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Fermentation Atlas

Cheese from North-west Iran

MotalՄոթալ

Raw sheep or goat milk is set with rennet, the curd is pressed in cloth, crumbled and salted, then packed tight into a cleaned sheepskin (in Iran) or into terracotta pots (in Armenia). Sealed in the skin or pot, it ripens for months, slowly souring into a crumbly, salty, sharp cheese. Made in 7 steps over 3.1 months. The longest step, seal in a fresh skin and ripen, takes 3 months (Rezaei A. et al. 2020) and runs at 6–12 °C (Rezaei A. et al. 2020). Salt is 3 % (Rezaei A. et al. 2020). Lactobacilli of raw-milk Motal and Native milk flora, surface bacteria and yeasts, credited with Motal's flavour do most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main step3 monthsReported[rezaei2020]Seal in a fresh skin and ripen
Temperature6–12 °CReported[rezaei2020]Seal in a fresh skin and ripen
Salt3 %Reported[rezaei2020]Crumble and salt
AciditypH 5.3 → 4.71Measured[rezaei2020]Seal in a fresh skin and ripen

Recipe

Amounts from a sourceTraditional process with no fixed batch size. The amounts here come from one university study that copied the Iranian sheepskin method.
Raw sheep milk · Traditional Iranian Motal uses no added starter[azizi2017][rezaei2020]
Rennet · Fungal rennet at 0.01 g per litre in one lab study; calf rennet in Armenia[rezaei2020][slowfood-motal]
30 g per kg of curdSalt · In one lab version of the Iranian method[rezaei2020]
Prepared sheepskin (Iran) or terracotta pot sealed with beeswax (Armenia)[rezaei2020][slowfood-motal]
Mountain herbs · Armenian Motal; mainly wild garlic, tarragon and pepper[slowfood-motal]
Starterspontaneous (raw-milk flora), plus rennet

Total time across the recorded steps: 3.1 months

Start
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What changes: Starting material: raw sheep milk, used without any added culture

Step 1 of 7
Take raw sheep milk
Time
Not documented
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Lactobacilli
L. plantarum
L. casei
Yeasts

Traditional Iranian Motal uses raw sheep milk with no added starter culture.

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

What makes this one different

Motal is ripened packed into a skin bag or a sealed pot instead of as whole wheels, which keeps air out and lets the crumbled, salted curd ripen as one mass. Armenian Motal adds wild herbs and ripens in terracotta under beeswax; Iranian Motal stays plain and ripens in sheepskin.

Milk
Raw sheep milk (Iran) or goat milk (Armenia)
Vessel
Sheepskin bag (Iran) or terracotta pot sealed with beeswax (Armenia)
Ripening
About 3 months; Armenian pots can keep it over six months

Related ferments

Variants

  • Armenian Motal (Gegharkunik)Pure goat milk set with calf rennet straight after milking, pressed in cloth about 15 minutes, held in brine at least 40 days, crumbled with mountain herbs, packed into terracotta pots for 35–50 days, then sealed with beeswax and kept on ashes in cold cellars.
  • Iranian sheepskin MotalRaw sheep milk without starter, ripened in sheepskin bags.

Safety

Traditional Motal is made from raw milk without a starter, and one survey found Staphylococcus aureus in half its samples. ANSES advises pregnant women, young children, people over 65 and people with weak immunity not to eat raw-milk cheeses other than hard cooked ones.

Hazards the sources name: Staphylococcus aureus (found in 3 of 6 traditional samples, up to 9 × 10^3 CFU/g).

History and sources

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

Motal is a long-standing farm cheese of north-west Iran and an age-old shepherd cheese in Armenia. Sheepskin bags were used because they were cheap, easy to prepare and let some moisture through. In Armenia, keeping food in terracotta goes back at least 5,000 years, and families still keep goat cheese in pots for winter; Slow Food made Armenian Motal a Presidium to help its makers.

  1. [rezaei2020] Rezaei A. et al. 2020, Effect of pasteurization and ripening temperature on chemical and sensory characteristics of traditional Motal cheese, Fermentation 6(4):95paper
  2. [azizi2017] Azizi F., Habibi Najafi M.B., Edalatian Dovom M.R. 2017, The biodiversity of Lactobacillus spp. from Iranian raw milk Motal cheese and antibacterial evaluation based on bacteriocin-encoding genes, AMB Express 7:176paper
  3. [slowfood-motal] Slow Food Foundation for Biodiversity, Presidium « Motal » (Armenia, Gegharkunik)web
  4. [anses2022] ANSES 2022, Fromages au lait cru, quels risques pour la santé et comment mieux les prévenir (8 April 2022)gov