Cheeses of Nablus
A city of soap, sweets and Nabulsi cheese, the brined white cheese that melts into knafeh.
Made, aged and sold here
Best time: March to May and September to November.
Nablus lies in a valley between Mount Gerizim and Mount Ebal. Its old city is a maze of covered souks, Ottoman houses and bathhouses, known for olive oil soap and for sweets. Nabulsi cheese, named after the city, is a white brined cheese of sheep or goat milk, boiled and flavoured with mahlab and mastic, and it is the cheese inside knafeh nabulsieh.
Nabulsi cheese
Nabulsi cheese is made from fresh curd that is cut into blocks and boiled in brine, sometimes with mahlab, the ground kernel of a cherry stone, and mastic resin. Boiling gives it a firm, springy texture and helps it keep. Eaten as it is, it is salty, so for sweets it is soaked in water first. It softens and stretches when heated.
Knafeh
Knafeh nabulsieh is a tray of desalted Nabulsi cheese under a layer of fine semolina or shredded pastry coloured orange, baked or cooked over flame, then soaked in sugar syrup and scattered with pistachio. Sweet shops in the old city make it in huge round trays and serve it hot by the slice.
A trail idea for Nablus
- The old city souks Walk the covered market lanes and spice stalls.
- A knafeh shop Eat hot knafeh from the tray, the city's signature sweet.
- A soap factory See olive oil soap made in the traditional way.
- Mount Gerizim The mountain above the city, sacred to the Samaritans.
Written by the EveryCheese desk with AI assistance. Background: "Nablus" on Wikipedia. Opening hours, markets, caves and tours change; check locally before travelling. If something is wrong, tell us.
Photo credits on this page
The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.
- Nabulsi cheese: رائد عزمي حموده, CC BY-SA 3.0, source