Chechil
A brined string cheese from Armenia, stretched into thin ropes and wound into a braid or knot.
Also: չեչիլ, çeçil, chechil panir, Armenian string cheese
Chechil is a pasta filata cheese from Armenia, also made in Georgia, eastern Turkey and Russia. Cow milk curd is heated in hot water, stretched by hand into long, thin ropes and then wound into a thick plait or figure-of-eight knot. The plait is soaked in brine, which makes chechil firm and very salty. To eat it, the strands are pulled apart into fine threads, much like a string cheese, and served with bread, herbs and drinks. Smoked versions are common, and in the former Soviet countries chechil is a favourite snack with beer. Its texture comes from aligned protein fibres made by stretching.