Talk:Kopanisti

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Forgive me if this is done poorly as I usually keep myself to spelling and grammar corrections of little consequence. I'm really not sure how to use the the "ref/ref" tags to cite sources so I'm going to include links to the pages to which I'm referring.

As I read the page for this cheese, Kopanisti mykonou, it starts of with the premise that it gets its spiciness from "fungal growth", mentioned both at the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Greek_Protected_Designations_of_Origin_cheeses page, which links to the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kopanisti_mykonou page (which makes the statement at the top of the page that the page is an "orphan" with no page linking to it false) and this premise is repeated in the grammatically difficult phrasing "It owes its special hot taste in fungal growth..." on that second page dedicated to the cheese itself. My problem with this arises when reading in the "Preparation" section this sentence "After this it needs to be dried and red chili peppers and salt are added." I'm not an expert in cheeses but I would be willing to argue that the spiciness (and the pink color) of the cheese comes from the red chili peppers and not from "fungal growth".

I was initially drawn to the page by the mention of the spiciness being caused by fungal growth on the list page because I had never heard of a spicy fungus and I was hoping that the specific strain would be mentioned in the main article about the cheese only to find out it has chili peppers added. Since I have never encountered this cheese in my life I cannot state absolutely that it gets its spicy flavor from the peppers and not from some unknown species of fungus; which is why I am creating this talk page rather than editing the entry. I hope that a cheesemonger from Mykanos stumbles upon this and can settle the issue definitively or perhaps a world traveling cheese lover. Until then I doubt the veracity of the article and leave my doubts here for all to discuss.

Thanks to you for your interest in these obscure details that are what makes Wikipedia so special and unique.

AgLupo (talk) 19:35, 10 November 2013 (UTC)

The title should be changed to "Kopanisti", and without any prejudice to its Greek etymology, article should be re-structured to reflect the truth about a "Greek and Turkish cheese". When sources are read carefully and used accordingly, as I just did, that is the objective truth we find out about this dairy product. Thanks. --176.239.29.17 (talk) 16:17, 14 February 2016 (UTC)

I moved the page to "Kopanisti" from "Kopanisti Mykonou". The two official sources on the naming of the PDO cheese cited in the original article, one from the European Comission and one from the Journal of the Greek Government, name the cheese "Kopanisti" and state that it is produced in the islandes of the Cyclades - which includes Mykonos, but also Paros, Andros, Naxos, Tinos, Thera, etc.

I also removed the references to the addition of "red chilli peppers" and "fungal grwoth" that were in the original article and are not in any of the references cited, in particular the two official references on the PDO cheese, above. It seems that the spicy-hot taste of the cheese is due to microbial, rather than fungal, growth and that the microbial action is encouraged by repeated sessions of kneeding the cheese as it ages in order to evenly distribute the microbial flora throughout the cheese mass. I personally am not aware of any Greek cheeses that are ripened with the action of fungi and Kopanisti is the only one I'm aware of where microbial action is encouraged in this way to enhance taste.

I can't find any information on the Turkish Kopanisti in a language that I know. Please update the text with more information on the Turkish variety, although care should be taken to separate the description from the PDO cheese. Also please carefully and clearly cite the related references to avoid confusion.

I also adjusted indentation in this talk page per wikipedia guidelines: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:Talk_pages#Indentation.

Stassa (talk) 12:38, 10 March 2020 (UTC)