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Fermented milk from Kazakhstan

Shubat / qymyranшұбат

Fresh camel milk collected through the day is mixed with soured milk from the last batch and left 1 to 2 days in a skin or wooden vessel, stirred often to break up the curd. Lactic bacteria and yeasts turn it into a sour drink, thick in some regions and a liquid with gas and foam in others.

Fully documentedFermented milk34 h – 2.7 days

Recipe

No fixed amounts recordedTraditional makers add a small amount of old shubat with no fixed ratio. The modern method uses 1 part starter to 3–4 parts pasteurised milk (Bilal et al. 2024).
Fresh camel milkRaw in the traditional method[bilal2024]
Soured milk from the previous batchA small quantity; modern dairies use 1 part mother culture to 3–4 parts milk[bilal2024]
Starterbackslop (previously soured shubat), or a mother culture in modern dairies

Total time across the recorded steps: 34 h – 2.7 days

Start
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63–90 °C

What changes: In the modern method the camel milk is pasteurised and cooled before the culture goes in

Step 1 of 4
Pasteurise and cool the milk (modern method only)
Time
5 min – 5 h
Reported
Temperature
63–90 °C
Reported
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Lactic acid bacteria
Yeasts
Lactobacillus
Lactococcus
Leuconostoc

Output: pasteurised, cooled camel 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

Fresh camel milk collected through the day is mixed with soured milk from the last batch and left 1 to 2 days in a skin or wooden vessel, stirred often to break up the curd. Lactic bacteria and yeasts turn it into a sour drink, thick in some regions and a liquid with gas and foam in others. Made in 4 steps over 34 h – 2.7 days. The longest step, ferment, stirring often, takes 24 h – 2 days (Bilal Z. et al. 2024) and runs at 20–25 °C (Bilal Z. et al. 2024). Lactic acid bacteria of the genera Lactobacillus, Lactococcus, Leuconostoc and Enterococcus and Lactobacillus, Lactococcus and Streptococcus as the dominant genera by metagenomics do most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main step24 h – 2 daysReported[bilal2024][bilal2024voc][sagyman2025voc]Ferment, stirring often
Temperature20–25 °CReported[bilal2024]Ferment, stirring often
AciditypH 3.6–4.7Measured[bilal2024]Ferment, stirring often

What makes this one different

Shubat is camel milk, not mare milk like koumiss. It is kneaded often to break up the casein, so it stays a drink, and the old Kazakh standard graded it by acidity from weak to strong.

Related ferments

Variants

  • QymyranIn southern Kazakhstan, shubat made from boiled or pasteurised camel milk; elsewhere, a thinner, low-fat summer shubat.
  • Modern pasteurised shubatMilk pasteurised at 63–90 °C for 5 min to 5 h, cooled to 30–35 °C, then 1 part mother culture to 3–4 parts milk.

Safety

Traditional shubat is made from raw milk seeded with previously soured milk. Finished shubat averages about pH 4 (3.55–4.72 across samples). The review gives a shelf life of 5–6 days at 5–10 °C only for the modern method, which mostly uses pasteurised milk [bilal2024]. WHO advises people at greater risk of severe MERS to avoid drinking raw camel milk, and says camel milk can be consumed after pasteurisation, cooking or other heat treatment [who-mers].

History and sources

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

In the 1980s the Kazakh SSR set a state standard for shubat and for the camel milk used to make it, with weak, medium and strong grades.

  1. [bilal2024] Bilal Z. et al. 2024, The main features and microbiota diversity of fermented camel milk, Foods 13(13):1985paper
  2. [sagyman2025] Sagyman Z. et al. 2025, Exploring the microbiome and functional metabolism of fermented camel milk (shubat) using metagenomics, Foods 14(7):1102paper
  3. [bilal2024voc] Bilal Z., Kondybayev A., Ospanova A., Tormo H., Akhmetsadykova S., Amutova F., Faye B., Konuspayeva G. 2024, Volatile organic compounds of camel milk and shubat across Kazakhstan's regions, seasons, and breeds, Heliyon 10(15):e35365paper
  4. [sagyman2025voc] Sagyman Z., Fei T., Xu P. 2025, Two-dimensional GC–ToFMS analysis of volatile organic compounds in fermented camel milk (shubat), Foods 14(17):2995paper
  5. [who-mers] World Health Organization, Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV), fact sheetgov