Israel is quite popular for its wide range of cheese made from cow, goat and sheep milk. In its markets, you can find a range of cheese from expensive to cheap. While goat and sheep milk cheeses have a clearly different flavor and are seasonal, cow milk cheese has the regular flavor and can be produced throughout the year.
Over the years, many popular Israeli diaries have come up with a wide variety of tasty cheese and numerous ways to enjoy them. Besides containing fat, cheese also contains body nutrients such as vitamins, protein, zinc, calcium, magnesium and even phosphorus. For cheese lovers visiting Israel, here are some of the different types of cheese you can enjoy.
Israeli Cheese
- Brinza Cheese: This cheese is a white semi-hard cheese which is made from cow milk. It contains around 15% of fat and can be used in cooking meals.
- Canaan cheese: This is also white cheese with no salt added. It contains 5% of fat and is amazing for baking. If you have an interest in cheesecakes, you should definitely try making it with Canaan cheese.
- Bulgarian cheese: While it has its origin from Balkan countries, this white cheese is very popular in Israel. It bears a huge similarity to Feta, but it is saltier. It contains between 5 to 28 perfect of fat and is great on pizza and even salad.
- Cottage cheese: This cheese has a light taste. Originally, it was homemade cheese which was made with leftover milk. Before it gets to the market, the curd is removed from the whey, and it isn’t pressed like other kinds of cheese but drained. There are so many ways cottage cheese can be eaten. You can eat it by itself, with salt and pepper, with some toast, with sugar and fruits, with salad, as chip dips, with cinnamon, in salad and so on. The fat content is from 3% and above.
- Galil: Galil is a brand name for Tnuva’s blue cheese made from goat milk. This blue cheese goes perfectly with apples, grapes, bread, and walnuts. Most times sweet wines are used to accompany the blue cheese. To enjoy it, you can also add it to salad dressing. The cheese often has a strong smell with a salty flavor.
- Emek cheese: This hard, yellow milk is very common in Israel. The recipe for making the cheese has been the same since 1942. It’s made from cow milk and has a high-fat content of 28%. It can be consumed in a variety of ways. It tastes delicious when added to a sandwich or used on pizza.
- Labaneh: This cheese often starts off as yogurt to produce a firmer consistency in its overall feel. It can be made from cow, goat or sheep milk and has 9 to 30 percent of fat. Because it’s soft and white, it is very popular in Israel.
Other amazing Israeli cheeses include Gilboa cheese, Tsfatit cheese, and Tal HaEmek cheese.
