Qarisheh (Syrian curd cheese)

Qarisheh is a white curd cheese eaten fresh, without ageing. It is made from the fat-free yoghurt left in the churn once the butter has been taken out. Salt goes in and the liquid is boiled well. When the curd cools, it is strained through cotton cloth and pressed for 24 to 48 hours. The result is a white, crumbly block. It is the everyday cheese of a Syrian breakfast. The hard shanklish of the coast starts its life here too.

What it is made from

Not fresh milk. It comes from what the churn leaves behind. When yoghurt is beaten in the churn and the butter lifted off, a sour, fat-free buttermilk remains, and qarisheh comes from boiling it. That is why it is also called qarishet al-laban, yoghurt qarisheh. There are two kinds, from full-fat and from skimmed milk, and the skimmed one is cheaper.

It should not be taken as plain cottage cheese: it begins with yoghurt and the churn. Nor is it one of the salted cheeses in the Syrian cheeses entry, such as mshallaleh, akkawi or baladi, which are made from milk.

How it relates to shanklish

Shanklish and surki are both made from qarisheh. Mix red pepper, fennel seed and nigella into it and roll it into balls, and you have surki. Dry those balls in the sun and let them mould in a jar, and you have shanklish. Homs and Hama make the most shanklish, and qarisheh is made there most of all. A traveller who sees the hard, thyme-coated ball on a market counter can find its earlier self as a white disc at the dairy.

How it is eaten

At breakfast. Dairies and milk counters sell it as discs, by the piece, called qurs. In the coastal countryside it sits on the breakfast plate next to labneh and butter. In Latakia the morning bakeries make qarisheh fatayer, a pastry counted as the worker’s breakfast that takes the place of a falafel sandwich.

Where a traveller finds it

Try the dairy shops of Homs and Hama. In Latakia, it hides inside the fatayer at morning bakeries. It also appears as its own line on the price lists of dairies in Quneitra. Prices change too fast to print here; ask for the price per disc at the counter.