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Cheese from Sudan

Gibna bayda (Sudanese white cheese)Gibna bayda

Sudan's white pickled cheese, made in small rural units in the rainy season when milk is plentiful. Salt usually goes into the milk before rennet, the curd is pressed in cloth-lined moulds for a few hours, and the cut blocks are kept in their own salted whey, where the acidity rises. It resembles feta.

Recipe

Amounts from a sourceAmounts from small cheese units in South and West Darfur, where milk is made up in 200-litre barrels; methods differ from place to place.
Cow, goat or sheep milk, or a mix of two[fao-tmp][hamid2008]
Salt, added to the milk before renneting (in two of the three Darfur areas studied)6–15 % of the milk[hamid2008]
Rennet tablets2–4 tablets per 200-litre barrel[hamid2008]
The cheese's own whey, for keeping the blocks[hamid2008]

Total time across the recorded steps: 6 h

Start
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Close-up: salt moving into a pieceSalt 6–15 %

What changes: Salt dissolves into the strained milk in a large barrel before rennet goes in

Step 1 of 5
Strain the milk and salt it
Time
Not documented
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
6–15 %
Reported
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Lactobacilli
Lactic acid bacteria

The milk is strained through cloth into plastic or iron barrels. In Bulbul Timbisco salt went into the curd at 6 % during moulding instead. FAO gives 8–12 % salt, usually added to the milk.

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

Sudan's white pickled cheese, made in small rural units in the rainy season when milk is plentiful. Salt usually goes into the milk before rennet, the curd is pressed in cloth-lined moulds for a few hours, and the cut blocks are kept in their own salted whey, where the acidity rises. It resembles feta. Made in 5 steps over 6 h. The longest step, press in cloth-lined moulds, takes 6 h (Hamid OIA 2008). Salt is 6–15 % (Hamid OIA 2008). Streptococci and lactobacilli, counted but not identified to species, in a laboratory gibna bayda stored at 35 °C for 90 days (streptococci fell from 8.1×10^7 to 8.85×10^3 cfu/g); the authors put the early rise in acidity down to lactic acid bacteria does most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main step6 hReported[hamid2008]Press in cloth-lined moulds
Temperature35–37 °CReported[hamid2008]Keep in its own whey
Salt6–15 %Reported[hamid2008]Strain the milk and salt it
AciditypH 3.5–4.2Reported[fao-tmp]Keep in its own whey

What makes this one different

Salt is added to the milk before renneting, not only afterwards, and the cheese is kept in its own salted whey at the high room temperatures of Sudan.

Composition
Mature cheese at 8–12 % salt and 55–63 % moisture (FAO); Darfur samples averaged 5.83 % salt
Season
Made when milk is plentiful, July to September at Ed Dueim and July to January at El Obeid

Related ferments

Safety

The Darfur cheesemakers bought fresh raw cow's milk and strained it; the El Daein producers heated it. The cheese is stored in its own whey at room temperature (35–37 °C) until it is sold. FAO gives mature gibna bayda a pH of 3.5–4.2 and 8–12 % salt, and the Darfur samples averaged 5.83 % salt. CDC says raw milk can carry Campylobacter, Cryptosporidium, E. coli, Listeria, Brucella and Salmonella. It says children under 5, adults over 65, pregnant women and people with weak immunity are at higher risk of serious illness.

History and sources

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

It is said to have come to Sudan with early Greek immigrants. About 500 tons were made in the Ed Dueim area in 1983, by merchants buying surplus milk from nomadic herders.

Starter
The sources we found do not say how its fermentation begins.
  1. [fao-tmp] FAO, The technology of traditional milk products in developing countries, chapter 7 'Cheese and cheese products', section 7.1.2 Sudan - Gibna Baydabook
  2. [hamid2008] Hamid OIA, El Owni OAO 2008, Processing and properties of Sudanese white cheese (Gibna Bayda) in small-scale cheese units in South and West Darfur states (Sudan), Livestock Research for Rural Development 20(8)paper
  3. [abdalla2011] Abdalla M.O.M., Kheir S.E.O. 2011, Effect of storage period on the quality of Sudanese white cheese (Gibna Bayda) manufactured with Solanum dubium extract, University of Khartoum Journal of Agricultural Sciences 19(2)paper
  4. [cdc-raw-milk] US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Raw Milk (31 January 2025)gov