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Cheese from Georgia, Tusheti

Chogiჩოგი

Chogi is a buttery, yellow sheep cheese from Tusheti, made from the rich milk of July and August. The enzyme-set curd is cut, warmed, drained in packets and packed unsalted into a sheepskin bag (guda), barrel or cask for 10 days. It is then taken out, kneaded with salt and packed back into the skin to ripen for one to two months.

Fully documentedCheese40 days – 2.3 monthsGeographical indication (Georgia, registration no. 3 of 24 January 2012)Family: Skin- and pot-ripened cheese family (Tulum, Çömlek)

Recipe

No fixed amounts recordedThe specification fixes the method and the finished cheese, not batch amounts.
Sheep milkVery fat milk of July and August from the Tusheti spring pastures[sak-chogi]
Milk-setting enzyme (rennet)The specification calls the set curd "delamo", the product made from milk by an enzyme[sak-chogi]
SaltKneaded in only after the first 10 days; the finished cheese holds 2–4%[sak-chogi]

Total time across the recorded steps: 40 days – 2.3 months

Start
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What changes: Starting material: very fat sheep milk from the July and August pastures

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

At a glance

Chogi is a buttery, yellow sheep cheese from Tusheti, made from the rich milk of July and August. The enzyme-set curd is cut, warmed, drained in packets and packed unsalted into a sheepskin bag (guda), barrel or cask for 10 days. It is then taken out, kneaded with salt and packed back into the skin to ripen for one to two months. Made in 7 steps over 40 days – 2.3 months. The longest step, ripen in the sheepskin, takes 30 days – 2 months (Sakpatenti (National Intellectual Property Ce…). Salt is 2–4 % (Sakpatenti (National Intellectual Property Ce…). Lactobacillus brevis, L. plantarum, L. casei and L. buchneri, the main lactobacilli found in raw-milk motal, a related skin-bag cheese of Iran does most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main step30 days – 2 monthsSet[sak-chogi][uk-spec]Ripen in the sheepskin
Temperature32–34 °CSet[sak-chogi][uk-spec]Set the milk with the enzyme
Salt2–4 %Set[sak-chogi][uk-spec]Knead with salt and repack

What makes this one different

Chogi is salted only after a 10-day unsalted rest in the bag, then crumbled and kneaded so the salt goes right through. Tushetian guda, the other Tusheti skin cheese, puts dry salt on each whole cheese as it goes into the bag and ripens at least 60 days.

Composition
Moisture at most 60%, fat in dry matter at least 50%, salt 2–4%

Related ferments

Safety

The specification sets moisture at 60% or less and salt at 2–4% in the finished cheese, but no safety limits.

History and sources

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

Chogi was registered in Georgia as geographical indication no. 3 on 24 January 2012; the applicant was the Ministry of Agriculture of Georgia.

Starter
The sources we found do not say how its fermentation begins.
  1. [sak-chogi] Sakpatenti (National Intellectual Property Center of Georgia), Geographical indication 'Chogi', registration no. 3 of 24 January 2012, registry recordgov
  2. [uk-guda] Ministry of Environmental Protection and Agriculture of Georgia, specification 'Tushuri Guda' appellation of origin (copy on the UK GI register), used for the comparison with gudaspec
  3. [uk-spec] Ministry of Agriculture of Georgia, specification '„ჩოგი/CHOGI“', registered in Georgia as geographical indication no. 3 (copy on the UK GI register)spec
  4. [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 7:176 (abstract; used only for the related motal in the microbe list)paper