside truffles and caviar. This fancy cheese is made from the milk of a Balkan donkey, rather than your typical cow or goat. Only one man in the entire world produces this valuable cheese, a Serbian dairyman named Slobodan Simic.
Costs of labor are a huge factor in producing pule. The female donkeys produce 1-2 liters of milk a day and about twenty-five liters of milk are required to make just one kilogram of cheese!
Despite pule’s hefty price tag, it can be pretty difficult to track it down. It’s very difficult to purchase, but you may get lucky and try a taste of it if you take a visit to the Serbian dairy farm.
