Growing up in Israel in the 70’s you basically had a choice between two kinds of cheese: White Cheese and Yellow Cheese. The white cheese was creamy and fresh, white in color, and was used for all cakes and vegetable casseroles. The yellow cheese was, well, yellow. It was an Edam style cheese, used for pita-pizza and grilled cheese sandwiches.
Roaming through the isles of an average Israeli supermarket today you’ll find an astonishing variety of dairy products, representing the traditions of many of the Jewish Diaspora cuisines as well as the Israeli’s fascination with culinary discoveries from all over the globe: Turkish Kashkaval, Bulgarian style salty cheese, Middle Eastern Labneh and fresh mozzarella just to name a few, and next to them a variety of boutique dairy farms’ goat and sheep products and many imported cheeses. Quite a long way from the days of yellow and white.
It’s wonderful to have so many choices, but ah! how I miss those innocent days! For almost every dinner for the first 20 years of my life in Israel, just like at the homes of my friends, we would have a large bowl of Israeli salad, one egg and a slice of rye bread thinly spread with the white cheese, topped with a thin slice of tomato and sprinkled with a little salt. Nothing illustrates better the simplicity of the early Israeli cuisine than this cheese. And nowhere is this cheese more prominent than in the dishes made for the holiday of Shavuot.
Food-wise, Shavuot is probably my favorite holiday. Known also as the festival of harvest, Shavuot was celebrated in ancient times in late spring when farmers from all over the country would bring their first fruits of the season (the Bikkurim) to Jerusalem. This is also the time of the year when sheep and goats give birth and so milk was available fresh and plenty.
Although this festival of pilgrimage is no longer practiced, we still celebrate Shavuot with a feast of seasonal vegetables and plenty of dairy dishes: blintzes, veggie kugels and cheese cakes. Yum.
White cheese is a soft cow’s milk cheese with the consistency of something between sour cream and labneh, but not as tart. It is fairly light as well, and has, depending on the product ,between 0% to 9% fat (in other words, 2 tablespoons of white cheese are worth 35 calories, while 2 tablespoons of cream cheese have 90!). It is really a type of quark, a type of European cheese, and in fact, Israelis learned the productions of this cheese from the Templars, German-Protestant settlers who immigrated to Israel in the second half of the 19th century.
The Templars believed that only by living and working in Palestine, they could promote the second coming of the Christ. They settled in a few colonies around the country and, among other ventures opened a highly modern dairy farm, specializing in cow’s milk products. Jews living in Palestine at the time appreciated this white creamy cheese since it did not involve using rennet and therefore was naturally kosher.
While making their living selling dairy products to the Jewish population in Palestine, some of the Templars joined the Nazi party and in 1939 enlisted in the German Army. Viewed as enemy nationals, the Templars were eventually deported from Israel by the British who ruled Palestine at the time. But the Templars’ dairy heritage is still with us and the white cheese is still one of the most popular cheeses in Israel.
No wonder then, that when I moved to the U.S. with my family, the first thing I looked for was white cheese. And what a disappointment it was when I realized white cheese was so hard to find. Are we destined to eat only the Fat Cheese here (the straightforward name given to the American cream cheese in Israel)?
The good news is that you can usually find quark cheese at Whole Foods, and find the real Israeli white cheese at many Kosher supermarkets. Eat it with a spoon straight from the container, mix it into Israeli salad or spread it on a slice of bread – it’s so good. But the best thing you can do with it is make a cheesecake.
Israeli cheesecakes are fluffy, airy and light, especially in comparison to its American sister version. In fact, it feels so light that you might finish half a cake without noticing it… Check out a few versions here, here and here.
