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Cereals and bread from Lebanon

Kishk (Lebanese)كشك

Kishk is a dried mixture of yogurt and bulgur eaten in Lebanon. Bulgur is mixed into laban (yogurt) with salt and kneaded daily for several days while it soaks up the whey and sours; the dough is shaped into balls, sun-dried and ground to a powder.

Fully documentedCereals and bread5.3 days – 14 days

Recipe

Amounts from a sourceThe bulgur to yogurt ratio of 1 to 4 is the typical recipe quoted by Salameh and Hosri 2016; producers vary it, and salt is added to taste.
Bulgur1 partWhite bulgur in most regions; brown bulgur in the South (72.7% of producers)[salameh2016]
Yogurt (laban)4 partsGoat milk in the South (81.8%), cow milk in Mount Lebanon (81.8%) and the North (75%), mixed milk common in the Bekaa (44.1%)[salameh2016]
Salt1.0–4.5 g per 100 g in the finished powder[salameh2016][tamime1999]
Starternot fixed; Tamime and McBlulty (1999) list three ways kishk milk is soured, the milk's own flora, an artisan starter of yogurt or fermented milk from the previous day's batch, or a commercial lactic culture

Total time across the recorded steps: 5.3 days – 14 days

Start
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What changes: Bulgur and salt are stirred into yogurt

Step 1 of 4
Mix bulgur into yogurt with salt
Time
Not documented
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Lactic acid bacteria
Lactobacilli
Yeasts

Output: kishk dough.

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

Kishk is a dried mixture of yogurt and bulgur eaten in Lebanon. Bulgur is mixed into laban (yogurt) with salt and kneaded daily for several days while it soaks up the whey and sours; the dough is shaped into balls, sun-dried and ground to a powder. Made in 4 steps over 5.3 days – 14 days. The longest step, ferment, kneading daily, takes 2.7–7 days (Salameh C 2016) and runs at 35 °C (Salameh C 2016). Salt is 1–4.5 % (Tamime A.Y 1999). Yogurt lactic bacteria; commercial kishk held lactobacilli up to 1.2 × 10^6 and lactococci up to 3.0 × 10^3 cfu/g and Yeasts, up to 8.5 × 10^5 cfu/g, probably from an artisan starter with lactose-fermenting yeasts do most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main step2.7–7 daysReported[salameh2016]Ferment, kneading daily
Temperature35 °CReported[salameh2016]Ferment, kneading daily
Salt1–4.5 %Measured[tamime1999]Rub and grind into powder; store in jars
AciditypH 3.6–4.1Measured[tamime1999]Rub and grind into powder; store in jars

What makes this one different

Lebanese kishk is made from bulgur and yogurt, dried in balls and ground to powder. Egyptian kishk sa'idi uses boiled wheat and soured milk (buttermilk) and is kept as hard balls; Turkish tarhana uses flour, yogurt and vegetables.

Related ferments

Variants

  • Wet kishkEaten before drying.
  • Labneh kishk (North Lebanon)Strained yogurt in place of laban; a shorter mixing period (2.7 days) and a milder sour taste.
  • Quinoa kishk (research)Bulgur replaced by quinoa (Ismail and Rayan 2022).

Safety

Low water activity (about 0.4), low pH (about 3.8) and salt keep dry kishk stable. Sun-drying in the open is the weak point; in one survey most samples carried S. aureus and many carried clostridia, above the Lebanese standard, though none carried coliforms or Salmonella. A study of 25 commercial samples recovered Bacillus cereus in appreciable numbers and says toxin-making strains could be its main bacterial risk. It recovered no S. aureus, E. coli, Salmonella or Listeria at the levels tested and detected no staphylococcal, bacillus or clostridial enterotoxins.

Hazards the sources name: Staphylococcus aureus, found in 82.5% of 40 Lebanese samples; Clostridium spp. (anaerobic bacteria), in 47.5% of samples, highest in goat-milk kishk from the South; Bacillus cereus, recovered in appreciable numbers from commercial kishk; toxin-making strains could be its main bacterial risk.

History and sources

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

Salameh and Hosri (2016) call kishk an old and popular fermented product, widely eaten in Lebanon for its long shelf life. Their 2016 survey of 40 producers found that the milk, the bulgur and the times differ by region and local tradition.

  1. [salameh2016] Salameh C., Hosri C. 2016, Evaluation of the hygienic quality and nutritional value of traditional Lebanese Kishk, a dried fermented goat milk product, Options Méditerranéennes A 115:169–173, CIHEAMpaper
  2. [tamime1999] Tamime A.Y., McNulty D. 1999, Kishk, a dried fermented milk/cereal mixture. 4. Microbiological quality, Lait 79:449–456paper
  3. [ismail2022] Ismail H.A., Rayan A.M. 2022, Preparation and evaluation of Quinoa-Kishk as a novel functional fermented dairy product, Journal of Food Science and Technology 59:1063–1074, doi:10.1007/s13197-021-05110-8 (variant only)paper