This is reflected in the 11th-century Turkish dictionary, Divanu Lugat-it-Turk, written by Mahmut of Kasgar between 1072 and 1074, in which he cites the words udma and udhitma for fresh cheese, and translates the Turkish sentence Ol udhitma uditti as he made cheese. The verb “udhitmak” originated from Uighur Turkish and meant to put to sleep, to make solid or to leaven, so etymology reveals the delightful idea of milk solidified into fresh one being ‘sleeping milk’.
The modern Turkish word for cheese: “peynir” first occurs in the Book of Dede Korkut, a collection of orally transmitted legends which were first written down in the 12th and 13th centuries. Evidently, this word first entered the Turkish language following the migration from Central Asia. The Turkmen tribes knew how to make several different varieties of peynir and must have adopted this new term for them on their way westwards through Iran or after their arrival in Anatolia.
Anatolia already had its own style and varieties originating in antiquity. Writing about the northwestern region today encompassing Bolu, Izmit, and Iznik, the famous historian Strabo says, In the interior of Bithynia above Tieion is Salona, where alone are the finest pastures for cattle and where Salonites is made.
In his history of the Ottoman dynasty, Asikpasazade (1400 – 1484) writes that Osman Gazi gave gifts of peynir, dried yogurt, fat and clotted cream to the Byzantine rulers of Bilecik in return for protecting the property left behind in their winter settlements by the Ottoman tribes in their seasonal migrations to the summer pastures with their herds.
The Code of Law issued in 1502 by Beyazit II gives the names of peynir from all over the Ottoman Empire which were sold in the markets of Istanbul: fresh lor, kaba lor, fresh dil, fresh cayir, Mudurnu, Sumnu, Karaman, Sofia, Esme, Midilli (Mytilene), teleme, brine (white or feta), Limni (Limnos) tulum ( made in a goatskin bag), Izmit tulum, Rumelia tulum, fresh kaskaval and Balkan kaskaval.
Today there is a general misconception among Turkish urban dwellers that Turkey does not possess a wide range of cheeses. This is because few regional kinds of peynir find their way into city shops. In fact, there are a great many varieties, many little are known outside the area where they are made, a finding which is not surprising in a land which has been home to many civilizations over thousands of years.
I will begin a brief tour of Turkey’s peynir with cokelek, made from the whey leftover from the cheesemaking. The people of Anatolia who, as the expression has it squeeze bread out of a stone, neglect none of milk’s potential and process it in every possible way. Even the greenish-yellow liquid known as whey leftover from making it or lor (a soft curd) from the milk is not discarded. When the whey is boiled up a new curd known as cokelek or cokelik forms.
Apart from the plain cokelek sold in Turkey’s large city markets and shops, there are many interesting regional varieties that are either eaten fresh or preserved by pressing into goatskin bags or pottery jars or alternatively dried in the sun. Some examples of these are Inebolu sut cokeleği, Giresun cokeleği which is used as a filling for the famous Black Sea pide (thinly rolled bread dough with various fittings on top baked in the oven), Rize’s kurci which is eaten with cornbread for breakfast, Kars cokelek which is used as a filling for layered pastries and in salads, the Jaji of Bitlis, Afyon’s Emirdag cokelek which is preserved in lambskins, the Kirk Tokmak of Milas, and Hatay tulum cokelek which is mixed with fresh thyme and black cumin seeds.
A close relative of cokelek is kurut, dried bricks of yogurt made of low-fat milk or of cokelek made from buttermilk. In some regions, kurut is known as kes. Since it has a lower fat content it keeps well. Some of the best-known regional varieties are the kurut of Kars and Bitlis, the surk (dried cokelek) of Hatay, the kes of Mengen and Giresun, and the dried cokelek of Aydin. Lor is a soft fresh one, a relative of the somewhat harder textured Ricotta of Italy and the Greek Myzithra and Anthotiro. It is produced by dairies making
Lor is a soft fresh one, a relative of the somewhat harder textured Ricotta of Italy and the Greek Myzithra and Anthotiro. It is produced by dairies making kasar (a hard yellow one) from sheep’s milk. Lor with a variety of flavors is also made in rural homes from the whey leftover from cheesemaking. Lor is eaten without salt or very lightly salted, so it does not keep well. It is an ingredient of various savory dishes, layered borek
Lor is eaten without salt or very lightly salted, so it does not keep well. It is an ingredient of various savory dishes, layered borek pastries, and puddings. For breakfast or as a snack fresh lor is delicious with sugar, honey or jam.
The lor of Kirklareli made from kasar whey is well known to connoisseurs, and other delicious varieties are the lor of Mustafakemalpasa (near Bursa), Manyas in Balikesir, and above all of Savastepe, all made from Mihalic whey. There are tastes common to both sides of the Aegean. For example, the fresh
There are tastes common to both sides of the Aegean. For example, the fresh lor of Ayvalik in Balikesir is left to drain in a basket mold and eaten fresh, like its counterpart on the island of Mytilene. The Kirlihanim made from lor in Ayvalik, Foca and Karaburun are also made in Greece. When mixed with strained yogurt and olive oil it makes an hors-d’oeuvre fit for a pasha. The kopanisti of Cesme and Karaburun is another shared element of Aegean cuisine.
Other regional varieties of lor in Turkey are Antalya lor, Kars kurtlu, the kurtlu lor of Yusufeli in Artvin, the Minzi of Camlihemsin in Rize, Trabzon Minzi, tel mixed and Rize’s ayran cheeses.
By far the most widely consumed type in Turkey is beyaz (white) peynir, which can be eaten fresh or after maturing in brine. Teleme is a type of white one made almost everywhere in Turkey by straining the pressed curds, sometimes in a bag hung from the ceiling. Soft, high-fat white ones made usually of ewe’s milk in the northwestern regions of Trakya and Marmara are the most highly esteemed. The high-quality ewe’s milk of Ezine, Biga and the area around Edirne means that their white cheeses pickled in brine are superb. Antalya’s white cheese made of a mixture of goat’s and cow’s milk also deserves mention.
The ones mixed with herbs are a subdivision of the white cheese family and traditionally made from ewe’s or goat’s milk, but in recent years of a mixture of these with cow’s milk. To the white cheese is added 15 percent or less wild herbs. These cheeses have always been well known in eastern and southeastern Anatolia (Kars, Agri, Diyarbakir, Van, Siirt, Hakkari, Mus and Bitlis), and are becoming increasingly familiar in Turkey’s major cities.
There are many varieties of these herb ones. That made in Van contains wild garlic, while that of Bitlis contains a local herb known as sof otu which grows in damp situations. Horsemint (Mentha long folio) and Pimpinella rhodentha are other herbs used.
Fresh one spoils quickly, which is why preservation processes such as pickling in brine, pressing into skins, being left to mature under soil or sand or in caves, or lightly blueing with mold have developed.
Tulum – preserved in a goatskin (hairy side outwards) – is widely made everywhere in Turkey apart from Trakya. The finest are those of Erzincan, Erzurum and the alpine pastures of the Toros mountains dividing central Anatolia from the Mediterranean coast.
Kaskaval (fresh kasar) and mature kasar are densely textured cheeses native to Anatolia, which is where the Turks made their acquaintance. The most famous one is the kasar of Trakya, which is molded into drums 16 cm high and 30 cm in diameter and weighing 11-12 kilos. Other fine kasars are those of Mus, Bayburt, and Trabzon’s Kadirga and Tonya districts.
Dil, Cerkez and Abaza, tel (literally ‘string’) and orme (braided) ones are other notable varieties which I can do no more than mention here. But I would like to end with what in my opinion is the king of Turkish cheeses, mihalic. This one is made in the provinces of Balikesir and Bursa of full-fat, unpasteurized milk from the kivircik sheep. It is white in color, characterized by bubble holes 3-4 mm in diameter, and with a hard irregular, rind 2-3 mm thick. It is extremely well-flavored and keeps well. Hard, mature mihalic is in no way inferior to Italy’s famous Parmesan when grated over pasta dishes.
The diversity of different types is influenced by four main factors: cultural habits and tastes, natural conditions, the species and variety of animals providing the milk, and production methods. This is equally true of Turkey, where scores of local cheeses in every region are now beginning to be discovered, putting the country on the cheese map at last.
