| Name
|
Image
|
Region
|
Description
|
| Akkawi
|
|
Acre
|
A white brine cheese. It is named after the city of Acre, where it first originated, and is commonly made using cow milk, but can also be made with goat or sheep's milk. It is widely used in Knafeh but Nabulsi cheese is used more often.
|
| Areesh
|
|
Originated in Egypt
|
It is similar to cottage cheese. Shanklish, a fermented cheese, is made from areesh cheese.
|
| Baladi cheese
|
|
|
Soft-white, smooth, creamy cheese has a mild flavor. It is eaten for breakfast or snacks. Pictured is spinach topped with Baladi.
|
| Basket cheese
|
|
originated in Turkey
|
Made from cow's milk, it is available fresh or dry. Fresh basket has no salt taste, while dry basket is mildly salty. Basket cheese gets its name from the way it is formed (inside a basket).
|
| Charkassiye
|
|
|
A soft cheese
|
| Jameed
|
|
Jordan
|
Hard, dry laban made from goat or ewe's milk. Milk is kept in a fine woven cheesecloth to make a thick yogurt. Salt is added daily to thicken the yogurt even more and the outside of the yogurt filled cheesecloth is rinsed with water to allow any remaining whey to seep through. After a few days of salting the yogurt, it becomes very dense and it can be removed from the cheesecloth and shaped into round balls. Pictured is white Jameed in a shop front in Jerusalem.
|
| Jibneh Arabieh
|
|
Arabian Peninsula
|
A traditional cheese in Middle East countries. It is particularly popular in the Arab States of the Persian Gulf. The cheese has an open texture and a mild taste similar to Feta but less salty.
|
| Jibne Baida
|
|
|
Arabic for white cheese, is a white hard cheese with a pronounced salty taste, often boiled before eating
|
| Kashkawan
|
|
|
A type of yellow cheese made of sheep milk. In Albania, Bulgaria, North Macedonia, Serbia and Romania, the term is often used to refer to all yellow cheeses (or even any cheese other than sirene).
|
| Qishta
|
|
|
is a heavy cream that is very popular in the Middle East. Traditionally, it is made by skimming the thickest part of the cream from whey. The product is used both as an ingredient in cooking and is mixed with honey to be eaten as an incredibly rich dessert. Rich Cow brand Kashta is a fresh, rich-tasting, cream product texture of which is smooth and thick. It has a sixty-day refrigerated shelf life.
|
| Labneh
|
|
|
Similar to Greek yogurt, labneh is a strained yogurt product that is common in the Middle East and the Levant. Pictured is Labneh in olive oil
|
| Majdoule
|
|
|
A salty white cheese made up of thick strands of cheese braided together (hence the name)
|
| Nabulsi cheese
|
|
Nablus
|
One of a number of Palestinian white brined cheeses made in the Middle East. Its name denotes its place of origin, Nablus and it is well known throughout the West Bank and surrounding regions. It is also a major ingredient of the Arabian desserts Knafeh and Qatayef.
|
| Shelal
|
|
|
A salty white cheese made up of strands of cheese woven together
|
| Surke or Shanklish
|
|
|
a mature cheese made with spices and generally presented as balls of cheese covered in za'tar orchile powder; most often eaten as a starter dish with tomato, oil and sometimes onion
|
| Syrian cheese
|
|
Syria
|
There are different kinds of Syrian cheese. A few of the most common include Baladi and Charkassiye.
|
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