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Cheese from Dali, Yunnan, China

Rushan (milk fan)乳扇

Cow milk is set with soured whey from an earlier batch (in one study, with a boiled fruit acid water instead, heated to 70 °C until it solidified), and the curd is kneaded and stretched by hand into a thin sheet. The sheet is wound on a bamboo stick and air-dried for about three days into a brittle "milk fan". Acid from the fermented whey, not rennet, sets the curd.

Fully documentedCheese17 days

Recipe

Amounts from a sourceThe amounts are from one controlled study (Xue et al. 2018) in which local makers made rushan from 20 L batches of UHT milk with a quince acid water. The sources give no amounts for the whey method.
Cow milkMilk of the local Dengchuan cattle is rich in fat and protein, which the study calls optimal for rushan[xue2018]
Acid wheyWhey from the previous batch, left to ferment; it is the starter and the coagulant[liu2009][tang2026]
Acid water1 part to 2 parts milk (by volume)In one controlled study, made by boiling Chinese quince (Chaenomeles sinensis, which the paper calls papaya) with water, 1:3 by weight, for half an hour, in place of whey[xue2018]
Starteracid whey from the previous batch (backslopping), dominated by Lactobacillus helveticus

Total time across the recorded steps: 17 days

Start
Drag the bar or press Play
shapes, not to countLactic acid bacteriaYeastspH 5.1 → 3.49Milk proteinGel (curd)

What changes: Whey from the last batch ferments, and its pH falls from about 5 to 3.5

Step 1 of 4
Let the whey ferment into acid whey
Time
14 days
Measured
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
pH 5.1 → 3.49
Measured
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Lactic acid bacteria
Yeasts

Whey is up to 90 % of the milk volume, so each batch leaves plenty for the next. Output: acid whey (starter and coagulant).

Flavour
sour
Texture
Not documented
Colour
Not documented

Microbes at work in this step

lactic bacteria multiply first and make the acid; acid-tolerant yeasts follow

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

Cow milk is set with soured whey from an earlier batch (in one study, with a boiled fruit acid water instead, heated to 70 °C until it solidified), and the curd is kneaded and stretched by hand into a thin sheet. The sheet is wound on a bamboo stick and air-dried for about three days into a brittle "milk fan". Acid from the fermented whey, not rennet, sets the curd. Made in 4 steps over 17 days. The longest step, let the whey ferment into acid whey, takes 14 days (Tang R 2026). Lactobacillus helveticus, the dominant lactic bacterium in acid whey and Lactobacillus kefiranofaciens and L. helveticus, the two most abundant lactobacilli; with Lactococcus and Streptococcus the dominant genera in rushan do most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main step14 daysMeasured[tang2026]Let the whey ferment into acid whey
Temperature70 °CReported[xue2018]Heat milk with the acid until it curdles
AciditypH at least 5Reported[tang2026]Heat milk with the acid until it curdles

What makes this one different

Rushan is set by fermented whey and heat, not rennet, then stretched by hand like a pasta filata and dried as thin sheets.

Related ferments

Variants

  • Eryuan, Weishan and Jianchuan rushanRushan from different places carries different bacteria (Xue et al. 2018)
  • Quince acid waterA boiled decoction of Chinese quince used as the acid instead of fermented whey

Safety

Staphylococcus aureus was found in 5 of 62 rushan samples bought in Yunnan (8.06 %), by culture; the survey did not test the cheese for toxin. The authors note that staphylococcal enterotoxins stay active after pasteurisation. In the Xue et al. 2018 batches, made with UHT milk, the curd was heated to 70 °C and the sheets were air-dried for about three days.

Hazards the sources name: Staphylococcus aureus, found in 5 of 62 rushan samples (8.06 %).

History and sources

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

Xue et al. (2018) call rushan an essential part of Bai culture and say the Bai people, living mostly in Yunnan, have produced and eaten it for centuries. Jiang et al. (2021) say its production still follows backslopping, and Tang et al. (2026) say the whey from the previous batch is used as a natural coagulant.

  1. [liu2009] Liu W., Sun Z., Zhang J. et al. 2009, Analysis of microbial composition in acid whey for dairy fan making in Yunnan by conventional method and 16S rRNA sequencing, Current Microbiology 59:199–205 (abstract)paper
  2. [jiang2021] Jiang Y., Yu P., Liu X., Zhao J., Zhang H., Chen W. 2021, Shifts in diversity and function of bacterial community during manufacture of rushan, Journal of Dairy Science 104:12375–12393 (abstract)paper
  3. [xue2018] Xue J., Yang Y., Wang Z., Guo Y., Shao Y. 2018, Bacterial diversity in Chinese Rushan cheese from different geographical origins, Frontiers in Microbiology 9:1920paper
  4. [tang2026] Tang R., Li H., Yang F., Wan X., Dai X., Chen J., Zhang C., Zou L., Shi Q. 2026, Microbial diversity and peptide dynamics during the spontaneous fermentation of whey from the Yunnan ethnic cheese Rushan, Food Chemistry X 39:104464 (full text read on PMC13635446)paper
  5. [prabakusuma2022] Sri Prabakusuma A. et al. 2022, Prevalence and antimicrobial resistance profiling of Staphylococcus aureus isolated from traditional cheese in Yunnan, China, 3 Biotech 12(1) (abstract)paper