Milk and dairy products are a valuable, nutritious staple whose use is attested throughout Egyptian history, although the evidence may sometimes be limited as physical remains of cheese rarely survive (certainly far less often than animal bones or plants).
Many milking scenes provide evidence that the ancient Egyptians consumed and used cow milk, as well as milk from other animals. Cheese, cream, and perhaps a ghee- or butter-like product were most likely also produced although evidence is scant. Archaeologists have at least twice found what could be cheese products left as offerings in tombs. The earliest dates to 5200 years ago from a Dynasty 1 (ca. 3100–2910 BCE) tomb at Saqqara, where two jars with a solid mass inside were found to contain a chemical signature similar to cheese. Each of the jars has a different label: one says ‘sert of the north’, the other ‘sert of the south’, suggesting that the word sert may indicate cheese and that there were regional cheese varieties.
A more recent find was made in 2013/14 in the Saqqara tomb of a high-ranking official named Ptahmes, who served as mayor of Memphis (in modern-day Giza) under Kings Seti I and Ramses II (ca. 1290–1213 BCE). Found artefacts include a jar with a solidified mass covered with a piece of cloth. This is very similar to how cheese is stored in modern times. The mass was identified using methods such as DNA analysis which pointed to the use of both ovine and bovine milk, meaning the cheese was made of both types of milk mixed together. Experts think it would have been a type of hard cheese, making it the oldest example of solid cheese in the world.
Cheese Selling and Goat Herding SceneRAWI Publishing
Ipuy, a nobleman living under the reign of King Ramses II (ca. 1279–1213 BCE), has a beautifully decorated tomb with a special food-related scene.
A squatting woman is seen selling (or bartering) round white balls, which may very well have been cheese or a type of ghee or butter. The latter is believed to be likely, because butter is still sold in this form in Egyptian villages.
To the left of the woman, a shepherd is herding goats, a possible clue to the nature of these balls. He carries a yoke with a tied bag, but what is interesting is the other thing hanging on his yoke: it looks like a goat‘s pelt (or goatskin bag), the kind used to produce cheese until today in modern Egypt.
After adding fresh milk, the pelt is blown up like a balloon and shaken vigorously, churning the milk to create two products: the butter, later clarified to produce ghee, and buttermilk. If we assume the two scenes are related, the woman could be selling goat’s cheese, or ghee made of goat’s milk.
Haloum CheeseRAWI Publishing
The production of cheese and other dairy products has been only sporadically documented in Egypt. Around the 4th–5th c. CE, a particularly interesting word for cheese starts appearing in Coptic (the latest stage of the ancient Egyptian language): halom.
The word is reminiscent of the modern word for halloumi cheese, a semi-hard and brined cheese popular throughout the eastern Mediterranean. So, is the halloumi cheese we know today an Egyptian invention?
When the 10th-c. Palestinian geographer al-Muqaddasi visited Egypt, he said, ‘… halom is their [the Egyptians'] cheese’. Ibn Iyas, a 15th/16th-c. Egyptian historian, also describes it as a typically Egyptian product, adding it was later exported to Syria.
Recipes with Egyptian halom cheese dating to the 14th c. indicate that it was probably very different to the halloumi of today. It was most likely a soft curd cheese made of cow and/or buffalo milk and flavoured with a variety of condiments such as thyme and pickled lemons.
As often happens with foods (and everything else), Egyptian halom was carried on to Syria, where it evolved into a different cheese. Today, halloumi in Egypt refers to this semi-hard Syrian cheese with the original Egyptian soft halom nowhere to be found.
Kareesh CheeseRAWI Publishing
Qareesh Cheese
Qareesh is a classic Egyptian cheese with a long history. Today, it is a soft salted and curdled white cheese of buffalo or cow milk (or both). The milk is left to form a surface layer of fatty cream which is then collected, leaving the liquid and curds.
The curds are collected, wrapped in a reed mat, and left to drain for a few days until they coalesce into a cylindrical cheese with distinctive striations from the reeds.
Although we do not have concrete evidence of this cheese from ancient Egypt, we do have signs of reed mats being wrapped around food products in the same manner, possibly in reference to similarly prepared cheese.
One of the earliest specific references to qareesh cheese comes from the 12th c. CE, but it does not refer to the specifications of the cheese. Another very interesting reference to this cheese dates to the 17th c. CE, and refers to it as part of a very amusing story …
Mish CheeseRAWI Publishing
Mish Cheese: A Delicacy so Strong a Mouse May Lose its Tail
Qareesh cheese was cited in a 17th c. Egyptian story in connection with mish cheese, a uniquely Egyptian delicacy with a pungent aroma and sharp flavour.
The story presents different products available at the market, including mish, describing it as qareesh that has been left so long to age that it could cut off the tail of a mouse with its strength and saltiness.
With its distinctive orange-brown hue, mish is still very commonly produced in the countryside today, and each region has its own variation. Some add chillies, while others add lupines, which impart a different texture to the cheese.
It is left to age in large earthenware vessels sealed with cloth for up to a year. When ready, it's usually served with dried barley bread and onions. Between the heat of the mish and the smell of the onion, the eaters’ eyes usually end up watering as they enjoy their meal.
For more on Egypt's culinary history, check out this story on ancient Egyptian bread to go with all these cheeses.
