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Fermentation Atlas

Fermented milk from Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Poland, Czechia, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, Moldova, Central Asia

Smetanaсметана

Cream, standardised to the chosen fat level, is pasteurised, cooled and soured with lactococci, sometimes with thermophilic streptococci, until thick, then chilled to set. Russian and interstate standards require at least 10 % fat and allow no thickeners. In the old household way, the thick top of naturally soured milk was skimmed off. Made in 4 steps over 24 h. The longest step, sour the cream, takes 24 h (Прохорова Е.П 2012) and runs at 20–35 °C (Прохорова Е.П 2012). Lactococcus lactis subsp. lactis, subsp. cremoris and biovar diacetylactis and Streptococcus thermophilus do most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main step24 hMeasured[prokhorova2012]Sour the cream
Temperature20–35 °CMeasured[prokhorova2012]Sour the cream

Recipe

Amounts from a sourceAmounts make 1000 kg of 15 % fat smetana at a dairy in the Altai region (losses not counted).
427.8 kgCream with 35.0 % fat[getmanets2017]
522.2 kgSkim milk with 0.05 % fat[getmanets2017]
50.0 kgStarter grown in skim milk[getmanets2017]
No stabilisers or thickeners · Not allowed in smetana under the standard[gost31452]
Starterdefined culture (lactococci, or lactococci with thermophilic streptococci); spontaneous in old household practice

Total time across the recorded steps: 24 h

Start
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What changes: The cream is standardised and heated to kill microbes

Step 1 of 4
Normalise, homogenise and pasteurise the cream
Time
Not documented
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Lactococcus lactis
S. thermophilus

The cream is normalised to the target fat with skim milk, homogenised and pasteurised; the finished product must test negative for phosphatase and peroxidase, which shows it was heated.

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

Smetana is defined by law as fermented cream with at least 10 % fat and no thickeners, and it comes in many fat grades up to 42 %. It is soured with lactococci at about room temperature.

Related ferments

Variants

  • Household smetanaSkimmed from the top of milk left to sour on its own.
  • Smetana product (сметанный продукт)Part of the milk fat is replaced by vegetable fats (7.3 % of one recipe) and a stabiliser is added.

Safety

Smetana is made from pasteurised cream and must test negative for phosphatase. It is kept and sold at 4 ± 2 °C.

History and sources

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

The word is Proto-Slavic, from a verb meaning to remove.

  1. [gost31452] ГОСТ 31452-2012, Сметана. Технические условия (interstate standard for smetana), introduced 1 July 2013 (text at meganorm.ru)spec
  2. [getmanets2017] Гетманец В.Н. 2017, Производство сметаны и сметанного продукта (production of sour cream and sour cream product), Вестник Алтайского государственного аграрного университета 2(148), pp. 167–171paper
  3. [tretyakova] Третьякова Е.М., Мелюх Л.В., Зубко Е.В., Особенности производства и микробиологические показатели в контроле качества сметаны на ОАО «Лунинецкий молочный завод» (Grodno State University; conference paper, pp. 343–344)paper
  4. [prokhorova2012] Прохорова Е.П., Куренкова С.Ю. 2012, Совершенствование биотехнологической стадии производства сметаны (improving the biotechnological stage of smetana production), Tambov State Technical Universitypaper
  5. [wp] Wikipedia, Smetana (dairy product) (history and household method only)wiki