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Fermentation Atlas

Cheese from Dali, Yunnan, China

Rushan (milk fan)乳扇

Cow milk is poured into hot soured whey from an earlier batch, and the curd that forms at about 70 °C is kneaded and stretched by hand into a thin sheet. The sheet is wound on a bamboo stick and air-dried for about three days into a brittle "milk fan". Acid from the fermented whey, not rennet, sets the curd. Made in 4 steps over 17 days. The longest step, let the whey ferment into acid whey, takes 14 days (Tang R. et al. 2026). Lactobacillus helveticus, the dominant lactic bacterium in acid whey and Lactobacillus kefiranofaciens and L. helveticus, the two most abundant lactobacilli; with Lactococcus and Streptococcus the dominant genera in rushan do most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main step14 daysMeasured[tang2026]Let the whey ferment into acid whey
Temperature70 °CReported[xue2018]Heat milk with the acid until it curdles
AciditypH at least 5Reported[tang2026]Heat milk with the acid until it curdles
Fully documentedCheese17 daysMore other cheesesMore from China

Recipe

Amounts from a sourceThe amounts are from one controlled study (Xue et al. 2018) in which local makers made rushan from 20 L batches of milk with a quince acid water. Traditional makers use soured whey and do not fix amounts.
Cow milk · Milk of the local Dengchuan cattle is prized for its fat and protein[xue2018]
Acid whey · Whey from the previous batch, left to ferment; it is the starter and the coagulant[liu2009][tang2026]
1 part to 2 parts milk (by volume)Acid water · In one controlled study, made by boiling Chinese quince (Chaenomeles sinensis) with water, 1:3 by weight, for half an hour, in place of whey[xue2018]
Starteracid whey from the previous batch (backslopping), dominated by Lactobacillus helveticus

Total time across the recorded steps: 17 days

Start
Drag the bar or press Play
Milk proteinGel (curd)pH 5.1 → 3.49shapes, not to countLactic acid bacteriaYeasts

What changes: Whey from the last batch ferments, and its pH falls from about 5 to 3.5

Step 1 of 4
Let the whey ferment into acid whey
Time
14 days
Measured
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
pH 5.1 → 3.49
Measured
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Lactic acid bacteria
Yeasts

Whey is up to 90 % of the milk volume, so each batch leaves plenty for the next. Output: acid whey (starter and coagulant).

Flavour
sour
Texture
Not documented
Colour
Not documented

Microbes at work in this step

lactic bacteria multiply first and make the acid; acid-tolerant yeasts follow

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

Rushan is set by fermented whey and heat, not rennet, then stretched by hand like a pasta filata and dried as thin sheets. Rubing, the Yunnan goat-milk cheese, is also acid-and-heat set, often with sour whey, but it is kept as a firm fresh cheese instead of being stretched and dried.

Related ferments

Variants

  • Eryuan, Weishan and Jianchuan rushanMade the same way but with different bacteria in each place
  • Quince acid waterA boiled decoction of Chinese quince used as the acid instead of fermented whey

Safety

Staphylococcus aureus was found in 5 of 62 rushan samples (8.06 %). The curd is heated to about 70 °C and the strips are dried, but they are made by hand, so cook rushan before eating.

Hazards the sources name: Staphylococcus aureus, found in 5 of 62 rushan samples (8.06 %).

History and sources

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

Rushan is part of Bai culture around Dali and has been eaten in Yunnan for over 1,000 years. It is still made by backslopping, with whey from one batch souring the next.

  1. [liu2009] Liu W., Sun Z., Zhang J. et al. 2009, Analysis of microbial composition in acid whey for dairy fan making in Yunnan by conventional method and 16S rRNA sequencing, Current Microbiology 59:199–205 (abstract)paper
  2. [jiang2021] Jiang Y., Yu P., Liu X., Zhao J., Zhang H., Chen W. 2021, Shifts in diversity and function of bacterial community during manufacture of rushan, Journal of Dairy Science 104:12375–12393 (abstract)paper
  3. [xue2018] Xue J., Yang Y., Wang Z., Guo Y., Shao Y. 2018, Bacterial diversity in Chinese Rushan cheese from different geographical origins, Frontiers in Microbiology 9:1920paper
  4. [tang2026] Tang R. et al. 2026, Microbial diversity and peptide dynamics during the spontaneous fermentation of whey from the Yunnan ethnic cheese Rushan, Food Chemistry X 39:104464paper
  5. [prabakusuma2022] Sri Prabakusuma A. et al. 2022, Prevalence and antimicrobial resistance profiling of Staphylococcus aureus isolated from traditional cheese in Yunnan, China, 3 Biotech 12:1 (abstract)paper