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Cheese from China, Xinjiang

Xinjiang Kazakh cheese (naigeda, 奶疙瘩)奶疙瘩

Kazakh herders in Xinjiang boil raw cow or goat milk and let it ferment in goatskin or sheepskin bags at about 30 °C for around 15 days, sometimes with yoghurt from a previous batch, so it sours into a thick curd. The whey is removed, the curd is dried and shaped, and it ripens for 30 to 60 days into a hard, sour cheese. No starter culture is added in the traditional method.

Recipe

No fixed amounts recordedHousehold practice with no fixed amounts.
Raw cow or goat milk[li2022][xiao2020]
Yoghurt from an earlier batch (optional backslop)[li2022]
Starternone added, or yoghurt from a previous fermentation; the skin bag's own microbes

Total time across the recorded steps: 45 days – 2.5 months

Start
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What changes: Raw milk is boiled before it goes into the skin bag

Step 1 of 5
Boil the milk
Time
Not documented
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Lactic acid bacteria
Yeasts
Moulds
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

Kazakh herders in Xinjiang boil raw cow or goat milk and let it ferment in goatskin or sheepskin bags at about 30 °C for around 15 days, sometimes with yoghurt from a previous batch, so it sours into a thick curd. The whey is removed, the curd is dried and shaped, and it ripens for 30 to 60 days into a hard, sour cheese. No starter culture is added in the traditional method. Made in 5 steps over 45 days – 2.5 months. The longest step, ripen, takes 30 days – 2 months (Li Y 2022). Native lactic acid bacteria from the milk and the skin bag; four isolated from Kazak cheese were Streptococcus thermophilus, Lactobacillus helveticus, Weissella confusa and Lactobacillus rhamnosus and Non-starter lactic bacteria, yeasts and moulds, which shape the sharp, acidic flavour do most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main step30 days – 2 monthsReported[li2022]Ripen
Temperature30 °CReported[xiao2020]Ferment in a goatskin bag

What makes this one different

The milk ferments for about two weeks inside a goatskin or sheepskin bag before the curd is drained, shaped and ripened, with no added starter. Kazakh qurt from Kazakhstan is instead boiled down, salted and rolled into small balls that are dried hard.

Milk
Raw cow or goat milk
Ripening
30–60 days after shaping

Related ferments

Safety

The milk is boiled before fermenting, and the long souring makes the curd very acidic. Laboratory versions of the cheese use pasteurised milk and selected cultures instead.

History and sources

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

A survey of Chinese artisanal cheeses counts naigeda, made by the Kazakhs of Xinjiang, as one of the five main traditional cheese types of China.

  1. [li2022] Li Y., Wang J., Wang T., Lv Z., Liu L., Wang Y. et al. 2022, Differences between Kazak Cheeses Fermented by Single and Mixed Strains Using Untargeted Metabolomics, Foods 11(7):966paper
  2. [xiao2020] Xiao J., Chen Y., Li J., Shi X., Deng L., Wang B. 2020, Evaluation of the Effect of Auxiliary Starter Yeasts With Enzyme Activities on Kazak Cheese Quality and Flavor, Frontiers in Microbiology 11:614208 (introduction, citing Zheng et al. 2018)paper
  3. [li2020] Li J., Huang Q., Zheng X., Ge Z., Lin K., Zhang D. et al. 2020, Investigation of the Lactic Acid Bacteria in Kazak Cheese and Their Contributions to Cheese Fermentation, Frontiers in Microbiology 11:228 (introduction)paper
  4. [liu2026] Liu Y., Huang P., Zhang C., Dong Q., Wang X., Tian F. et al. 2026, A microbiome catalog of Chinese traditional artisanal cheeses provides insights into functional and microbial diversity, Nature Communications (naigeda named as the Kazakh cheese type)paper