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Cultured nut 'cheeses' (cashew, almond, macadamia), boundary

Nut 'cheeses' are made by blending nuts such as cashews with water into a smooth paste, souring it with lactic acid bacteria and, for Camembert-style rounds, growing a white mould rind. They copy the steps of a soft cheese, but no milk is used. The process numbers here come from one study of cashew Camembert analogues.

Fully documentedOther14 days

Recipe

Amounts from a sourceLaboratory recipe for Camembert-type cashew analogues (Fabiszewska 2024). Commercial recipes vary and are not published.
Cashew nuts1 part[fabiszewska2024]
Hot water1 partPlant base to water 1:1 for the cashew version[fabiszewska2024]
Lactic starter culture (Lactococcus lactis, Streptococcus species)[fabiszewska2024]
White mould culture (Penicillium camemberti or Geotrichum candidum)[fabiszewska2024]
SaltRubbed on all sides on the fourth day[fabiszewska2024]
Starterdefined cultures: mesophilic lactic starter plus Penicillium camemberti or Geotrichum candidum

Total time across the recorded steps: 14 days

Start
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What changes: Cashews and hot water are blended into a smooth paste

Step 1 of 4
Blend the nuts with hot water
Time
Not documented
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Moulds
Lactic acid bacteria

Output: smooth cashew paste.

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

Nut 'cheeses' are made by blending nuts such as cashews with water into a smooth paste, souring it with lactic acid bacteria and, for Camembert-style rounds, growing a white mould rind. They copy the steps of a soft cheese, but no milk is used. The process numbers here come from one study of cashew Camembert analogues. Made in 4 steps over 14 days. The longest step, ripen cool, turning, then salt on day 4, takes 14 days (Fabiszewska A 2024) and runs at 12 °C (Fabiszewska A 2024). Lactic starters and Rind moulds Penicillium camemberti or Geotrichum candidum do most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main step14 daysReported[fabiszewska2024]Ripen cool, turning, then salt on day 4
Temperature12 °CReported[fabiszewska2024]Ripen cool, turning, then salt on day 4

What makes this one different

It follows a Camembert's steps (souring, moulding, salting, white rind) but the base is a nut paste, not milk curd, so there is no rennet, no curd and no whey.

Related ferments

Variants

  • Flaxseed oil cake Camembert analogueFlaxseed oil cake fermented with lactic bacteria, Penicillium camemberti and Geotrichum candidum for 24 h at room temperature, stored 14 days at 12 °C and matured 14 days at 6 °C (Łopusiewicz 2020).
  • Soaked and fermented cheese-like nut productNuts soaked with lactic starters and no mould rind; in a lab study the best consortium took pH below 4.4 in 18 h instead of 48 h (Tabanelli 2024).

Safety

A survey of retail cashew cheese analogues in Brazil found no Salmonella, coagulase-positive staphylococci or E. coli, but found Bacillus cereus in one sample and Cronobacter malonaticus. Most samples carried high mould and yeast counts, likely from fermentation and ripening. In a separate lab challenge test of a soaked, fermented nut product (no mould rind), the best lactic consortium brought the pH below 4.4 in 18 h instead of 48 h, and Listeria monocytogenes added at 5 log CFU/g was absent after seven days. E. coli and Salmonella Enteritidis lasted longer, especially during fermentation and early storage, and soaking the nuts at 85 °C for 10 minutes cut but did not fully kill pathogens added to them (Tabanelli 2024). So neither the hot soak nor souring is shown to make contaminated nuts safe; start with clean nuts.

Hazards the sources name: Bacillus cereus (found in one retail sample) and Cronobacter malonaticus.

History and sources

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

The 2024 study (Fabiszewska) begins from a growing demand for vegan and plant-based food. It was not the first attempt at a plant-based Camembert. In 2020 Łopusiewicz and colleagues made a Camembert analogue from flaxseed oil cake with lactic bacteria, Penicillium camemberti and Geotrichum candidum. The 2024 authors call their paper the first to describe plant-based Camembert formulations made by mimicking the milk product's technique, and tested cashew, pistachio and a cashew, soy flour and spirulina mix. In 2024 Tabanelli and colleagues published a guided lactic fermentation for a cheese-like nut product.

  1. [fabiszewska2024] Fabiszewska A., Wierzchowska K., Dębkowska I. et al. 2024, Plant-based alternatives to mold-ripened cheeses as an innovation among dairy analogues, Foods 13(14):2305paper
  2. [dalmina2026] Dalmina N.Z., Toigo A.L., Krebs K.R.K. et al. 2026, Microbiological safety and antimicrobial resistance in cashew-based plant-based cheese analogues, Brazilian Journal of Microbiology 57(1):276paper
  3. [lopusiewicz2020] Łopusiewicz Ł., Drozłowska E., Tarnowiecka-Kuca A., Bartkowiak A., Mazurkiewicz-Zapałowicz K., Salachna P. 2020, Biotransformation of flaxseed oil cake into bioactive Camembert-analogue using lactic acid bacteria, Penicillium camemberti and Geotrichum candidum, Microorganisms 8(9):1266, doi:10.3390/microorganisms8091266 (abstract)paper
  4. [tabanelli2024] Tabanelli G., Montanari C., Gómez-Caravaca A.M., Díaz-de-Cerio E., Verardo V., Zadeh F.S., Vannini L., Gardini F., Barbieri F. 2024, Microbiological safety and functional properties of a fermented nut-based product, Foods 13(19):3095, doi:10.3390/foods13193095 (abstract)paper