🍽️ DINNER
Mămăligă cu Brânză și Smântână
Golden polenta layered with salty sheep’s cheese and cool sour cream, Carpathian shepherd food, unchanged for centuries.
Romanian · easy · serves 4
prep 5 min · cook 35 min
~664 cal · 15g protein · 61g carbs · 42g fat · 5g fiber · 3g sugars · 26g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
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AI-generated illustration
Mamaliga is Romania's cornmeal , and for centuries it was the daily bread of the countryside, so central that it was cut not with a knife but with a length of thread drawn through the firm golden loaf. Cornmeal, water, and salt, stirred patiently over the fire, are all it takes.
At the shepherd camps high in the Carpathians it was cooked thick enough to stand, and it is inseparable from two things made in those same mountains: branza de burduf, a pungent sheep's cheese traditionally aged in pine bark, and smantana, the thick soured cream. Hot mamaliga, salty cheese, and cool cream form what Transylvanians treat as a kind of holy trinity.
Once looked down on as poor people's food, it has become a point of pride, served under a fried egg, alongside a stew, or crisped in a pan the next day. Simple as it is, it carries the taste of the highland pastures where so much of Romanian country cooking begins.
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Make it yours
✓ Naturally vegetarian and gluten-, nut-, egg- and pork-free. No swaps needed.
Toggle a diet and the ingredients rewrite themselves with regional substitutes.
🥕 Vegetarian
🌱 Vegan
🌾 Gluten-Free
🥛 Dairy-Free
🥜 Nut-Free
🥚 Egg-Free
🐖 Pork-Free
Dietary labels are a cooking guide, not allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish; we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, read the label on every product you use, and note that a kitchen can cross-contaminate in ways a recipe cannot control.
Ingredients
US
Metric
Serves 4
- 2 cups coarse yellow cornmeal
- 6 cups water
- 1.5 tsp salt
- 1.5 cups brânză (salty sheep’s cheese) or feta, crumbled
- 1 cup smântână (sour cream)
- 2 tbsp butter
Instructions
- 1Bring the salted water to a boil in a heavy pot, then rain the cornmeal in slowly in a thin stream, whisking without stopping.✎ Chef’s noteUse a whisk, not a wooden spoon, and pour the cornmeal in slowly. Whisking is what breaks up the grains as they hit the water; tip it in fast, or stir with a spoon, and you get lumps you will never beat out. Medium or coarse malai too: very fine cornmeal turns to porridge.
- 2Drop the heat to its lowest, whisk another minute or two as it thickens, then cover and let it cook gently 10 minutes.
- 3Beat in the butter, then turn the heat off and leave it covered another 10 minutes to firm up.
- 4For the sliceable version, put the heat back on for one minute, lay a wooden board over the pot and turn the whole thing upside down.✎ Chef’s noteThat last minute of heat loosens the crust against the pot, and the trapped steam does the rest: the mămăligă slides out whole and holds its shape on the board. Cut it with a length of string rather than a knife, the way Romanians do.
- 5Layer into bowls: hot mămăligă, crumbled cheese so it half-melts, more mămăligă, more cheese.
- 6Crown with cold sour cream and eat while the layers are still three temperatures. A string-cut wedge on a wooden board earns extra points.
Transylvanian shepherd tradition.
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🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
Transylvania. Mamaliga is younger than it feels. Maize only reached these mountains after the Atlantic crossings, and the porridge that replaced an older millet mush became so ordinary that it still stands in for bread, cut with a thread rather than a knife and eaten with sour cream and salty telemea.
🗺️
Romania. Mamaliga is a peasant staple that outlived its own necessity. Maize arrived through Ottoman channels and replaced millet, and the polenta made from it is still cut with a thread rather than a knife in some households, served with sheep cheese, soured cream and a fried egg. Sarmale are Ottoman in origin and shared across the Balkans rather than Romanian alone.
🌍
Europe. A surprising amount of European cooking is under five hundred years old. Tomatoes, potatoes, peppers, maize, beans and chocolate all crossed from the Americas after 1492, and none of them was trusted quickly: the potato took most of the eighteenth century to be accepted as food rather than animal fodder across much of the north.
The story behind this dish is up top, worth a read while the pot works.
More from Romania
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MiciSkinless grilled minced-meat rolls seasoned with garlic and spice, Romania's smoky, garlicky barbecue staple.
PapanașiFried curd-cheese doughnuts topped with sour cream and tart jam, a warm Romanian dessert.
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Good to know
You’ll need: Pot or saucepan, Whisk.
Storing it: Thickens as it sits. Reheat with extra water or milk to loosen, and keep 2 to 3 days refrigerated.
Make it a Romania meal
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PapanașiDessert
MiciLunch
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Frequently asked questions
What is Mămăligă cu Brânză și Smântână?
Golden polenta layered with salty sheep’s cheese and cool sour cream, Carpathian shepherd food, unchanged for centuries.
Where does Mămăligă cu Brânză și Smântână come from?
Mămăligă cu Brânză și Smântână is a Romanian dish from Transylvania, Romania.
Can Mămăligă cu Brânză și Smântână be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Mămăligă cu Brânză și Smântână recipe includes substitution suggestions for vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free, egg-free, and pork-free versions. Treat the substitutions as a starting guide rather than a guarantee, and see the allergen note below.
Is Mămăligă cu Brânză și Smântână safe for people with food allergies?
Our dietary labels and substitutions are a cooking guide, not medical or allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we still count coconut as a tree nut to be cautious, although the FDA stopped listing it as one in 2025), fish, and shellfish, but we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, always read the label on every product you use, and remember a home or commercial kitchen can cross-contaminate ingredients in ways a recipe cannot control.
How long does Mămăligă cu Brânză și Smântână take to make?
About 40 minutes total (5 minutes prep, 35 minutes cooking), serving 4.
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