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Cheese from Turkey

Çökelekçökelek

Set yogurt is stirred and heated at 85 or 95 °C, then drained in a cloth bag and lightly salted. The curd forms when the yogurt is heated, not by renneting milk. Çökelek is eaten fresh, or dried, and the dried form is made with herbs.

Recipe

Çökelek, a photo from Wikimedia Commons
Photo: E4024, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Amounts from a sourceThe amounts are from one trial at a university dairy plant, done with goat milk (Şimşek and Sağdıç 2012); the cow-milk trial of 2010 gives yields of 16.59–19.88 % and the goat trial 25.37–28.96 % of the milk. The sources give no household recipe.
Cow, goat or ewe milkThe 2010 trial used cow milk; the 2012 trial used goat milk standardised to 1.5 ± 0.2 % fat[simsek2010][simsek2012]
Yogurt culture, Lactobacillus helveticus, or a 1:1 mix of the two3 % (w/w)Added in the goat-milk trial. Traditionally no starter culture is used, but yogurt cultures can stay alive through the heating when çökelek is made from yogurt[simsek2012]
Salt1 %Mixed into the drained curd in the goat-milk trial[simsek2012]
Starteryogurt bacteria; traditionally no starter culture is added, but yogurt cultures can survive the heating when çökelek is made from yogurt

Total time across the recorded steps: 30 min

Start
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shapes, not to countLactobacillus helveticusLactobacilli42–45 °CpH 4.6Milk sugarLactic acid

What changes: Yogurt bacteria sour warm milk to pH 4.6 and it sets

Step 1 of 5
Make the yogurt
Time
Not documented
Temperature
42–45 °C
Reported
Salt
None given
Acidity
pH 4.6
Reported
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Lactobacillus helveticus
Lactobacilli

Output: set yogurt, cooled to 4 °C and kept overnight in the refrigerator.

Flavour
Not documented
Texture
Not documented
Colour
Not documented

Microbes at work in this step

yogurt bacteria sour the milk

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

Set yogurt is stirred and heated at 85 or 95 °C, then drained in a cloth bag and lightly salted. The curd forms when the yogurt is heated, not by renneting milk. Çökelek is eaten fresh, or dried, and the dried form is made with herbs. Made in 5 steps over 30 min. The longest step, heat the yogurt until it curdles, takes 30 min (Şimşek B 2012) and runs at 85–95 °C (Simsek B 2010). Salt is 1 % (Şimşek B 2012). Yogurt starter bacteria, or Lactobacillus helveticus in a trial and Lactobacilli (3.60–4.33 log cfu/g) and lactococci (2.50–3.03 log cfu/g) after 45 days cold do most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main step30 minReported[simsek2012]Heat the yogurt until it curdles
Temperature85–95 °CReported[simsek2010][simsek2012]Heat the yogurt until it curdles
Salt1 %Reported[simsek2012]Salt and mix
AciditypH 4.2–4.3Measured[simsek2012]Keep cold

What makes this one different

Çökelek is made by heating yogurt, not by renneting milk, so the curd is set by heat and the acid already in the yogurt. Market samples averaged 0.68 % salt, and drying has been tested as a way to extend shelf life.

Milk
Set yogurt from cow milk
Ripening
Fresh, or dried for keeping
Composition
Market samples averaged 29.83 % total solids, 0.68 % salt and 4.31 % fat

Related ferments

Variants

  • Dried çökelekMixed with dill or black cumin and dried at 40, 50 or 60 °C in a trial; pH 6.06–6.13 after drying.

Safety

Turkish law has no standard for çökelek. In 30 market samples, coliforms turned up in 11 and yeasts and moulds in 27, so keep it cold; drying at 40–60 °C was tested to extend shelf life.

History and sources

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

History
The sources we found do not record its history.
  1. [simsek2010] Simsek B., Sagdic O. 2010, Determination of fatty acids and chemical characteristics of Cokelek cheese from cows milk using L. helveticus and/or yoghurt bacteria, Food Science and Technology Research 16(3):179–184paper
  2. [kalayci2023] Kalaycı N. et al. 2023, Determination of elemental contents and microbiological and chemical properties of Çökelek cheeses consumed in Turkey, Biological Trace Element Research 201(6):3069–3076 (abstract)paper
  3. [ergene2019] Ergene G., Arslan S. 2019, Chemical and sensory characteristics of dried Çökelek cheeses at different temperatures, Journal of Food Processing and Preservation 43(6):e13985 (abstract)paper
  4. [simsek2012] Şimşek B., Sağdıç O. 2012, Effects of starter culture types and different temperatures treatments on physicochemical, microbiological and sensory characteristics, and fatty acid compositions of Çökelek cheese made from goat milk, Kafkas Üniversitesi Veteriner Fakültesi Dergisi 18(2):177–183paper