Crás - the living paper

Everything is better when wrapped in crás! And the cheese... just melts in your mouth.

— Typical Sáveni merchant

Origin

Crás is a paper-like material formed in several steps, starting from fermentation, several cycles of drying and rehydrating and finished by a generous rub of wax. The properties of the crás are strongly related to the fermented substrat.

Varieties

While the largest batches are made from sheep milk (Crás athrôs), there are many others, less common types, e.g.:

• Crás mônos
- made of a number of crustaceans in the Brûdhe region
• Crás 'ârthý
- made of a nut oil emulsion of mâhthâr nuts
• Créás lînnê
- made of a thick brew of Blue lotus rhizoms

Out of all créás lînnê is the rarest as the fabrication process is possible only with the blue type lotus' and these are slow growing and tending to them is difficult.

Characteristics

In hands crás feels a bit like a very thin piece of parchment paper and can be easily mistaken for such. However by looking through it up to the sun or other strong source of light, it can be distinguished. There one would see fibrous patches of light and dark, corresponding to slightly thicker or thinner sections.

It is easily stained by standard ink, which is a handy property for merchants and resellers. Now, unlike parchment, crás sticks together when provided with water and a fermentable substance. This is probably the most widely used property - preparation of long-ripening cheese. Apart from athrôs only mônos and lînnê are really valued. The 'ârthý crás gives a mellow flavor and does not give that pungent punch like the other types. It is used for very delicate fruit, which can dry perfectly when left in shaded areas. Here, crás 'ârthý is perfect, because not only does it keep delicate skin from ripping, but enables concentration of flavor.

Fun fact

Crás lînnê darkens over time to the color of the night sky. The cheeses fermented in such wrap are called blue-struck and show complex motifs of interlacing deep blue veining.

Type

Organic