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Cheese from Georgia, Tusheti

Guda (Tushetian)თუშური გუდა

Raw whole milk from Tushetian sheep, Georgian mountain cows, or both, is strained through cloth and hairy herbs and set with calf or lamb rennet at 35–37 °C. The drained cheeses are packed into a guda, a sheep, goat or calf skin turned hair-side in, with dry salt between them. After 1–3 warm days the bag ripens in a dry, cool place for at least 60 days, never above 22 °C.

Fully documentedCheese2 months – 2.1 monthsAppellation of origin, Georgia, registration no. 14 (24 January 2012)Family: Skin- and pot-ripened cheese family (Tulum, Çömlek)

Recipe

No fixed amounts recordedThe specification gives temperatures and times but no quantities. A finished cheese weighs 5–10 kg.
Raw whole milk of Tushetian sheep and/or Georgian mountain cattleMixed cheese uses 50/50 % ± 5 % sheep and cow milk; local goat milk up to 10 % may be added[uk-guda]
Rennet from calf or lamb stomach, prepared beforehand[uk-guda]
Dry salt; no other ingredient is allowed[uk-guda]
Nettles or dead-nettles, feathergrass and other hairy Tusheti herbs, as a milk filter[uk-guda]
A guda bag of sheep, goat or calf skin[uk-guda]

Total time across the recorded steps: 2 months – 2.1 months

Start
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What changes: Starting material: raw milk strained through cloth and hairy mountain herbs

Step 1 of 7
Strain the milk through herbs
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

Raw whole milk from Tushetian sheep, Georgian mountain cows, or both, is strained through cloth and hairy herbs and set with calf or lamb rennet at 35–37 °C. The drained cheeses are packed into a guda, a sheep, goat or calf skin turned hair-side in, with dry salt between them. After 1–3 warm days the bag ripens in a dry, cool place for at least 60 days, never above 22 °C. Made in 7 steps over 2 months – 2.1 months. The longest step, ripen in the skin, takes at least 2 months (Ministry of Environmental Protection and Agri…) and runs at up to 22 °C (Ministry of Environmental Protection and Agri…). 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 stepat least 2 monthsSet[uk-guda]Ripen in the skin
Temperatureup to 22 °CSet[uk-guda]Ripen in the skin

What makes this one different

Ripened at least 60 days in a whole animal skin turned hair-side in, with only dry salt. The milk is strained through hairy mountain herbs, and the cheese is made only on the summer pastures of Tusheti.

Size
5–10 kg, hemispheric at the ends of the bag and cylindrical in the middle, no rind
Composition
Fat in dry matter at least 45 %; salt at most 8 %
Season
Made from May to August on sub-alpine and alpine pastures

Related ferments

Safety

The milk stays raw. The specification caps salt at 8 %, requires at least 60 days of ripening and forbids temperatures above 22 °C, but it sets no microbial limits, and no source on this page tests these steps against pathogens. ANSES names Listeria monocytogenes, Salmonella and enterohaemorrhagic E. coli as hazards of raw-milk cheeses and tells pregnant women, young children, people over 65 and people with weak immunity to avoid them, apart from cooked pressed kinds such as Gruyère.

History and sources

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

Tushetian farmers developed the guda to keep cheese through the long winter. A 1922–1923 article by Petre Melikishvili in the Tbilisi University journal describes the method, and the 1976 film 'Tushetian shepherd' shows the transhumance. A 2023 presentation by Ia Ebralidze of the NGO Elkana says transhumance has been the Tush people's way of life for centuries and still continues, that the Tushetian Guda specification was updated and registered, and that a producers' association was established.

Starter
The sources we found do not say how its fermentation begins.
  1. [uk-guda] Ministry of Environmental Protection and Agriculture of Georgia, specification 'Tushuri Guda', registered in Georgia as an appellation of origin no. 14 (24 January 2012), copy on the UK GI registerspec
  2. [uk-chogi] Ministry of Agriculture of Georgia, specification 'Chogi', registered in Georgia as a geographical indication no. 3, copy on the UK GI register (describes packing cheese into the guda sheepskin bag)spec
  3. [elkana2023] Ebralidze I. 2023, The Role of Geographical Indications in Development of Mountainous Regions, practical example from Georgia - Tushetian Guda, Protected Appellation of Origin (presentation, Elkana, Kutaisi)web
  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
  5. [anses2022] ANSES 2022, Fromages au lait cru, quels risques pour la santé et comment mieux les prévenir (8 April 2022)gov