Suluguni
Suluguni (Georgian: სულუგუნი; Mingrelian: სელეგინ; Abkhaz: ашә, ашәлагәан) is a pickled Georgian cheese from the Samegrelo region. It has a sour, moderately salty flavor, a dimpled texture, and an elastic consistency; these attributes are the result of the process used, as is the source of its moniker "pickle cheese". Its color ranges from white to pale yellow. Suluguni is often deep-fried, which masks its odor. It is often served in wedges.
A typical suluguni cheese is shaped as a flat disc, 2.5 to 3.5 centimeters thick. It weighs 0.5 to 1.5 kilograms and contains 50% water and between 1% and 5% salt. Dry fat content averages 45%.[1] Suluguni is produced only of natural ingredients: normalized cow milk by clotting by rennet with pure cultures of lactic bacteria.[2]
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[edit] Etymology
According to Vasily Abaev, Georgian suluguni (სულუგუნი) is undoubtedly borrowed from Digor sulugun which means containing whey.[3]
The word may be Turkic in origin. According to the entry in the Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary
"Sulug (Tatar language)—a type of cheese in Transcaucasia prepared from foremilk. For the preparation a sheep's afterbirth is taken, which is filled with foremilk or viscous milk. The afterbirth is then tied up and buried in hot ashes. As a result, the foremilk and milk curdles and turns into a sweetish cheese that is called "sulug"."
This may also be a reverse borrowing.
A folk etymology posits that the name suluguni comes from two Georgian words - suli (which means "soul") and guli (which means "heart").
[edit] Production
According to the 1970s sources, suluguni accounted for around 27% of cheese production in Georgia.[4] It was the third most popular pickled cheese of the Soviet Union, with 16.5% share in 1987 (after Bryndza and Ossetian cheese).[5]
Suluguni may be produced from normalized milk of cow, buffalo, sheep or goat, or a mix of these milks. It is a "quick cheese" maturing in just one or two days.[1] The mix of normalized milk and bacterial starter is scalded at 36-38°C or, alternatively, renneted without scalding. It is then cheddared in whey at 34-35°C for up to five hours, reaching titratable acidity of 140-160°T.[6]
The cheddared mass is then diced into pieces 1 to 3 centimeters long. They are heated to 60-80°C in a rotating mixer, either directly or with added whey or brine. Plasticizing of raw mass takes five to seven minutes. Direct dry plasticizing yields fatter, drier cheese with superior taste.[6] Plasticized cheese mass is then cooled and drained of whey, and shaped by hand. Shaped cheeses are cured in cold (8-12°C), mildly acidic brine for 6 to 48 hours.
[edit] Notes
- ^ a b Gudkov, p. 296.
- ^ http://www.100best.ru/Catalogue-English/Products/249818/ "Rennet briny cheese "Suluguni"
- ^ Абаев В. И. Историко-этимологический словарь осетинского языка. Том III. Pp. 197, 196.
- ^ Gudkov, p. 298, citing 1974 and 1975 sources.
- ^ Gudkov, p. 295.
- ^ a b Gudkov, p. 298.
[edit] References
- Jones, Evan (1984). The World of Cheese.
- Gudkov, A. V. (1999). Cheeses of the former USSR, in: Fox, Patrick P. (1999). Cheese: Chemistry, Physics and Microbiology: Major Cheese Groups, volume 2. Springer. ISBN 0834213397, 9780834213395.
