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Cheese from Algeria

Klila

Raw cow, goat or sheep milk sours on its own and is churned for butter, leaving a sour, fat-free milk called lben. The lben is heated moderately until curd forms, and the curd is drained in cloth and eaten fresh or cut up and dried in the sun into very hard pieces. Soured milk and heat set the curd, so it is a boundary entry.

Recipe

No fixed amounts recordedTraditional household practice. The sources used here give no fixed recipe amounts. The yield is usually no more than a tenth of the milk used.
Raw cow, goat or sheep milk[benamara2022][leksir2019]
No starter cultureKlila is described as made from raw cow's milk without a starter culture; the milk sours spontaneously[meriem2023][benamara2022]
Starterspontaneous

Total time across the recorded steps: 25 h – 3 days

Start
Drag the bar or press Play
shapes, not to countLactic acid bacteriaMilk proteinGel (curd)

What changes: Raw milk stands one to three days until its own bacteria sour and set it

Step 1 of 5
Let the raw milk sour
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 acid bacteria acidify the milk until it curdles into rayeb

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, goat or sheep milk sours on its own and is churned for butter, leaving a sour, fat-free milk called lben. The lben is heated moderately until curd forms, and the curd is drained in cloth and eaten fresh or cut up and dried in the sun into very hard pieces. Soured milk and heat set the curd, so it is a boundary entry. Made in 5 steps over 25 h – 3 days. The longest step, let the raw milk sour, takes 24 h – 3 days (Bendjeriou I 2025). Lactic acid bacteria isolated from El-Klila, a spontaneously fermented cheese; of 26 isolates, Lactiplantibacillus plantarum was 73 %, Lacticaseibacillus paracasei 23 % and Limosilactobacillus fermentum 4 % does most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main step24 h – 3 daysReported[oug2025]Let the raw milk sour
Temperature50–75 °CReported[oug2025]Heat the lben until curd and whey part

What makes this one different

Klila is made from lben, the sour milk left after churning, not from whole milk. Moderate heat sets the curd, and the cut pieces are then dried hard in the sun.

Composition
Protein 29.9–71.4 g/100 g, fat 9.5–29.3 g/100 g and water activity 0.32–0.467 across published studies
Uses
Ground into the zrizri dessert with dates and clarified butter (smen), eaten fresh or dry with dates and green tea, or rehydrated for cooking

Related ferments

Variants

  • Fresh KlilaEaten after draining, before drying

Safety

A review states that the microbiological quality of Klila depends mainly on the quality of the raw milk and on hygiene around milk production, and that the conditions inside the cheese, with a water content under 10 % and water activity 0.32–0.467, do not favour microbial growth. Clean utensils and dry storage matter.

History and sources

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

Klila belongs to the practice of turning surplus milk into cheese at peak lactation, when herders could not keep all of it. The name may come from the Berber word ikil, for curdled milk. In Arabic klila also means a small amount, probably a reference to the low yield, usually no more than a tenth of the milk used.

  1. [benamara2022] Benamara R.N., Benahmed M., Ibri K., Boudjemaa B.M., Demarigny Y. 2022, Algerian extra hard cheese of Klila, a review on the production method, and microbial, organoleptic, and nutritional properties, Journal of Ethnic Foods 9:41 (abstract, read through the DOAJ record)paper
  2. [leksir2019] Leksir C., Boudalia S., Moujahed N., Chemmam M. 2019, Traditional dairy products in Algeria, case of Klila cheese, Journal of Ethnic Foods 6:7 (abstract, read through the DOAJ record)paper
  3. [oug2025] Bendjeriou I., Djebali Y. 2025, Essai de transformation de lait de chamelle en fromage traditionnel Klila, Mémoire de Master, Université Kasdi Merbah Ouargla (literature chapter on Klila)paper
  4. [meriem2023] Meriem D., Fadhila A., Lamia E., Hacène M. 2023, Characterization of the traditional cheese Adghess produced from cow's milk, African Journal of Food, Agriculture, Nutrition and Development 23(8):24406–24422 (background section on Klila)paper
  5. [belarbi2026] Belarbi F., Nielsen D.S., Cieplak T., Maghnia D., Medouakh L., Loumani A., Bensoltane A. 2026, Identification, phenotypic characterization, and assessment of potential probiotic properties of lactic acid bacteria isolated from the Algerian traditional cheese "El-Klila", FEMS Microbiology Letters 373:fnag039 (abstract)paper
  6. [hadef2023] Hadef S., Idoui T., Sifour M., Genay M., Dary-Mourot A. 2023, Screening of Wild Lactic Acid Bacteria from Algerian Traditional Cheeses and Goat Butter to Develop a New Probiotic Starter Culture, Probiotics and Antimicrobial Proteins 15(2):387–399 (abstract)paper