Kope takes its name from its clay vessel. Studies of this Kurdish cheese explain changes in texture and flavour during maturation, while distinguishing particular experiments from the wider history of the food.

Illustration of a terracotta jar filled with pale crumbly cheese, with a piece of cheese beside it
AI-generated editorial illustration of jar-ripened cheese, created for Kurdish History. It represents the vessel and texture; it is not a photograph of a producer, a study sample or an archaeological find. Kurdish History Editorial Team · AI-generated editorial illustration · clay jar and crumbly cheese; not a documentary photograph.

The cheese and its vessel

Kope is named for a pot-shaped clay jar. Esmaeilzadeh and colleagues describe it as Kurdish food heritage, made from raw sheep’s or cow’s milk without a commercial starter. [1]

A documented maturation experiment

The 2021 study used sheep’s milk collected near Bukan in 2017. Salted curd accumulated before being washed, ground and packed into four-litre jars. The researchers buried the closed jars upside down, recording a 187-day maturation at 16–17°C. Sensory preference peaked at day 127 in their tests; longer maturation changed firmness, crumbliness and pungency. [1] These are observations from that experiment, rather than a universal timetable or a home-production recipe.

How ripening changes structure

Hasanzadeh, Raftani Amiri and Aminifar’s study, published in a 2018 journal issue, examined Kope ripened in clay pots over ninety days. Moisture declined while dry matter and an index of protein breakdown increased. Microscopy showed changes in pores and the density of the casein network; mechanical measurements indicated a stronger elastic character. [2] This gives the familiar idea of an aged cheese a physical explanation: its internal structure changes along with its composition.

Jar ripening and cave storage are distinct

Kurdistan24’s 2023 report describes kunapeest caves used for dairy storage. People pay an owner to store and tend cheese, or share a cave communally. An owner recalls earlier animal-skin containers and later plastic vessels. [3] This is evidence of another Kurdish preservation practice. A cave, a skin and a buried clay jar should not be treated as interchangeable descriptions of a single cheese. The container and storage setting matter.

What the 2026 research investigated

Nowruzi and colleagues purchased Kope from a shop in Iran’s Kurdistan Province and tested added phycoerythrin, a pigment extracted from a cyanobacterium. Treated samples and a control were stored at 4°C for sixty days. The authors report lower total microbial counts and changes in laboratory antioxidant measurements, without significant sensory changes. [4] This was a refrigerated preservation experiment using an added substance, rather than a description of a traditional ingredient or buried-jar maturation.

Reading heritage claims carefully

These experiments measure production, maturation and sensory properties. [1][2][4] They do not establish an invention date or a regional milk census. An ancient city’s age does not independently date its cheese.

Sources and further reading

  1. Peiman Esmaeilzadeh et al., Characterization of a traditional ripened cheese, Kurdish Kope: Lipolysis, lactate metabolism, volatile compounds and sensory characteristics, Journal of Food Science 86 (2021), pp.3303–3321.
  2. Asieh Hasanzadeh, Zeynab Raftani Amiri and Mehrnaz Aminifar, Changes in the physicochemical, microstructural and rheological properties of traditional Kope cheese during ripening, International Journal of Dairy Technology 71/2 (2018), pp.347–355; abstract.
  3. Kurdistan24, Kunapeest: the traditional Kurdish method of preserving cheese, 30 October 2023; cave-owner reporting.
  4. Bahareh Nowruzi et al., Enhancing Kope cheese with phycoerythrin: microbial, physicochemical, sensory, and antioxidant insights, npj Science of Food 10, 104, 13 February 2026.