Ingredients
What to buy
- motal peniri
- or motal pendiri
- sold in pieces from the skin
- Azerbaijani, Turkish or Caucasian grocers
- see the note on production
To serve at breakfast
- tandır bread, or lavash
- butter
- honey or fruit preserve
- tomatoes and cucumber
- fresh herbs
- tarragon, mint, coriander
- walnuts
- black tea in armudu glasses
To cook with
- crumbled into an omelette
- or into a herb pastry
- or over a salad
Directions
- Salt is the preservative here. It should be white to pale cream.
- Keep it refrigerated and well wrapped.
- Keep it in a sealed box. Give it an hour or two.
- Keep it sealed away from other food.
Technique
- The atlas gives no method for making this cheese, deliberately. It is ripened inside a prepared animal skin, which is a specialised craft rather than a home process; it is usually a raw sheep’s milk cheese ripening for months, whose safety rests on the whole chain from flock to cellar; and an uncontrolled ripening in a skin can go badly wrong.
- The skin is not merely a container. It breathes and shapes the ripening, and gives the cheese part of its character — which is why the curd is packed in hard with the air pockets worked out, since air allows spoilage.
- Soak a piece in water or milk for an hour or two, changing it once, if it is too salty. Salt is the preservative here rather than a rind or a controlled cellar, so it is genuinely salty — and soaking also softens the texture.
- Keep it sealed in a box. The smell transfers to other food in the refrigerator.
- Taste before salting anything you cook with it. It brings a great deal of salt of its own, and it does not melt smoothly — it softens and crumbles, which is expected of a salted crumbly cheese.
- Judge a piece by crumble and smell: white to pale cream, crumbling rather than bending, strong but clean. Coloured or fuzzy mould, a slimy surface, or a sour smell distinct from the normal pungency all mean leave it.
- Sheep’s milk cheeses smell more strongly than cow’s milk ones. That is characteristic rather than a fault, and it divides people.
- Tulum peyniri from Turkey is the direct relative and far easier to find abroad. Skin-ripened cheeses are made across the Caucasus and Anatolia.
- A plate of fresh herbs eaten in handfuls — tarragon, mint, coriander, cress — is genuine practice at an Azerbaijani table rather than a garnish.
- Black tea is served in narrow-waisted armudu glasses and drunk with jam or sugar held in the mouth rather than stirred in.
- This is sheep’s milk rather than cow’s. Some people who react to cow’s milk tolerate sheep’s milk and others do not, and a milk allergy is a milk allergy — the atlas records that and makes no claim.
- Advice on raw-milk cheese in pregnancy varies by country. The atlas records that the question exists, makes no medical claim, and leaves it to a doctor or midwife.
Substitutions
- Tulum peyniri from Turkey is the closest available relative.
- A well-aged feta substitutes for the salt and crumble, without the herb or skin character.
- Any sharp crumbly sheep’s milk cheese serves on a breakfast table.
- Soaking reduces the salt of any of these.
- Lavash or any flatbread replaces tandır bread.
- Goat’s milk versions are made and are milder.
Variations
- Tulum peyniri in Turkey is made by the same skin-ripening method.
- Şor and other Azerbaijani fresh cheeses are the everyday counterparts.
- Qatiq and suzma are the soured milk and strained curd of the same kitchens.
- Georgian and Iranian skin-ripened cheeses belong to the same tradition.
- A goat’s milk version is made in some villages and is milder.
- Cheese crumbled into a herb omelette, kuku, is a common use.
History
Made in the Greater Caucasus foothills; salted curds are packed into skins with thyme and ripened in cool cellars.
Frequently asked questions
What is Motal peniri?
Motal peniri is a cheese & dairy from Azerbaijan: crumbly sheep cheese matured with mountain herbs inside a skin. Made in the Greater Caucasus foothills; salted curds are packed into skins with thyme and ripened in cool cellars.
How long does Motal peniri take to make?
Motal peniri takes 10 minutes of preparation and none of cooking. The recipe makes buy 50 g per person. It is rated easy to make.
What can I substitute in Motal peniri?
Yes, within limits. Tulum peyniri from Turkey is the closest available relative. A well-aged feta substitutes for the salt and crumble, without the herb or skin character. Any sharp crumbly sheep’s milk cheese serves on a breakfast table. Soaking reduces the salt of any of these. Lavash or any flatbread replaces tandır bread. Goat’s milk versions are made and are milder.
What is the most important thing to get right in Motal peniri?
The atlas gives no method for making this cheese, deliberately. It is ripened inside a prepared animal skin, which is a specialised craft rather than a home process; it is usually a raw sheep’s milk cheese ripening for months, whose safety rests on the whole chain from flock to cellar; and an uncontrolled ripening in a skin can go badly wrong.
