World's largest traditional butter container opens in western Iran

KERMANSHAH, Iran — The world's largest traditional "Hize" leather container has been inaugurated in the Zagros Industrial City in the western Iranian city of Kermanshah, local media reported. The Hize vessels, made from sheep or goat hide, are used to store and age a regional clarified butter known locally as "Kermanshah butter" or Zagros butter. Food, pharmaceutical and agricultural officials who visited the production facility said the butter-making recipe, passed down for roughly two thousand years among Kurdish tribes in the Zagros Mountains, has now been mechanized. Folklorists noted that the animal hides are processed with certain wild plants and grape molasses, allowing the butter to be preserved for years while developing a smoky aroma. The Kermanshah Butter House, founded four years ago without the use of bank loans, works with more than 300 families from rural and nomadic communities in the Zagros region, according to its founder Naser Guli. He said the project draws particularly on the knowledge of Kurdish women in butter and hide preparation. The governor of Kermanshah said protecting the traditional butter brand is essential to preserving the city's economic identity.