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Cheese from Mongolia

Eezgii (roasted curd)ээзгий

Milk is boiled and curdled with a little sour milk or kefir, then the curd is cooked on in its whey until the liquid is gone and roasted into small golden-brown lumps. It is a boundary entry, an acid- and heat-set curd browned by cooking, with no live ferment left. The dried pieces keep in a cloth sack in Mongolia's dry climate.

Fully documentedCheese3 h

Recipe

No fixed amounts recordedThe traditional recipe in the sources gives no amounts. One home adaptation (Pass the Flamingo) uses half a gallon of whole milk and half a cup of kefir.
Milk[mongolfood]
A little kefir or sour milk, prepared as for byaslagSets the boiling milk[mongolfood]
Startera little kefir or sour milk added to boiling milk (acid-heat set)

Total time across the recorded steps: 3 h

Start
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What changes: A little sour milk curdles the boiling milk into curd and whey

Step 1 of 4
Curdle the boiling milk with sour milk
Time
Not documented
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Lactic acid bacteria

The milk is boiled and a little kefir or sour milk is stirred in until it curdles.

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

Milk is boiled and curdled with a little sour milk or kefir, then the curd is cooked on in its whey until the liquid is gone and roasted into small golden-brown lumps. It is a boundary entry, an acid- and heat-set curd browned by cooking, with no live ferment left. The dried pieces keep in a cloth sack in Mongolia's dry climate. Made in 4 steps over 3 h. The longest step, roast until golden, takes 3 h (Pass the Flamingo 2017) and runs at 149 °C (Pass the Flamingo 2017). None surviving; no lactic acid bacteria could be detected in 5 eezgii samples does most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main step3 hReported[flamingo]Roast until golden
Temperature149 °CReported[flamingo]Roast until golden

What makes this one different

The curd is roasted until brown rather than pressed or sun-dried, so it ends far drier than aaruul. In one study no lactic acid bacteria could be isolated from it.

Boundary
Set by acid and heat and browned by cooking; no lactic acid bacteria could be isolated from 5 eezgii samples
Composition
About 7.8 g moisture and 35.9 g protein, much drier than aaruul (13.3–20.3 g moisture)

Related ferments

Safety

Very low moisture (about 7.8 g reported) keeps it in a cloth sack in a dry climate. No lactic acid bacteria could be isolated from 5 eezgii samples in one study.

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. [takahashi2001] Takahashi F., Olonbayar M. 2001, Investigation about the use of milk in Mongolia, and the general composition of Mongolia's main traditional dairy products, Bulletin of Morioka Junior College, Iwate Prefectural University 3:69–81 (abstract)paper
  2. [takeda2011] Takeda S. et al. 2011, The investigation of probiotic potential of lactic acid bacteria isolated from traditional Mongolian dairy products, Animal Science Journal 82(4):571–579 (abstract)paper
  3. [mongolfood] mongolfood.info, 'Eezgii - Dried Mass of Cheese - Mongolian Recipes'web
  4. [flamingo] Pass the Flamingo 2017, 'Ancient Recipe: Eezgii [Roasted Cheese Curd]' (home adaptation)web
  5. [fao-mongolia] Ser-Od T.S., Ugdill B. 2009, Mongolia, rebuilding the dairy industry, in Smallholder dairy development, lessons learned in Asia, FAO RAP Publication 2009/02, chapter 6gov