Egyptians love cheese
Egyptians are known for their love of cheese. Temple drawings and tomb contents are evidence of this long lasting love for cheese. There is a whole food group in Egypt, that they label ‘white cheese’. In rural households, women still produce cheese at home. It is a staple at breakfast, but is also eaten at any time of the day.
Gebna Bekhero
Gebna Bekhero is made from full fat cheese, and traditionally collected animal rennet. Bekhero in Arabic refers to the fact that the milk has not been skimmed and still contains "all its goodness". While bekhero cheese is eaten fresh, many traditional cheeses require aging. To age cheese adding animal calf rennet and essential ingredient to ensure it ages well into old cheese without going bad.
Areesh cheese
Areesh cheese - a more commonly sold cheese is made from skimmed milk. This also allows women to make butter from the cream, which sells at a higher market price and has a longer shelf life than bekhero cheese.
Gebna adima
To obtain gebna adima - the aged salty cheesy, the white cheese is put in a clay pot with layers of salt and chili pepper.
Making cheese the Egyptian way
Rennet is an essential ingredient in making cheese. Over millennia, women in Egypt have collected rennet from the curds found in a calf’s stomach. They acquire the curds from the fourth stomach of a calf slaughtered at forty days old that has not been fed any grass or grain.
The importance of calf rennet to cheese
While bekhero cheese is eaten fresh, many traditional cheeses require aging. Rennet is full of enzymes that allow it to store for long periods of time. Cheese made with commercial rennet does not last long, while traditional rennet from the calf stomach helps.
Collecting manfaha - rennet made from a calf stomach (2020-09-08) by NawayaNawaya
Step 1: Fermenting
The calf stomach content is removed and placed into a container. The curds are mashed with raw milk. After cleaning the stomach with salt and water, one end is tied and refilled with the curd mixture so the milk fats continue to curdle by fermenting in the stomach.
Collecting manfaha (2020-09-08) by NawayaNawaya
Step 2: Flavor and texture
While the process of acquiring the rennet is not simple, many prefer it for the better flavor and texture and it helps to store the cheese longer. They can keep collecting rennet from it for several months, sometimes up to a year and half.
Bekhero cheese - fresh ricotta type cheese (2019-08-28) by NawayaNawaya
Step 3: Keep rolling
Egyptian use a traditional reed mat to drain the cheese. They place the cleaned mat over a container to collect the whey, and pour the curdling cheese across it, and leave it to drain. They can speed up the draining process by adding some salt. The salt pulls more whey out of the curds. By tightening the rolled mat the curds are shaped into a log-like structure.
Woman pouring cheese curds on hasira to make gebna bekhero (2019-08-28) by NawayaNawaya
From rennet enzymes to cheese
Fresh cheese can be made and ready for consumption in less than one hour. Once the rennet enzymes are activated in the milk, the curds are ready to drain be molded into cheese. Any kind of milk can be used for making cheese such as cow, buffalo, sheep or goat. Milk from different animals has different flavors and fat content.
Gebna bekhero cheese churds draining in the hasira (2019-08-28) by NawayaNawaya
Step 4: Draining the cheese
Once the cheese is ready, the pieces are cut to help it drain and facilitates storing. Nothing is wasted in the process of cheese making. The reeds can be drunk directly, used in cooking or fed to the chickens as it contains high protein levels.
Bekhero cheese in brine (2019-08-28) by NawayaNawaya
Step 5: Storing the cheese
There are various ways to store fresh cheese, each with a different impact on its taste and texture over time. The cheese to be consumed within one week is kept in a brine solution by adding a teaspoon of salt to 4 cups of water.
A breakfast on the farm with 3 kinds of cheeses (2019-08-25) by NawayaNawaya
Fresh cheese is stored in a clean airtight container at a cool temperature and preferably in a fridge in hot summer months. The longer the cheese ages the stronger the flavor and creamier it becomes. Its salty, spicy and tastes fermented, making it a potent Egyptian flavor!
Words of wisdom
Meet the exceptional cheesemaker!
Curator: Laura Tabet
Research: Laura Tabet
Photography: Nada Elissa, Nawaya
Special thanks to the Baladini kitchen.
