Fried cheese is a dish of

cheese Cheese is a dairy product produced in wide ranges of flavors, textures, and forms by coagulation of the milk protein casein. It comprises proteins and fat from milk, usually the milk of cows, buffalo, goats, or sheep. During productio ...

that is fried in oil. Fried cheese can be dipped in a batter before frying, and can be pan-fried or

deep fried Deep frying (also referred to as deep fat frying) is a cooking method in which food is submerged in hot fat, traditionally lard but today most commonly oil, as opposed to the shallow oil used in conventional frying done in a frying pan. Norma ...

. It can be served as an

appetizer An hors d'oeuvre ( ; french: hors-d'œuvre ), appetiser or starter is a small dish served before a meal in European cuisine. Some hors d'oeuvres are served cold, others hot. Hors d'oeuvres may be served at the dinner table as a part of the m ...

or a

snack A snack is a small portion of food generally eaten between meals. Snacks come in a variety of forms including packaged snack foods and other processed foods, as well as items made from fresh ingredients at home. Traditionally, snacks are ...

. Fried cheese is a common food in Brazil and the Dominican Republic, and is typically served as a breakfast dish in Costa Rica, Cyprus, Greece, Lebanon, Syria and Turkey. Fried cheese is served as a

tapas A tapa () is an appetizer or snack in Spanish cuisine. Tapas can be combined to make a full meal, and can be cold (such as mixed olives and cheese) or hot (such as ''chopitos'', which are battered, fried baby squid, or patatas bravas). In so ...

dish in Spain; fried cheese balls are ''delicias de queso'' 'cheese delights'. Fried cheese is also found in Italian cuisine. Fried cheese is typically served hot, right after being cooked. It may be accompanied with a

dipping sauce A dip or dipping sauce is a common condiment for many types of food. Dips are used to add flavor or texture to a food, such as pita bread, dumplings, crackers, chopped raw vegetables, fruits, seafood, cubed pieces of meat and cheese, pot ...

or coated with a dressing.

History

Fried cheese was a popular dish in

Cairo Cairo ( ; ar, القاهرة, al-Qāhirah, ) is the capital of Egypt and its largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the largest urban agglomeration in Africa, the Arab world and the Middle East: The Greater Cairo metr ...

during the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire ...

, and remained a part of the cuisine under

Ottoman rule Ottoman is the Turkish spelling of the Arabic masculine given name Uthman ( ar, عُثْمان, ‘uthmān). It may refer to: Governments and dynasties * Ottoman Caliphate, an Islamic caliphate from 1517 to 1924 * Ottoman Empire, in existence fro ...

. Since then, its popularity has decreased.

Dishes

Fried cheese curds are made from cheese

curd Curd is obtained by coagulating milk in a sequential process called curdling. It can be a final dairy product or the first stage in cheesemaking. The coagulation can be caused by adding rennet or any edible acidic substance such as l ...

s and often served with a dipping sauce. Queso frito 'fried cheese' has many variations. Spanish versions sometimes use paprika. It is also found in Central American cuisine.

Malakoff Malakoff () is a suburban commune in the Hauts-de-Seine department southwest of Paris, France. Located from the centre of the city, it had a population of 30,286 in 2016. The European Organisation for Civil Aviation Equipment (EUROCAE) is base ...

is a Swiss fried cheese dish.

Mozzarella sticks Mozzarella sticks are elongated pieces of battered or breaded mozzarella, usually served as hors d'oeuvre. Origins The history of frying cheese in a batter dates back to at least 1393 in Medieval France, when a recipe for fried cheese stic ...

are slices of

mozzarella Mozzarella (, ; nap, muzzarella ) is a southern Italian cheese traditionally made from Italian buffalo's milk by the pasta filata method. Fresh mozzarella is generally white but when seasoned it turns to a light yellow depending on the anim ...

cheese that are battered or coated in bread crumbs and then deep-fried or pan-fried. The dish can also be baked, rather than fried. Saganaki is a Greek fried cheese dish prepared in a small copper pan. In

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning the North Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via a land bridg ...

, جبنة مقلية ''gibnah maqlyah'' 'fried cheese' is usually battered and served as an appetizer; it is considered a specialty of

Alexandria Alexandria ( or ; ar, ٱلْإِسْكَنْدَرِيَّةُ ; grc-gre, Αλεξάνδρεια, Alexándria) is the second largest city in Egypt, and the largest city on the Mediterranean coast. Founded in by Alexander the Great, Alexandri ...

. Smažený sýr (Czech) or Vyprážaný syr (Slovak) is a cheese that is prepared by being dredged in flour, placed in an egg wash and then coated with bread crumbs, after which it is deep fried. It is a common

street food Street food is ready-to-eat food or drinks sold by a hawker, or vendor, in a street or at other public places, such as markets or fairs. It is often sold from a portable food booth, food cart, or food truck and is meant for immediate consumpt ...

in the Czech Republic and Slovakia. Kaassoufflé is a deep-fried Dutch fast food snack of cheese in a bread wrap. In

Hungary Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Cr ...

, fried cheese is a common cheap dish, served in restaurants or at home, usually made from the locally popular

trappista cheese Trappista ( hbs, Trapist sir / Трапист сир) is a traditional semi-hard cow's-milk cheese made in France, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Hungary. It was created by the Trappist monks of Port-du-Salut Abbey in France. History The ...

which accounts for 70% of the country's cheese consumption. It is a "poor man's" item of vegetarian food in restaurants which don't offer more usual

vegetarian Vegetarianism is the practice of abstaining from the consumption of meat (red meat, poultry, seafood, insects, and the flesh of any other animal). It may also include abstaining from eating all by-products of animal slaughter. Vegetariani ...

dishes and so prepare fried cheese and deep fried vegetables as a

main course A main course is the featured or primary dish in a meal consisting of several courses. It usually follows the entrée ("entry") course. Typically, the main course is the meal that is the heaviest, heartiest, and most intricate or substantial ...

option for any customer who doesn't want meat. The common name, "rántott sajt", simply means "fried cheese" or "deep fried cheese". It is generally served in a square or in a triangular shape.

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern, and Southeast Europe, Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, S ...

and

Bulgaria Bulgaria (; bg, България, Bǎlgariya), officially the Republic of Bulgaria,, ) is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern flank of the Balkans, and is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and North Macedo ...

have a similar dish to the Czechs, Slovaks and Hungarians, called Caşcaval pane. Caşcaval is a general term for yellow cheeses in the two countries with the ones most commonly used being Edam or Gouda. Therefore, the name could literally be translated as "breaded yellow cheese". File:FriedCheeseCurds.jpg, A close-up view of deep-fried cheese

s File:Fried Mozzarella Sticks at Millers Pub (301456962).jpg, Fried

mozzarella sticks Mozzarella sticks are elongated pieces of battered or breaded mozzarella, usually served as hors d'oeuvre. Origins The history of frying cheese in a batter dates back to at least 1393 in Medieval France, when a recipe for fried cheese stic ...

served with a marinara dipping sauce File:Grekiska koket 02.jpg, Saganaki File:Smažák.JPG, Prepared smažený sýr

Commercial production

Mozzarella cheese is often used by fried cheese food manufacturers in the United States, because it has a desirable consistency and because it has a neutral flavor that is "widely acceptable".

Health concerns

A significant amount of oil is absorbed into cheese when it is fried, and the frying of cheeses adds advanced lipid end products and dicarbonyls to

advanced glycation end-product Advanced glycation end products (AGEs) are proteins or lipids that become glycated as a result of exposure to sugars. They are a bio-marker implicated in aging and the development, or worsening, of many degenerative diseases, such as diabetes, ath ...

s that are already present in cheeses. The advanced lipid end products are generated in a chemical reaction that occurs when the oil is intermingled with the proteins in cheeses. Furthermore, most cheeses are salty. As such, fried cheese has been described as an unhealthy dish. In Brazil, the chronic consumption of fried cheese has been demonstrated to be one of the dietary risk factors associated with

oral cancer Oral cancer, also known as mouth cancer, is cancer of the lining of the lips, mouth, or upper throat. In the mouth, it most commonly starts as a painless white patch, that thickens, develops red patches, an ulcer, and continues to grow. When on ...

incident rates.

Notes

References

Bibliography

External links

* {{Cheese dishes Cheese dishes Deep fried foods Brazilian cuisine Costa Rican cuisine Cypriot cuisine Dominican Republic cuisine Egyptian cuisine Greek cuisine Hungarian cuisine Italian cuisine Lebanese cuisine Mediterranean cuisine Spanish cuisine Syrian cuisine Turkish cuisine Tapas