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Cheese from Turkey

Skin- and pot-ripened cheese family (Tulum, Çömlek)tulum peyniri

Rennet sets raw milk into a curd that is drained for days, crumbled and salted. The crumbs are pressed hard into a skin bag or a clay pot, closed to keep air out, and ripened for months in a cool place. The Erzincan specification describes the result as a semi-hard, markedly acidic cheese that does not crumble easily, and the Talas specification as a firm, salty cheese without holes.

Fully documentedCheese4.7 months – 4.8 months

Recipe

Amounts from a sourceThe amounts follow the Erzincan Tulum specification (milk, rennet, salt) and the Talas çömlek specification (nigella seed). The Talas recipe uses 10 litres of cow's milk and 10 ml of rennet for about 1 kg of cheese.
Raw sheep's milk (Erzincan); at least 95 % sheep's milk4–5 litres of milk per kg of cheeseA little Morkaraman sheep's or goat's milk may be added, up to 5 %[erz-tp]
Rennet made from dried lamb or calf abomasum soaked in whey for a week1–3 litres per 100 litres of milk[erz-tp]
Salt for the crumbled curd2–2.5 % spring salt (kaynak tuzu) from Kemah district[erz-tp]
Nigella seed (Talas çömlek cheese only)At most 50 g per kg of cheese[talas-tp]
StarterKazak goatskin-bag cheese is made from heated cow milk with a natural starter (Martin and Cotter 2023).

Total time across the recorded steps: 4.7 months – 4.8 months

Start
Drag the bar or press Play
shapes, not to countEnterococcusLactococcusStreptococcusLactobacillus30–40 °CMilk proteinGel (curd)

What changes: Rennet sets the warmed milk into a curd

Step 1 of 5
Warm the milk and add rennet
Time
1 h
Set
Temperature
30–40 °C
Set
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Enterococcus
Lactococcus
Streptococcus
Lactobacillus
Lactobacilli

The Erzincan specification has the milk filtered several times and rested about 2 h before renneting. The Talas specification first heats the milk at 50–55 °C for at least 30 min. Output: coagulum.

Flavour
milky
Texture
gel
Colour
Not documented

Microbes at work in this step

Not documented for this step.

Method

Measured measured in a studySet fixed by a specification or tested recipeReported one source reports itTypical a general value, not sourced for this fermentUnconfirmed not yet checked against a source

At a glance

Rennet sets raw milk into a curd that is drained for days, crumbled and salted. The crumbs are pressed hard into a skin bag or a clay pot, closed to keep air out, and ripened for months in a cool place. The Erzincan specification describes the result as a semi-hard, markedly acidic cheese that does not crumble easily, and the Talas specification as a firm, salty cheese without holes. Made in 5 steps over 4.7 months – 4.8 months. The longest step, ripen cool, takes at least 4 months (TÜRKPATENT) and runs at -2–6 °C (TÜRKPATENT). Salt is 2–2.5 % (TÜRKPATENT). Enterococcus and Lactococcus do most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main stepat least 4 monthsSet[erz-tp][talas-tp]Ripen cool
Temperature-2–6 °CReported[erz-tp][celik2026]Ripen cool
Salt2–2.5 %Set[erz-tp][celik2026]Crumble and salt
AciditypH 4.4–5.5Measured[celik2026]Ripen cool

What makes this one different

The cheese ripens inside its own container, packed tight so that no air gets in (the Talas pots are closed tightly and stood upside down), not on a shelf with an open rind. The curd is drained, then crumbled and salted as crumbs before it is packed.

Related ferments

Variants

  • Erzincan tulumAkkaraman sheep's milk; PDO specification fixes a minimum 4-month ripening in skin or plastic
  • Divle cave tulumraw-milk cheese ripened in the Divle cave in goatskin bags
  • Talas çömlek (Kayseri)mostly cow's milk (sheep's or goat's milk, at least 25 %, is optional), nigella seed, packed in clay pots
  • Kazak goatskin cheese (Xinjiang)heated cow milk with a natural starter, fermented in goatskin bags

Made the skin- and pot-ripened cheese family way

Other skin- and pot-ripened cheese family kinds

Made the same way, each with what its own sources record.

Brânză de burdufbrânză de burduf

Cheese from Romania, the Carpathians

Brânză de burduf is made from caș that has already soured for up to two weeks, then ground with salt, kneaded and packed into a stomach or bark tube. Telemea, another Romanian cheese, is ripened in brine instead.

Milk
Sheep milk, sometimes with cow or buffalo milk; traditionally raw
Casing
Sheep stomach, sheepskin or fir bark
Ageing
About 20 days to 2 months

Sources: Slow Food Foundation for Biodiversity; Turbatu A.R.; European Commission; Doane C.F.; Wikipedia; US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Safety

Raw-milk skin cheese relies on salt, acid and a long cool ripening. In the Erzincan study coliform bacteria were no longer detected after day 90 (vacuum bags and casing) or day 120 (plastic barrels). The Erzincan specification fixes a minimum ripening of 4 months because the milk is raw.

Hazards the sources name: Coliform bacteria (a hygiene indicator in raw-milk tulum).

History and sources

Every number is labelled with how it is known. How this atlas is made

The Erzincan Tulum name was applied for on 21 August 2000 and registered as an origin name (No 30) on 29 August 2001; the register notes an amendment published in 2021. The Talas çömlek cheese was applied for on 23 November 2022 and registered as a mahreç işareti (No 1560) on 12 March 2024, and its specification says Kayseri has produced it for many years.

  1. [erz-tp] TÜRKPATENT, Coğrafi işaret tescil belgesi No 30, 'Erzincan Tulum Peyniri' (menşe adı), Erzincan Ticaret ve Sanayi Odasıspec
  2. [talas-tp] TÜRKPATENT, Coğrafi işaret tescil belgesi No 1560, 'Talas Çörekotlu Çömlek Peyniri' (mahreç işareti), Kayseri Üniversitesi and Talas Belediyesispec
  3. [celik2026] Çelik A., Tekin A., Şahingil D., Hayaloğlu A.A. 2026, A sustainable and alternative packaging approach for EU PDO Erzincan Tulum cheese affecting food safety, proteolysis, lipolysis, and volatilome in cheese - sausage casing, Journal of Food Science 91(5):e71111paper
  4. [demirci2021] Demirci T., Oraç A., Aktaş K., Dertli E., Akyol I., Akın N. 2021, Comparison of culture-dependent and culture-independent techniques in the detection of lactic acid bacteria biodiversity and dynamics throughout the ripening process, Turkish artisanal Tulum cheese from the Anamur region, Journal of Dairy Research 88:445-451, doi:10.1017/s0022029921000765 (abstract)paper
  5. [martin2023] Martin J.G.P., Cotter P.D. 2023, Filamentous fungi in artisanal cheeses: A problem to be avoided or a market opportunity? Heliyon 9(4):e15110 (table of artisanal cheese mycobiota)paper