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Fermented milk from Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Poland, Hungary, Germany, Denmark, Czechia, Romania, the Balkans, the Baltics, Greece

Naturally soured milk (Central and Eastern Europe)простокваша

Raw milk is left covered at room temperature, often with a little of the last batch stirred in, until its own lactic bacteria sour it into a soft gel. Industrial prostokvasha is made the same way from heat-treated milk with lactococci or thermophilic streptococci.

A short entry: the sources we found record only what is said here about Naturally soured milk itself. Its own sources do not record how it is made, so the steps and scenes below are those of Tvorog, the closest documented cheese ferment, shown as a guide to the method, not as a record of Naturally soured milk.

Short entryFermented milk

Recipe

No fixed amounts recordedHousehold practice with no fixed amounts; the starter types are those allowed by the Russian and interstate standard for prostokvasha.
Raw cow milk[kochetkova2022]
A little prostokvasha from the last batch (back-slopping)Industrial prostokvasha uses starters of lactococci and/or thermophilic lactic streptococci[kochetkova2022][gost31456]
Starterspontaneous | backslop | defined-culture

Total time across the steps of Tvorog: 7.9 h – 19 h

Start
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78–87 °C

What changes: The milk is pasteurised at 78–87 °C

Step 1 of 6 · steps of Tvorog
Pasteurise the milk
Time
0.2–0.5 min
Reported
Temperature
78–87 °C
Reported
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Lactococcus
Streptococcus
Lactobacillus
Lactic acid bacteria

Output: pasteurised 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

Raw milk is left covered at room temperature, often with a little of the last batch stirred in, until its own lactic bacteria sour it into a soft gel. Industrial prostokvasha is made the same way from heat-treated milk with lactococci or thermophilic streptococci. Lactococcus and Streptococcus and Lactobacillus do most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Temperature2–6 °CSet[gost31456]Chill and keep cold
AciditypH 3.5–4.5Measured[kochetkova2022]Leave the milk covered to sour

What makes this one different

This family is the plainest soured milk of Europe, set by mesophilic lactococci at room temperature with no added heat, unlike yoghurt or matsoni, which are warmed and set by thermophilic streptococci.

Related ferments

Variants

  • Mechnikov prostokvashaIndustrial version set with thermophilic streptococci and Lactobacillus bulgaricus (outline from Wikipedia).
  • Lapte bătut (Romania)Literally "beaten milk"; soured milk or buttermilk stirred to a drink.
  • Xinogalo (Greece)A generic Greek term for sour milk; the traditional process is not documented in the sources read.

Safety

Household prostokvasha uses raw milk. The US FDA says raw milk has caused outbreaks of illness involving Listeria, Campylobacter, Salmonella and E. coli, and that the elderly, people with weak immunity, children and pregnant women are especially vulnerable. The industrial standard (GOST 31456-2013) allows no phosphatase or peroxidase and requires an acidity of 85–130 °T and storage at 4 ± 2 °C.

History and sources

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

Prostokvasha is a household ferment across Russia and as far as Mongolia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and the Caucasus, traditionally made by back-slopping raw milk. The interstate standard GOST 31456-2013 has defined the industrial product since 2014.

  1. [kochetkova2022] Kochetkova T.V., Grabarnik I.P., Klyukina A.A. et al. 2022, Microbial communities of artisanal fermented milk products from Russia, Microorganisms 10(11):2140paper
  2. [gost31456] GOST 31456-2013, Interstate standard, Prostokvasha (sour clotted milk), Specifications, Standartinform, Moscow (in force from 2014)spec
  3. [wp-ru] Wikipedia (ru), Простокваша (outline only)wiki
  4. [fda-rawmilk] US Food and Drug Administration, Food Safety and Raw Milkgov