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Alcoholic drinks from India

Chulli (Kinnauri wild-apricot drink)

Chulli is a wild-apricot drink of Kinnaur in Himachal Pradesh. Crushed wild apricots are mixed with water and a little phab starter, fermented two to three days and filtered.

Fully documentedAlcoholic drinks2 days – 3 days

Recipe

No fixed amounts recordedHousehold recipe; the sources give no amounts.
Wild apricots, crushed[khapudang2018]
Water[khapudang2018]
Phab startera small amount[khapudang2018]
Starterphab, a dried yeast starter (Thakur and colleagues call it dehydrated yeast formulations)

Total time across the recorded steps: 2 days – 3 days

Start
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What changes: Wild apricots are crushed and mixed with water

Step 1 of 4
Crush the wild apricots and add water
Time
Not documented
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Saccharomyces cerevisiae
Yeasts

Output: apricot mash.

Flavour
Not documented
Texture
Not documented
Colour
Not documented

Microbes at work in this step

Not documented for this step.

Method

Measured measured in a studySet fixed by a specification or tested recipeReported one source reports itTypical a general value, not sourced for this fermentUnconfirmed not yet checked against a source

At a glance

Chulli is a wild-apricot drink of Kinnaur in Himachal Pradesh. Crushed wild apricots are mixed with water and a little phab starter, fermented two to three days and filtered. Made in 4 steps over 2 days – 3 days. The longest step, ferment, takes 2–3 days (Khapudang R 2018). Saccharomyces cerevisiae (strain MTCC 4812), the yeast isolated from a chulli sample does most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main step2–3 daysReported[khapudang2018]Ferment

What makes this one different

Chulli is made from wild apricots, not grain, and is started with phab, the same starter used for the chhang and lugri beers of Himachal Pradesh.

Related ferments

Variants

  • Behmi (Kinnaur)An apple drink made with phab.
  • Chakti / jhol (Shimla, Kullu)A jaggery drink made with phab.
  • Angoori (Kinnaur)A grape drink made with phab.

Safety

Apricot kernels contain amygdalin, which releases cyanide. They can hold from about 500 to more than 1,000 mg cyanide per kg, and cyanogens from stones can seep into fruit juices and stone-fruit spirits (EFSA 2019). The sources do not say whether kernels go into the mash, and no source read measures cyanide in chulli. The fruit is crushed for this drink, so do not break the stones (NDSU).

History and sources

Every number is labelled with how it is known. How this atlas is made

The Tribune reported on 30 April 2018 that making local liquor in the tribal areas of Himachal Pradesh is an old practice, but that it was for home use and its sale was not allowed. Under the state's Excise Policy for 2018–19, the government allowed commercial making and sale of chuli (apricot) and other local drinks of Kinnaur.

Temperature, salt and pH
The sources we found give no temperature, salt or pH figure for any of its steps.
  1. [WP:Chulli] Wikipedia, Chulli (outline only)wiki
  2. [RAWAT2021] Rawat J.M., Pandey S., Debbarma P., Rawat B. "Preparation of alcoholic beverages by tribal communities in the Indian Himalayan Region: a review on traditional and ethnic consideration." Front. Sustain. Food Syst. 5:672411, 2021, Table 1paper
  3. [khapudang2018] Khapudang R., Sharma S., Joshi V.K. 2018, Indigenous fermented food products of Eastern and Western Himalayan region, a review, Intl. J. Food Ferment. Technol. 8(2):119–139 (chulli, citing Joshi et al. 1990 and Savitri and Bhalla 2007)paper
  4. [angmo2014] Angmo K., Bhalla T.C. 2014, Preparation of phabs, an indigenous starter culture for production of traditional alcoholic beverage, chhang, in Ladakh, Indian Journal of Traditional Knowledge 13(2):347–351 (microbes of Ladakhi phab)paper
  5. [thakur2004] Thakur N., Savitri, Bhalla T.C. 2004, Characterization of some traditional fermented foods and beverages of Himachal Pradesh, Indian Journal of Traditional Knowledge 3(3):325–335 (chulli process flow, yeast isolate, ethanol content)paper
  6. [efsa2019] EFSA CONTAM Panel 2019, Evaluation of the health risks related to the presence of cyanogenic glycosides in foods other than raw apricot kernels, EFSA Journal 17(4):e05662gov
  7. [ndsu-fn1638] Sagaser S., Garden-Robinson J., Smith R. FN1638, From the garden or orchard to the table, getting started with home winemaking, NDSU Extension, North Dakota State Universitygov
  8. [tribune2018] Lohumi B.P. 2018, Bachhus lovers can savour liquor brewed by tribals now, The Tribune (Shimla), 30 April 2018web