Sirene Cheese substitute

Best substitute

Greek feta

Use the same amount as the sirene cheese you are replacing

Best for shopska salad

Close match

Greek feta is the practical answer and swaps 1:1, close enough that nobody will notice it in a shopska salad. Bulgarian-style white brined cheese, sold in Balkan and Turkish shops, is often literally the same product under a different label. Turkish beyaz peynir is closer still, being a little milder and creamier than Greek feta. If your feta is very salty, rinse it and pat it dry, then taste the dish before adding any salt.

Other sirene cheese substitutes

Ranked, with the exact amount to use

2Bulgarian-style white brined cheese
Close match
Use the same amount
Often the same cheese with a different label on the tub, sometimes marketed as Bulgarian feta.
What changes
Softer, creamier and slightly less sharp than Greek feta, which is exactly the direction sirene sits in. No adjustment needed at all.
Best for
shopska salad, banitsa, cold plates, baked pastries
Look in Balkan, Turkish, Russian and Middle Eastern shops. If the tub says white brined cheese and the milk is sheep or sheep and cow, you have found it.
3Turkish beyaz peynir
Close match
Use the same amount
The same brined white cheese tradition, usually milder, creamier and less sharply salty than Greek feta, which puts it closer to sirene than feta is.
What changes
Crumbles a little more softly and melts into a banitsa filling more smoothly.
Best for
banitsa, shopska salad, breakfast plates, filo pastries
Widely available wherever there is a Turkish grocer and often cheaper than Greek feta. Full-fat sheep's or mixed milk versions are the closest.
4Ricotta salata
Different taste
Use the same amount by weight
The dryness and the crumb are right, and it grates cleanly over a salad.
What changes
It is much milder and far less salty than sirene, so a shopska salad made with it tastes gentle and a banitsa loses most of its savoury punch.
Best for
shopska salad, grating over vegetables, salads, baked dishes
Add extra salt to the dish, roughly half a teaspoon per 200g of cheese, and a squeeze of lemon for the missing tang. Good if you dislike very salty cheese.
5Dry cottage cheese or farmer's cheese, salted
Different taste
Use the same amount plus ½ tsp fine salt and a squeeze of lemon per 200g
Drain it well first.
What changes
The texture is genuinely good for a banitsa filling, soft and slightly curdy, and once salted and acidulated it does the job. What it lacks is the fermented brined depth, so it tastes fresh and simple rather than sharp and savoury.
Best for
banitsa filling, filled pastries, baked dishes
The cheapest workable route. Drain it in a sieve for at least twenty minutes; wet curd makes a soggy filo base. Not a good choice for a raw salad, where the missing tang is obvious.
6Halloumi, finely grated
Taste and texture differ
Use the same amount
Has the salt but not the behaviour.
What changes
It is squeaky and rubbery rather than crumbly, so in a salad it eats like little cubes of resistance, and in a bake it stays firm instead of softening into the filling the way sirene does.
Best for
emergencies, baked dishes where firm cheese is acceptable
Grate it on the fine holes so it disperses. Honestly the weakest option here, and worth avoiding for shopska salad specifically, where the texture of the cheese is a large part of the dish.

What is Sirene Cheese?

Sirene Cheese is Sirene is the soft-to-firm, very salty white brined cheese of Bulgaria, sold as telemea in Romania and made from sheep's, cow's or mixed milk, and it is the cheese grated over shopska salad and baked into banitsa.

Cooking tips

Sirene is packed in brine and is salty enough to season an entire dish on its own. Never salt a shopska salad before you have tasted it with the cheese already on top, because the tomatoes and cucumber will pull salt out of the cheese as they sit.
For shopska, grate the cheese on the coarse holes of a box grater rather than crumbling it. The white snowdrift covering the salad is the point of the dish, and grated cheese clings to the wet tomato and pepper where crumbles slide to the bottom of the bowl.
For banitsa, mix the crumbled cheese with the eggs and a spoonful of yogurt or soda water before layering. Dry cheese scattered straight between filo sheets bakes into a crumbly seam and slides out of the slice when you cut it.
Feta straight from the brine is wet. Drain it on kitchen paper for ten minutes before it goes into any pastry, or the moisture soaks into the bottom filo layers and the base never crisps.
Sirene softens and browns rather than stretching, so if a Bulgarian recipe seems to want melted stringy cheese as well, it is asking for kashkaval alongside the sirene, not more sirene.
Store any of these cheeses in their own brine, or in lightly salted water if the brine has been used up. Left dry in the fridge they harden at the edges and turn unpleasantly sour within a few days.

Frequently asked questions

What is the best substitute for sirene cheese?

Greek feta, one for one, which is close enough that a shopska salad made with it tastes right. If a Balkan, Turkish or Middle Eastern shop is nearby, Bulgarian-style white brined cheese is often the same product under another name, and Turkish beyaz peynir is arguably closer still since it is milder and creamier than Greek feta.

Is sirene the same as feta?

They are the same kind of cheese rather than the same cheese: both are white cheeses cured in brine, traditionally from sheep's milk. Sirene tends to be softer, wetter and slightly milkier, while Greek feta is usually drier, firmer and more assertive. The gap is small enough that feta is a genuine substitute and not a compromise.

Can I leave the sirene out of banitsa?

No, because it is providing all of the salt and most of the flavour in the filling, and a banitsa without it is buttered filo and egg. If you have no brined cheese at all, well-drained dry cottage cheese or farmer's cheese with half a teaspoon of salt and a squeeze of lemon per 200g will carry the dish, just with a milder, fresher flavour.

Is sirene the same as telemea?

They are the Bulgarian and Romanian names for essentially the same style of brined white cheese, and recipes calling for either will accept the other without adjustment. Telemea is sometimes a little firmer and saltier depending on the producer, so as always, taste before you salt the rest of the dish.

My feta is much drier than sirene. Does it matter?

In a salad, not at all. In banitsa it does, because sirene is often wetter and gives a softer, more custardy filling. If your feta is firm and dry, mash a couple of tablespoons of yogurt or an extra egg into the cheese mixture and the filling will set soft rather than crumbly.

Related substitutes

More cheese substitutes

Sirene Cheese substitute

Other sirene cheese substitutes

2Bulgarian-style white brined cheese

3Turkish beyaz peynir

4Ricotta salata

5Dry cottage cheese or farmer's cheese, salted

6Halloumi, finely grated