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List of Levantine Cheeses

This is a list of cheeses from the eastern Mediterranean region of West Asia known as the Levant.

Due to the extensive history of livestock and agricultural domestication in the area since ancient times, nations in the Levant share highly similar foods, particularly dairy products like cheese. There are several traditional varieties of cheese most commonly found throughout the Levant, including ackawi, baladi, jibneh arabieh, jibneh mshallale, nabulsi, and surke.

Types of cheese

Some of the most common types of cheese from the Levant are:

Ackawi

Akkawi cheese served with cherries

Ackawi (also called akawi, akkawi, and akawieh) is a white cheese with a complex flavor. It is an Arab Palestinian cheese originating from the Palestinian port town of Akka, today known as Acre, Israel (Akka in Arabic). This cheese is commonly made using pasteurized cow's milk but can be made with goat or sheep's milk. It is produced on a large scale in Israel, Jordan, Syria and Palestine.

Baladi

Baladi is a soft-white, smooth, creamy cheese with a mild flavour, usually spread on fresh bread or crackers and most often eaten for breakfast or snacks.

Baladi is fresh, traditionally unpasteurized, and uncultured and is made with a mixture of goat, cow and sheep's milk. Its diverse microflora, high moisture, uncultured, and unpasteurized nature tend to limit shelf life to three days.

Jibneh Arabieh

Blocks of jibneh arabieh/baida cheese

Jibneh Arabieh (Arabic for "Arab cheese") is also referred to as jibneh baida ("white cheese"). It is found throughout the Middle East and is particularly popular in Egypt and Eastern Arabia. It is a fresh cheese with a milky quality, a pronounced saltiness, medium-firmness, and excellent meltability. It can also be boiled before eating. While the product originated with Bedouins using goat or sheep milk, the current practice is to use cow's milk and to add mahleb, a spice ground from pits of the Prunus mahaleb cherry for a "slightly salty, sweet and nutty” flavor. Jibneh Arabieh is used for cooking or simply as a table cheese.

Majdoule

Majdoule (or, madjoul) means “braided” in Arabic. It is a salty white string cheese made up of thick strands braided together.

Firm, white nabulsi cheese studded with black caraway seeds

Nabulsi

Nabulsi is a semi-hard cheese that is sometimes called by its Jordanian dessert name, kenafa, or kunafeh. It has a dense texture and melts easily. This cheese can be either salted or unsalted and is made from pasteurized milk from sheep, goats, or camels. It is also used as a base for other sweet-cheese desserts.

Shelal

Shelal (also known as mshalshe) is a salty, white string cheese made up of strands woven together. It is typically consumed in Lebanon and Syria.

Shanklish cheese cut in half

Shanklish cheese balls

Surke

Surke (also called sorke or shanklish) is a mature cheese made with spices and generally presented as balls covered in za'tar orchile powder or other dry herbs (thyme, oregano, garlic, and/or chili pepper). It is most often eaten as a starter dish with tomato, oil, and sometimes onion.

Jibneh Mshallale

Jibneh mshallale (or, tresse cheese) is a form of string cheese originating in Syria. It is a fresh cheese, typically made from a combination of milks from cows, sheep, or goats.

Turkomani

Turkomani (also known as Türkmen) is a soft, porous cheese with a delicate flavor that can be consumed fresh or aged in bags made from animal skins. It can be made with non-fat cow’s milk or sheep’s milk.

Rather than emphasizing ethnic affiliation, Türkmen was a general term that historically referred to the lifestyle of nomadic peoples across Western and Central Asia during the Ottoman Empire.