Kasseri (

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

: κασέρι, Turkish: ''kaşar''Merriam-Webster Unabridged
''kasseri''
/ref>) is a medium-hard or hard pale yellow cheese made from pasteurised or unpasteurised

sheep milk Sheep milk is the milk of domestic sheep. It is commonly used to make cultured dairy products, such as cheese. Some of the most popular sheep cheeses include feta (Greece), pecorino romano (Italy), Roquefort (France) and Manchego (Spain). ...

and at most 20%

goat The goat or domestic goat (''Capra hircus'') is a species of Caprinae, goat-antelope that is mostly kept as livestock. It was domesticated from the wild goat (''C. aegagrus'') of Southwest Asia and Eastern Europe. The goat is a member of the ...

's milk. "Kasseri" is a

protected designation of origin The protected designation of origin (PDO) is a type of geographical indication of the European Union aimed at preserving the designations of origin of food-related products. The designation was created in 1992 and its main purpose is to designat ...

, according to which the cheese must be made in the Greek provinces of

Thessaly Thessaly ( ; ; ancient Aeolic Greek#Thessalian, Thessalian: , ) is a traditional geographic regions of Greece, geographic and modern administrative regions of Greece, administrative region of Greece, comprising most of the ancient Thessaly, a ...

, Macedonia,

Lesbos Lesbos or Lesvos ( ) is a Greek island located in the northeastern Aegean Sea. It has an area of , with approximately of coastline, making it the third largest island in Greece and the List of islands in the Mediterranean#By area, eighth largest ...

, or Xanthi, but a similar type of cheese is found in

Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

,"The Art of Making Kasseri", Epikouria Magazine, Fall/Winter 2006

Romania Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to ...

, and the

Balkans The Balkans ( , ), corresponding partially with the Balkan Peninsula, is a geographical area in southeastern Europe with various geographical and historical definitions. The region takes its name from the Balkan Mountains that stretch throug ...

, where it is known as

kashkaval ''Kashkaval'' is a type of cheese made from the milk of cows, sheep, goats, or a mixture thereof. In Turkey, Albania, Bulgaria, Kosovo, North Macedonia, Romania and Serbia, the term is often used to refer to all yellow cheeses (or even any chee ...

. The same cheese is made with cow's milk, but in that case it cannot be legally sold as "kasseri" in the EU and is instead sold under names that are particular to each producer. Kasseri is of semi-hard to hard consistency, smooth rather than crumbly, chewy, and with a hard rind. It belongs to the pasta filata family of cheeses, which includes fresh cheeses like

mozzarella Mozzarella is a Types of cheese#Semi-soft cheese, semi-soft non-aged cheese prepared using the ('stretched-curd') method with origins from southern Italy. It is prepared with cow's milk or buffalo milk, taking the following names: * or mozz ...

and aged ones like Provolone and Caciocavallo. Kasseri is made by heating milk to and adding enough

rennet Rennet () is a complex set of enzymes produced in the stomachs of ruminant mammals. Chymosin, its key component, is a protease, protease enzyme that curdling, curdles the casein in milk. In addition to chymosin, rennet contains other enzymes, su ...

for a curd to set in 45 minutes. Once the curd has set, it is divided into pieces about the size of a

maize Maize (; ''Zea mays''), also known as corn in North American English, is a tall stout grass that produces cereal grain. It was domesticated by indigenous peoples in southern Mexico about 9,000 years ago from wild teosinte. Native American ...

cob and then cooked at while stirring. Afterwards, the curd is transferred to draining tables, where it is ground to small pieces by hand, tightly bound in cheesecloth, topped with a small weight, and left to drain and ferment until its pH is about 5.2. The curd is then cut into thin slices, placed in hot water at , and kneaded until it becomes a malleable mass that can be spun into a smooth thread of at least in length. The kneaded cheese mass is salted and then put into molds for two or three days. Finally, it is taken out of the mold and aged for at least three months at a temperature of . The name kasseri is said to come from Turkish ''kaşer'', which in turn comes from Hebrew כָּשֵׁר (kosher). The explanation is that the lack of use of rennet during its invention by the Jews of Kırkkilise (modern Kırklareli, Turkey) made the cheese fit for the requirements of the Jewish law. However, rennet is in fact used in the making of kasseri therefore the above is likely a case of

folk etymology Folk etymology – also known as (generative) popular etymology, analogical reformation, (morphological) reanalysis and etymological reinterpretation – is a change in a word or phrase resulting from the replacement of an unfamiliar form by a mo ...

. Kasseri is consumed in

sandwich A sandwich is a Dish (food), dish typically consisting variously of meat, cheese, sauces, and vegetables used as a filling between slices of bread, or placed atop a slice of bread; or, more generally, any dish in which bread serves as a ''co ...

es as the main constituent in kasseropita and saganaki.

Assyrians Assyrians (, ) are an ethnic group indigenous to Mesopotamia, a geographical region in West Asia. Modern Assyrians share descent directly from the ancient Assyrians, one of the key civilizations of Mesopotamia. While they are distinct from ot ...

use Kasseri cheese to make a traditional Assyrian cheese dish, called ''gupta tomirta'' ( 'buried cheese'), that is topped with cumin and sometimes other seasonings.

References

{{Greek cheeses Greek products with protected designation of origin Greek cheeses Sheep's-milk cheeses Goat's-milk cheeses Cheeses with designation of origin protected in the European Union Greek Macedonian cuisine

See also

References