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Fermented milk from Georgia, Armenia

Matsoni / matsun / matzoonმაწონი

Matsoni is the set sour milk of Georgia and Armenia. Milk is seeded with a "dedo" of one- or two-day-old matsoni, held at 41–45 °C for 3–4 hours, then chilled. Georgia registered the name as a geographical indication in 2012.

Fully documentedFermented milk15 h – 24 h

Recipe

Matsoni / matsun / matzoon, a photo from Wikimedia Commons
Photo: Chaojoker, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
No fixed amounts recordedThe Georgian geographical-indication specification sets temperatures and times, not amounts.
Cow, buffalo, goat or sheep milkMilk acidity no more than 19 °T (25 °T for buffalo)[gi-matsoni]
Dedo (starter)Matsoni one or two days old, or a culture of local Georgian strains[gi-matsoni]
Starterbackslop: dedo, 1–2-day-old matsoni

Total time across the recorded steps: 15 h – 24 h

Start
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What changes: Only fresh milk at or under 19 °T acidity goes forward; buffalo milk may reach 25 °T

Step 1 of 4
Choose the milk
Time
Not documented
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Lactobacilli
L. delbrueckii
S. thermophilus
L. rhamnosus

The specification also asks for milk density of at least 1.030 (1.035 for buffalo milk). Output: milk within the acidity and density limits.

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

Matsoni is the set sour milk of Georgia and Armenia. Milk is seeded with a "dedo" of one- or two-day-old matsoni, held at 41–45 °C for 3–4 hours, then chilled. Georgia registered the name as a geographical indication in 2012. Made in 4 steps over 15 h – 24 h. The longest step, chill and rest, takes 12–20 h (Matsoni 2012) and runs at 4–6 °C (Matsoni 2012). Thermophilic and mesophilic streptococci and thermophilic rods and Lactobacillus delbrueckii, Streptococcus thermophilus and Lacticaseibacillus rhamnosus, the commonest of about 300 isolates from 71 Georgian samples do most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main step12–20 hSet[gi-matsoni]Chill and rest
Temperature4–6 °CSet[gi-matsoni]Chill and rest

What makes this one different

Matsoni is set hot and fast like yogurt, but its dedo carries mesophilic streptococci too and is renewed from day-old matsoni. Buffalo matsoni must be far more sour than cow matsoni.

Related ferments

Variants

  • Kamats matzoonArmenian matzoon strained in cloth sacks for keeping.
  • Tan and chortanChurning matzoon gives butter and tan (buttermilk); dried tan curd is chortan.
  • Buffalo matsoniEnds at 120–150 °T, against 80–105 °T for cow, goat and sheep.

Safety

The finished matsoni is chilled to 4–6 °C for 12–20 hours before it is sold. Some wild enterococci isolated from artisanal matsoni were judged unsuitable as starters.

History and sources

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

Matsoni is named in Armenian manuscripts of the 11th–14th centuries and in a 15th-century Georgian medical book. Georgia registered it as a geographical indication on 24 January 2012.

  1. [gi-matsoni] Matsoni, registered in Georgia as a geographical indication (registration 4, 24 January 2012), specification published by the UK governmentspec
  2. [kakabadze2019] Kakabadze E. et al. 2019, Characterisation of lactic acid bacteria isolated from the Georgian, yoghurt-like Matsoni, International Journal of Dairy Technology 72(3) (abstract)paper
  3. [rozman2023] Rozman V. et al. 2023, Genomic insights into the safety and bacteriocinogenic potential of isolates from artisanal fermented milk Matsoni, LWT (abstract)paper
  4. [wp] Wikipedia, Matzoon (history only)wiki