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Fermented milk from Iran, Afghanistan

Mast (Persian yoghurt)ماست

Mast is the yoghurt of Iran and Afghanistan. In the traditional method the milk is boiled down to about two-thirds of its volume, cooled to 40–45 °C and seeded with the last batch, then left for about 12 hours until it sets firm with a cooked taste.

Fully documentedFermented milk12 h

Recipe

No fixed amounts recordedRural manual method with no fixed amounts in the sources; the milk is boiled down and seeded with the previous batch.
Cow, sheep, goat or buffalo milkBoiled and condensed to about two-thirds of its first volume[vaseghi2024]
Mast from the previous batchThe starter (backslopping)[vaseghi2024]
Starterbackslop: yoghurt from the previous batch

Total time across the recorded steps: 12 h

Start
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What changes: The milk is boiled and condensed to about two-thirds of its volume

Step 1 of 4
Boil the milk down
Time
Not documented
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
S. thermophilus
L. delbrueckii
Lactobacillus helveticus
Lactic acid bacteria

Output: condensed milk, about two-thirds of the starting volume.

Flavour
cooked
Texture
thicker as water boils off
Colour
Not documented

Microbes at work in this step

heat kills the milk's own bacteria

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

Mast is the yoghurt of Iran and Afghanistan. In the traditional method the milk is boiled down to about two-thirds of its volume, cooled to 40–45 °C and seeded with the last batch, then left for about 12 hours until it sets firm with a cooked taste. Made in 4 steps over 12 h. The longest step, leave to set, takes 12 h (Vaseghi Bakhshayesh R 2024). Streptococcus thermophilus and Lactobacillus delbrueckii (subsp. bulgaricus and lactis), the majority of 102 isolates from Khorasan-e-Razavi yoghurts and Lactobacillus helveticus do most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main step12 hReported[vaseghi2024]Leave to set
Temperature40–45 °CReported[vaseghi2024]Cool the boiled-down milk

What makes this one different

Mast is made from milk boiled down to about two-thirds of its volume before seeding, and sets firm with a cooked flavour (Vaseghi 2024).

Related ferments

Variants

  • Chakah (Afghanistan)Mast is churned, the butter taken off, and the sour buttermilk paste hung in cloth for 8–10 hours, salted and packed (FAO 1990).
  • DooghMast diluted with water and often flavoured; see doogh.

Safety

The milk is boiled before it is seeded.

History and sources

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

FAO 1990 records mast, a yoghurt-like product very close to dahi, as the first stage of chakah in Afghanistan. Its entry for Iranian dough describes milk boiled down on an open fire and seeded with dough from the previous batch.

  1. [vaseghi2024] Vaseghi Bakhshayesh R., Panahi B., Hejazi M.A., Nami Y. 2024, Metabolite profiling of different Iranian traditional yogurts using an untargeted metabolomics approach, Heliyon 10(15):e34760 (read via Europe PMC full text, PMC11320151)paper
  2. [hajimohammadi2016] Hajimohammadi Farimani R. et al. 2016, Identification, typing and functional characterization of dominant lactic acid bacteria strains from Iranian traditional yoghurt, European Food Research and Technology 242(4):517–526 (abstract)paper
  3. [roushanzadeh2014] RoushanZadeh S., Eskandari M.H., Shekarforoush S.S., Hosseini A. 2014, Phenotypic and genotypic diversity of dominant lactic acid bacteria isolated from traditional yoghurts produced by tribes of Iran, Iranian Journal of Veterinary Research 15(4):347–352 (abstract)paper
  4. [fao-tmp] FAO 1990, The technology of traditional milk products in developing countries, Animal Production and Health Paper 85, section II (Chakah, Afghanistan; Dough, Iran)gov