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Fermentation Atlas

Cheese from Greece

Myzithra (Mizithra)μυζήθρα

Myzithra is a whey cheese. Sheep or goat whey left from cheesemaking, often with about 10 % milk added, is heated above 80 °C so its proteins clot, and the curd is drained in cloth. Fresh myzithra is a heat-set, barely fermented cheese; a dried form keeps longer, and the sour xynomyzithra is the fermented relative. Made in 5 steps over 30 days. The longest step, keep fresh myzithra cold, takes 30 days (Govaris A 2001) and runs at 2 °C (Govaris A 2001).

Key numbers
Main step30 daysMeasured[govaris2001]Keep fresh myzithra cold
Temperature2 °CMeasured[govaris2001]Keep fresh myzithra cold
AciditypH 6.2 → 5.83Measured[govaris2001]Keep fresh myzithra cold
Fully documentedCheese30 daysnone (generic); the sour aged form Xynomyzithra Kritis is PDOFamily: Whey cheese (heat-precipitated whey protein) familyMore whey cheesesMore from Greece

Recipe

Amounts from a sourceStudy makes used 90 % whey and 10 % sheep milk (Kaminarides et al. 2015); traditional makes have no fixed amounts.
Sheep or goat whey · Left over from making other cheeses[andritsos2023][alichanidis2008]
About 10 % of the whey (in study makes)Sheep milk, whole or skimmed · Raises yield; skimmed milk gives a leaner, harder cheese[kaminarides2015][kaminarides2018]
Starternone in fresh myzithra; one study fermented the whey first with Streptococcus thermophilus

Total time across the recorded steps: 30 days

Start
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What changes: Sheep or goat whey from cheesemaking goes into the vat, with a little milk

Step 1 of 5
Collect whey and add milk
Time
Not documented
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented

Output: whey with some milk.

Flavour
Not documented
Texture
Not documented
Colour
greenish-yellow whey

Microbes at work in this step

whey bacteria from the first cheese

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

Myzithra is made from whey, not milk, and is set by heat rather than rennet or bacteria, so the fresh cheese is hardly fermented at all. Its sour, aged relative xynomyzithra is the fermented form.

Composition
Fresh Myzithra at most 70 % moisture and at least 50 % fat in dry matter (Greek rules as cited)

Related ferments

Variants

  • Fresh myzithraSoft, moist, eaten soon after making.
  • Dried myzithraDried to a firm cheese.
  • XynomyzithraThe sour, aged form; Xynomyzithra Kritis is PDO.

Safety

Heating the whey kills its native bacteria, so fresh myzithra spoils mainly from microbes that get in afterwards. Listeria monocytogenes has been isolated from it, and E. coli O157:H7 can grow in it at 12 °C; keep it cold.

Hazards the sources name: Listeria monocytogenes, isolated from fresh and dried Myzithra and processing surfaces; Escherichia coli O157:H7 grew at 12 °C and survived at 2 °C in Myzithra.

History and sources

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

  1. [sameli2021] Sameli N., Sioziou E., Bosnea L., Kakouri A., Samelis J. 2021, Assessment of the spoilage microbiota during refrigerated (4 °C) vacuum-packed storage of fresh Greek Anthotyros whey cheese without or with a crude enterocin A-B-P-containing extract, Foods 10(12):2946paper
  2. [samelis2022] Sameli N., Samelis J. 2022, Growth and biocontrol of Listeria monocytogenes in Greek Anthotyros whey cheese without or with a crude enterocin A-B-P extract, Foods 11(3):334paper
  3. [govaris2001] Govaris A., Koidis P., Papatheodorou K. 2001, The fate of Escherichia coli O157:H7 in Myzithra, Anthotyros, and Manouri whey cheeses during storage at 2 and 12 °C, Food Microbiology 18(5):565–570, doi:10.1006/fmic.2001.0419 (abstract)paper
  4. [kaminarides2015] Kaminarides S., Ilias-Dimopoulos E., Zoidou E., Moatsou G. 2015, The effect of addition of skimmed milk on the characteristics of Myzithra cheeses, Food Chemistry 180:164–170, doi:10.1016/j.foodchem.2015.01.086 (abstract)paper
  5. [kaminarides2018] Kaminarides S., Aktypis A., Koronios G., Massouras T., Papanikolaou S. 2018, Effect of 'in situ' produced bacteriocin thermophilin T on the microbiological and physicochemical characteristics of Myzithra whey cheese, International Journal of Dairy Technology 71:213–222, doi:10.1111/1471-0307.12448 (abstract)paper
  6. [andritsos2023] Andritsos N.D., Mataragas M. 2023, Characterization and antibiotic resistance of Listeria monocytogenes strains isolated from Greek Myzithra soft whey cheese and related food processing surfaces over two-and-a-half years of safety monitoring in a cheese processing facility, Foods 12(6):1200, doi:10.3390/foods12061200paper
  7. [alichanidis2008] Alichanidis E., Polychroniadou A. 2008, Characteristics of major traditional regional cheese varieties of East-Mediterranean countries, a review, Dairy Science and Technology 88:495–510, doi:10.1051/dst:2008023 (abstract)paper