Muhlama

Highland (yayla) breakfast from the Black Sea pastures of Trabzon, Rize, and Artvin, where summer dairy from cows grazing on alpine grass produces the stretchy raw cheeses the dish demands. Eaten by herders for calories on cold mountain mornings; the dish moved down to coastal restaurants in the late 20th century as Black Sea food gained national popularity.

Highland yayla breakfast from the Black Sea pastures of Trabzon, Rize, Artvin — summer dairy from cows on alpine grass produces the stretchy raw cheeses (kolot, minzi) the dish demands. Built for herder calories on cold mornings; moved down to coastal restaurants only in the late 20th century.

Hot melted Black Sea kolot or minzi cheese pulled into long elastic strings through a base of cornmeal and butter, served straight from the small copper pan. You eat with bread, dragging it through and lifting cheese ropes. Salty, fatty, deeply yellow from cow butter. If the cheese doesn't string when lifted, it's the wrong cheese.

The cheese is everything. Authentic muhlama uses fresh, unaged stretchy cow cheese (kolot/minzi) that hasn't been pressed dry — supermarket kaşar won't string the same way. Butter and cornmeal are just the carrier; cooks layer the cheese in last and stir slowly over low heat to keep the protein matrix intact, since high heat snaps the strings into curds.