Serbian Cuisine

Serbian cuisine is a Balkan culinary tradition encompassing the cooking methods and customs of Serbia, shaped by Byzantine, Ottoman and Austro Hungarian influence arising from the country's position between East and West. It favors fresh, high quality ingredients and mild, natural flavors seasoned mainly with salt, black pepper and paprika, and it developed from a pastoral heritage that emphasized animal husbandry over vegetable farming, leaving grains such as corn, wheat and oats and a wealth of animal products at its center. Cheese, pies and bread appear in nearly every meal and meat in at least one, with pork especially prominent once sheep herding gave way to swine raising, producing an extensive tradition of cured meats. National dishes include sarma, stuffed cabbage rolls, gibanica, a cheese pie, pljeskavica, a grilled meat patty, cevapi, grilled minced meat, and gulas and paprikas, both stewed meat dishes, accompanied by rakia, fruit brandy regarded as the national drink.