These are small, round cheeses, made from sheep or sometimes goat milk, often served as part of a light lunch, or as part of a hearty dinner. These cheeselets come in four varieties, fresh (friski or tal-ilma), sun dried (moxxi), salt cured (maħsula) or peppered (tal-bżar). The fresh variety have a smooth texture and a subtle, milky creamy flavour and are kept in their own whey in a similar manner to fresh Mozzarella. The sundried variety have a more definite, nutty almost musky, taste, and are fairly hard, but can keep for a long time without refrigeration. The pepper cured variety are covered in crushed black pepper and cured, after which they may be stored in oil, ot sometimes pickled with the addition of vinegar. These last are the tastiest. and their sharp taste becomes more piquant the more they age. They also they develop a lovely crumbly texture. The dried varieties are traditionally served with Galletti an ancient local type of ship’s biscuit and a glass of robust red wine.

”Ġbejniet are often referred to as a goat cheese, as indeed they originally were, though today these are almost always made from sheep milk. In the early 20th Century using unpasteurised milk led to an Undulant Fever epidemic in the Maltese islands. Undulant fever is also referred to as the Maltese Fever since the link between the illness and unpasteurised milk was identified by the eminent Maltese doctor, archaeologist and scholar Sir Temi Zammit. Today thanks to a strict regime of certification of milk animals and widespread use of pasturisation the illness is completely eliminated from the islands and Ġbejniet are not only completely safe to eat, they are a widely used and much appreciated local speciality. Still most Maltese much prefer the tastier unpasteurised artisan-farmer prouced cheeselets to the mass produced vacuum-sealed version!

The widespread belief that Ġbejniet made from pasturised milk are less tasty than those made from unpasturised milk has never been corroborated by scientific evidence. Still, mass produced Ġbejniet, made exclusively from pasturised milk, tend to be less tasty than those produced by the cottage industry that makes use of certified but unpasturised milk.