Akkawi vs Baladi
Akkawi
Facts
- Texture
- Semi-soft
- Type
- Brined
- Rind
- No rind
- Country
- Cyprus
Akkawi is a white brine cheese linked with Cyprus and with the wider Levant. The block is pale, smooth, and semi-soft, and it has no rind. It sits in salty whey so it will keep, which makes the first taste quite salty. A soak in fresh water pulls some of that salt out before cooking or a meal. What remains is mild, milky, and a little elastic.
Baladi
Facts
- Texture
- Soft
- Type
- Fresh
- Rind
- No rind
- Country
- Lebanon
Baladi is a fresh white cheese from Lebanon. The name means village or country style, and local speech also calls the fresh piece green cheese. That second name refers to an unripened cheese, not to a green color. The paste is soft, rindless, and mildly salty, with a creamy bite and a clean dairy taste. Marks from the draining basket or hoop often show on the surface.