Motal: The Kurdish Cheese Aged Inside a Sheepskin

Mero Ranyayi
May 28
4 min read

Motal: The Kurdish Cheese Aged Inside a Sheepskin

Motal (موتال) is a traditional Kurdish cheese made from sheep's or goat's milk, packed into a whole sheepskin bag and aged for three to four months. The skin is not just a container — it is an active part of the cheese-making process, allowing the cheese to breathe while creating the anaerobic conditions needed for deep fermentation. This is Kurdish nomadic dairy technology at its most ingenious: a cheese designed to be made on mountain pastures, aged during the migration between summer and winter camps, and eaten months later when fresh milk is no longer available. Jajî — the herbed cheese covered earlier in this series — is the herbal variant of motal, with wild mountain herbs mixed into the curds before packing. Wikipedia attributes motal to Armenia. The Slow Food Foundation describes it as "throughout the Caucasus." Kurdish cheesemakers in the mountains of Kurdistan have been making it for centuries. The attribution, once again, goes everywhere except to the Kurdish hands that shaped it.

Key Takeaways

• A Kurdish cheese made from sheep's or goat's milk, packed into a whole sheepskin and aged 3–4 months

• The sheepskin is an active participant — it allows breathing while maintaining anaerobic fermentation conditions

• Jajî (herbed cheese) is the herbal variant of motal — wild mountain herbs mixed into the curds before packing into the skin

• Developed for Kurdish transhumant life — made on summer pastures, aged during migration, eaten in winter

• Wikipedia attributes motal to Armenia; the Slow Food Foundation says "the Caucasus" — Kurdish cheesemakers are erased from their own product

Quick Facts

Kurdish Name: Motal (موتال); herbed variant: Jajî / Zhaji

Attributed To: Armenia (Wikipedia), "the Caucasus" (Slow Food Foundation)

Type: Sheepskin-aged brined cheese — Kurdish nomadic pastoral technology

Milk: Sheep's milk or sheep-goat blend

Aging: 3–4 months inside a whole sheepskin bag; also in kunapeest caves in Kurdistan

How Motal Is Made

Fresh sheep's or goat's milk is curdled using rennet made from a lamb's abomasum — cured for a month in salted water with grain and a piece of iron to regulate acidity. The curds are salted, drained, and pressed. For the jajî variant, wild mountain herbs are mixed into the curds at this stage. The prepared cheese is then packed tightly into a cleaned and prepared sheepskin bag.

The skin can be prepared two ways. Hair-side-in: the animal hair helps coagulation and fermentation, reduces the need for rennet, but leaves hairs in the finished cheese. Hair-side-out: cleaner cheese, but requires more rennet. The packed skin is tied shut and hung in a cool, dark place — traditionally a kunapeest cave in the Kurdish mountains, where temperatures remain between 50 and 60 degrees Fahrenheit year-round. The cheese ages for three to four months. The result is dense, crumbly, pungent — food writers compare it to aged blue cheese in aroma, though the texture is closer to feta.

Technology Born of Transhumance

Motal exists because Kurdish herders needed to preserve surplus summer milk for the winter months when their animals produced less. The sheepskin bag was the container they had — not clay, not metal, not plastic, but the skin of the very animal whose milk they were preserving. The cheese was made on high summer pastures, packed into skins, and carried down with the flocks when the herders descended to their winter settlements. By the time winter arrived, the cheese had aged and was ready to eat. This is not primitive technology. It is sophisticated food science, developed over centuries of trial and refinement by people who understood fermentation, salt chemistry, and the properties of animal skin as an aging membrane.

Contested Attribution: Kurdish Cheese, Armenian Wikipedia

Wikipedia's article on motal cheese says: "Country of origin: Armenia." The Slow Food Foundation's Ark of Taste entry describes it as "produced throughout the Caucasus." A Czech food writer who encountered the cheese in Iraqi Kurdistan correctly identified it as Kurdish, writing: "Motal and zhaji are traditional Kurdish cheeses." The gap between what people find on the ground in Kurdistan and what they read on Wikipedia is, at this point in our series, a recurring theme.

Skin-aged cheese is made by pastoral herding communities across the region — Kurdish, Armenian, Azerbaijani. But the Kurdish motal tradition is distinct: it is tied to Kurdish mountain caves (kunapeest), Kurdish rennet preparation (lamb abomasum with grain and iron), Kurdish herb knowledge (jajî variant), and Kurdish transhumant routes. Attributing the entire tradition to Armenia because Armenian Wikipedia editors wrote the article first is not scholarship. It is first-mover advantage on a digital platform.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is motal cheese?

A Kurdish cheese made from sheep's or goat's milk, packed into a whole sheepskin bag and aged for three to four months. The skin acts as an active aging membrane. The herbed variant, with wild mountain herbs mixed in, is called jajî.

What is a kunapeest?

A natural cave in the Kurdish mountains used for aging cheese. Kunapeest caves maintain stable temperatures between 50 and 60 degrees Fahrenheit year-round, making them ideal for cheese preservation. Kurdistan24 documented the tradition in 2021.

Conclusion

Motal is Kurdish food technology preserved in animal skin. The sheep that provides the milk also provides the container. The rennet comes from the lamb. The caves are Kurdish mountain caves. The herbs in the jajî variant are Kurdish mountain herbs. The transhumant routes along which the cheese ages are Kurdish migration paths. Every element of motal production is rooted in Kurdish pastoral ecology. That Wikipedia says "Country of origin: Armenia" does not change who made the cheese. It only changes who gets credit on the internet.