Kasseri

Kasseri (Greek: Κασέρι; or in Turkish: kaşer, kaşar[1]) is a medium-hard pale yellow cheese made from unpasteurized sheep milk with very little, if any, goat's milk mixed in. The cheese is found in Greece, Bulgaria and Turkey.[2] An alternative way of making the cheese uses cow-milk.

It is a soft textured, stringy rather than crumbly, chewy, hard-rind cheese and belongs to the pasta filata family of cheeses, like Provolone or Mozzarella.[2] The use of fresh unpasteurized milk is necessary to obtain the correct flavor and texture, and aging of at least four months is required for the development of flavor. Aged kasseri faintly resembles Parmesan or Asiago but is not as creamy.

The name kasseri comes either from the Latin caseus (cheese) or from the Turkish kaşer which in turn comes from Hebrew כָּשֵׁר (kosher[3]). The lack of the use rennet during its production makes the cheese fit for the requirements of the Jewish law, as the cheese was invented in Edirne, Turkey, by the Jewish community of the town. It is not to be confused with the Turkish province of Kayseri.

The cheese is listed in protected designations of origin in the European Union under Greece as its origin.[4]

Kasseri is consumed in sandwiches, as the main constituent in kasseropita pie or in saganaki.

Assyrians use Kasseri cheese to make a traditional Assyrian cheese dish, called "Gupta Tomirta," ܓܘܒܬܐ ܜܘܡܪܬܐ -- meaning "buried cheese" -- that is topped with cumin, and sometimes other seasonings.