| Urda | |
| Othernames: | Urdha, Urdă, Vurda, Orda, Izvara, Zsendice |
| Country: | Albania, Bulgaria, Hungary, Kosovo, Moldova, North Macedonia, Romania, Serbia, Ukraine |
| Region: | Balkans |
| Source: | Cow, Sheep, Goat |
| Pasteurized: | Traditionally, no |
| Texture: | Fresh |
Urda (Albanian: urdha, indefinite form: ; Bulgarian: урда, извара|urda, izvara; Macedonian: урда, изварка|urda, izvarka; Romanian; Moldavian; Moldovan: urdă; Serbian: {{lang|sr-Cyrl|вурда; Ukrainian: вурда|vurda; Hungarian: orda, zsendice) is a sort of whey cheese commonly produced in Southeast Europe,[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] and Hungary.[6] [7]
The name derives from Albanian, from Proto-Albanian *wurdā, from an earlier form *urdā or *uordā, ultimately derived from Proto-Indo-European "to boil, to burn". It is cognate to Old Armenian (vaṙim, "to burn"), Lithuanian ("to cook, to boil"). It is semantically relevant that this cheese is produced by boiling whey. The Albanian term has been borrowed to other Balkan and Carpathian languages, notably Romanian,[8] but also Bulgarian, Hungarian, Serbian, Slovak, Rusyn, Polish, Czech, and Russian languages.
Urda is made from whey of sheep, goat or cow milk. Urda is produced by heating the whey resulting from the draining of any type of cheese. It is often made into molds to the shape of a half sphere. The paste is finely grained, silky and palatable. It contains 18 grams of protein per 100 grams.
Urda is similar to ricotta in the way it is produced.
In Romania, urda is traditionally used in the preparation of several desserts, such as clătită and plăcintă. Urda is very popular in Northeast part of Serbia — Banat.