Brined cheeses
Feta, halloumi, sirene, beyaz peynir and domiati: white cheeses kept in salt water.
Brined cheeses are matured and stored in salt water, which keeps them white, moist and salty and lets them last for months without forming a rind. They belong above all to the Balkans, Turkey, the Levant and Egypt, where hot summers once made a closed tin of brine the best cellar a farmer had. Feta, halloumi, sirene, beyaz peynir, telemea, akkawi, nabulsi and domiati are the best known.
How they are made
Milk, often sheep's or goat's or a blend with cow's milk, is set with rennet, and the curd is cut, drained and salted. Slabs are packed into barrels or tins and covered with brine, sometimes mixed with whey. With no air on the surface, no rind forms. The brine slowly firms the cheese and carries salt to its centre, while lactic bacteria add a sour edge. Feta must ripen for at least two months. Halloumi takes a different path: its curd is heated in hot whey before brining, which gives the squeak and the high melting point.
Across the eastern Mediterranean
Feta, a protected name in the European Union since 2002, must be made in defined regions of Greece from sheep's milk with up to 30 per cent goat's milk. Bulgaria's sirene and Turkey's beyaz peynir, white cheese, are close cousins, made from cow's milk as often as sheep's. Halloumi, from Cyprus, keeps its shape on a grill. Akkawi, named after Acre, and nabulsi, from Nablus, are the brined cheeses of the Levant, and nabulsi is often flavoured with mahlab and mastic. Egypt's domiati is unusual: salt goes into the milk before it is set.
Using brined cheese
Brined cheeses are table cheeses first. A slab of feta or beyaz peynir with olives, tomato and bread is breakfast across Greece and Turkey. They crumble into salads such as the Greek horiatiki and Bulgarian shopska, and bake into pies like spanakopita and borek. Halloumi and akkawi are grilled or fried in slices. Akkawi and nabulsi are soaked in fresh water to draw out the salt before they go into kunafa, the syrup-soaked cheese pastry of the Levant.
Worth knowing
- Feta: Greek sheep's milk cheese with up to 30 per cent goat's milk
- Halloumi: Cypriot cheese cooked in whey, made for the grill
- Sirene: Bulgarian white cheese, grated over shopska salad
- Beyaz peynir: Turkey's white cheese, on every breakfast table
- Telemea: Romanian brined cheese of cow's or sheep's milk
- Akkawi: Mild Levantine cheese named after the city of Acre
- Nabulsi cheese: Spiced brined cheese of Nablus, used in kunafa
- Domiati: Egyptian white cheese salted in the milk
Good to know
- Keep brined cheese in its brine in a closed container in the fridge; out of the brine it dries and crumbles.
- If a cheese is too salty, soak slices in cold water or milk for an hour before serving.
- Pat halloumi dry before it goes on the grill so that it browns rather than steams.
Sources and further reading
Original text by the EveryCheese desk, written with AI assistance and checked against the sources above. Customs are described as tradition, not as advice. If we have something wrong, tell us.
Brined on EveryCheese
The cheeses written up so far, best known first.