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Cheese from Egypt, village households

Karish / AreeshKariesh

Raw cow or buffalo milk stands in earthenware pots for 24–72 hours while the cream rises and the milk sours into laban rayeb. The cream is skimmed off, and the soured curd is ladled onto a mat and hung for 2–3 days to drain. It is then dry-salted, cut into pieces and drained a few hours more before it is eaten fresh.

Fully documentedCheese3.1 days – 6.1 daysFamily: Fresh lactic (acid-set) cheese family

Recipe

No fixed amounts recordedA household cheese with no fixed amounts. Industrial karish is made from separator-skimmed, pasteurised milk with a starter culture.
Raw cow or buffalo milk[fayed2014][hegab2021]
Salt, for dry salting to taste[fayed2014][hegab2021]
Starternone; the milk sours on its own in the pot

Total time across the recorded steps: 3.1 days – 6.1 days

Start
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shapes, not to countLactic acid bacteria

What changes: In clay pots the milk sours while the cream rises over 1–3 days

Step 1 of 4
Leave the milk to sour and cream
Time
24 h – 3 days
Reported
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Lactic acid bacteria
Flavour
Not documented
Texture
Not documented
Colour
Not documented

Microbes at work in this step

lactic bacteria of the raw milk sour it while the cream rises by gravity

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

Raw cow or buffalo milk stands in earthenware pots for 24–72 hours while the cream rises and the milk sours into laban rayeb. The cream is skimmed off, and the soured curd is ladled onto a mat and hung for 2–3 days to drain. It is then dry-salted, cut into pieces and drained a few hours more before it is eaten fresh. Made in 4 steps over 3.1 days – 6.1 days. The longest step, leave the milk to sour and cream, takes 24 h – 3 days (Hegab O.W 2021). Salt is 2.5 % (Hegab O.W 2021). Lactic acid bacteria; Enterococcus faecium, Enterococcus faecalis and Enterococcus durans were the cocci isolated from karish samples does most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main step24 h – 3 daysReported[hegab2021]Leave the milk to sour and cream
Salt2.5 %Reported[hegab2021]Dry-salt and drain again

What makes this one different

Soured and creamed in the same clay pot, so it is made from naturally skimmed milk and needs no starter; the curd drains for days on folded mats.

Fat
Made from skimmed milk; industrial karish milk has 0.1–0.5 % fat depending on the separator
Shelf life
Fresh soft cheese with a short life; the Egyptian standard for white soft cheese allows at most one month

Related ferments

Variants

  • Industrial karishSeparator-skimmed, pasteurised milk soured with a lactic starter culture.
  • Pickled karishFresh karish kept in farm milk by-products such as buttermilk, murta or whey.

Safety

Traditional karish is made from raw milk. The source says raw-milk karish made under poor hygiene may carry health-risk contaminants. Industrial karish uses pasteurised skimmed milk and a starter culture.

Hazards the sources name: Enterobacter aerogenes, a coliform often isolated from raw milk and karish, which the source calls an opportunistic pathogen and a spoilage organism.

History and sources

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

Fayed et al. (2014) call karish the older of Egypt's two most popular soft cheeses, karish and Domiati, say it has been made since 3000 BC, and say it makes up about 50% of the white soft cheese produced in Egypt.

  1. [hegab2021] Hegab O.W., Abdel-Latif E.F., Zaki H.M.B.A., Moawad A.A. 2021, Fundamental role of Lactobacillus plantarum and inulin in improving safety and quality of Karish cheese, Open Veterinary Journal 11(3):356–363paper
  2. [fayed2014] Fayed A.E., Farahat A.M., Metwally A.E., Massoud M.S., Emam A.O. 2014, Health stimulating properties of the most popular soft cheese in Egypt Kariesh made using skimmed milk UF-retentate and probiotics, Acta Scientiarum Polonorum Technologia Alimentaria 13(4):359–373paper
  3. [elsaadany2024] Elsaadany K., El-Sayed A.I.M., Awad S. 2024, Identification, safety assessment, and antimicrobial characteristics of cocci lactic acid bacteria isolated from traditional Egyptian dairy products, Foods 13(19):3059paper
  4. [awaad2023] Awaad S.S., Sherief M.A., Mousa S.M., Orabi A., Abdel-Salam A.B. 2023, A comparative study on the antifungal effect of potassium sorbate, chitosan, and nano-chitosan against Rhodotorula mucilaginosa and Candida albicans in skim milk acid-coagulated (Karish) cheese, Veterinary World 16(9):1991–2001paper