Penîrê giyayî — Van-style Herb Cheese with Wild Garlic and Thyme

⏱ 75 min · 🍽️ 6 Servings · 🧂 11 Ingredients

Ingredients

  • 1 l water (for the brine)
  • 80 g salt (for the brine)
  • 60 g wild garlic (shop-bought; alternatively 1 bunch chives and 1 garlic clove)
  • 1 bunch fresh thyme
  • 0.5 bunch fresh mint
  • 0.25 bunch dill
  • 1 tsp salt (for the herbs)
  • very hot water for rinsing, as needed
  • 4 l pasteurised fresh whole milk (3.5 % fat; not UHT milk, not raw milk)
  • 50 ml boiled and cooled water (for diluting the rennet)
  • 1 ml liquid rennet (microbial rennet from a pharmacy or cheesemaking supplier; exact amount according to the pack instructions for 4 l milk)

Instructions

  1. First make the brine: bring the water to the boil with the salt until it has dissolved, leave it to cool completely, then cover and put it in the fridge.
  2. Only use wild garlic that you have bought or can identify with certainty: it is easily confused with lily of the valley and autumn crocus, which are highly poisonous. Wash the wild garlic, thyme, mint and dill thoroughly and pat them dry in a cloth, pick the thyme and mint leaves off their stalks and finely chop all the herbs; if using the substitute, finely snip the chives and finely grate the garlic.
  3. Mix the chopped herbs with 1 tsp salt, cover and set aside. Rinse a large pot (at least 6 l), a whisk, a ladle, a long knife, a kitchen thermometer, a sieve and a thin cotton cloth with very hot water and pour the milk into the pot.
  4. As for Penîr — Kurdish homemade cheese with rennet, warm the milk slowly to 35 °C over a low heat, stirring gently, and take it off the heat.
  5. Stir the rennet into the cooled water, pour it over the milk and draw the whisk through from top to bottom for one minute. Put the lid on, wrap the pot in a thick towel and leave it to stand without moving it until the milk has set and breaks cleanly when tested with the knife.
  6. Using the long knife, cut the curd right down to the bottom into 2 cm cubes and leave to rest briefly, then gently turn them over from the bottom with the ladle until plenty of clear whey has separated.
  7. Line the sieve with the cloth and set it over a large bowl. Ladle the curds into it, leave them to drain briefly and fold in the herbs evenly with your fingers without crushing the curds.
  8. Fold the ends of the cloth tightly over each other, press the parcel flat in a square dish or in the sieve, place a plate on top and weigh it down with about 2 kg. Press in a cool place, turning the parcel once after an hour.
  9. Take the cheese out of the cloth, cut it into pieces of about 5 cm, place them in a jar rinsed with hot water, cover completely with the cold brine, seal and put in the fridge. Leave it to mature for at least a week before eating.
  10. Tip: In the brine, the herb cheese keeps in the fridge for three weeks as long as it is always completely covered and taken out with a clean fork; freezing is not worthwhile, because it turns crumbly and the herbs go mushy. As a shop-bought shortcut, use Van otlu peyniri from a Turkish shop, and outside the wild garlic season in spring, chives and a little garlic stand in for the wild garlic. In Van the original matures for months in clay jars, often buried in the ground; that belongs in a dairy, not in the kitchen.
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Penîrê giyayî — Van-style Herb Cheese with Wild Garlic and Thyme – Recipe and image AI-created, editorially reviewed
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Penîrê giyayî — Van-style Herb Cheese with Wild Garlic and Thyme

A basic Kurdish recipe from Van and Hakkari in eastern Turkey: Penîrê giyayî is the famous white herb cheese from Van, in which plenty of chopped mountain herbs are mixed into the curds before pressing, so that every slice is speckled with green and smells of garlic, thyme and mint. In Turkish it is called Van otlu peyniri, in Kurdish also Penîrê sirikî, and the homemade version made from pasteurised whole milk steeps in brine for at least a week until the herbs have passed their aroma on to the cheese. It belongs on the table at Taştê — the Kurdish breakfast with herb cheese, Qeymax, honey, olives and tea, goes well with Kelane — flatbread filled with spring onions and chives and sits alongside Cacixa Wanê — Van-style yoghurt with herbs.

⏱

Cook time

75 min

🍽️

Servings

6

🧂

Ingredients

11

View Original ↗

Nutrition

per serving

248 kcal

Calories

16 g

Protein

20 g

Fat

2 g

Carbs

Ingredients

For 6 servings

Estimated cost~€6.30 · ~€1.05/serving

Instructions

  1. 1

    First make the brine: bring the water to the boil with the salt until it has dissolved, leave it to cool completely, then cover and put it in the fridge.

  2. 2

    Only use wild garlic that you have bought or can identify with certainty: it is easily confused with lily of the valley and autumn crocus, which are highly poisonous. Wash the wild garlic, thyme, mint and dill thoroughly and pat them dry in a cloth, pick the thyme and mint leaves off their stalks and finely chop all the herbs; if using the substitute, finely snip the chives and finely grate the garlic.

  3. 3

    Mix the chopped herbs with 1 tsp salt, cover and set aside. Rinse a large pot (at least 6 l), a whisk, a ladle, a long knife, a kitchen thermometer, a sieve and a thin cotton cloth with very hot water and pour the milk into the pot.

  4. 4

    As for Penîr — Kurdish homemade cheese with rennet, warm the milk slowly to 35 °C over a low heat, stirring gently, and take it off the heat.

  5. 5

    Stir the rennet into the cooled water, pour it over the milk and draw the whisk through from top to bottom for one minute. Put the lid on, wrap the pot in a thick towel and leave it to stand without moving it until the milk has set and breaks cleanly when tested with the knife.

  6. 6

    Using the long knife, cut the curd right down to the bottom into 2 cm cubes and leave to rest briefly, then gently turn them over from the bottom with the ladle until plenty of clear whey has separated.

  7. 7

    Line the sieve with the cloth and set it over a large bowl. Ladle the curds into it, leave them to drain briefly and fold in the herbs evenly with your fingers without crushing the curds.

  8. 8

    Fold the ends of the cloth tightly over each other, press the parcel flat in a square dish or in the sieve, place a plate on top and weigh it down with about 2 kg. Press in a cool place, turning the parcel once after an hour.

  9. 9

    Take the cheese out of the cloth, cut it into pieces of about 5 cm, place them in a jar rinsed with hot water, cover completely with the cold brine, seal and put in the fridge. Leave it to mature for at least a week before eating.

  10. 10

    Tip: In the brine, the herb cheese keeps in the fridge for three weeks as long as it is always completely covered and taken out with a clean fork; freezing is not worthwhile, because it turns crumbly and the herbs go mushy. As a shop-bought shortcut, use Van otlu peyniri from a Turkish shop, and outside the wild garlic season in spring, chives and a little garlic stand in for the wild garlic. In Van the original matures for months in clay jars, often buried in the ground; that belongs in a dairy, not in the kitchen.

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