Peynir
The Turkish word for cheese, found in beyaz peynir, white cheese, kaşar and tulum peyniri.
Also: Turkish cheese, beyaz peynir, kaşar peyniri
Peynir is Turkish for cheese, and the word travelled into Persian, Hindi and Urdu as panir, giving India its paneer. Turkey eats a great deal of cheese, much of it at breakfast with olives, tomatoes, cucumbers, eggs and bread. Beyaz peynir, white cheese, is a brined sheep, cow or goat cheese similar to feta, crumbled into börek and gözleme. Kaşar is a yellow, semi-hard, stretched-curd cheese close to kashkaval, used for toasted sandwiches. Tulum peyniri is ripened in a skin bag; çökelek is a fresh curd cheese; lor is a whey cheese; and çeçil is a braided string cheese. Each region has its own variants, including herb cheese from Van.