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Cheese from Austria, Vorarlberg, the Montafon valley

Montafoner Sura KeesSura Kees

Milk stands one to two days in wooden tubs so the cream rises for butter. The soured skim milk is warmed to no more than 40 °C, and the curd drains under its own weight in a cylindrical mould, then is rubbed with salt. It is eaten young after about a week, or ripened for weeks more until a glassy, greasy rind called the Muffa forms.

Fully documentedCheese37 days – 2.2 monthsListed in Austria's register of traditional foods; described as "Vorarlberger Sauerkäse" in the Austrian Food Code, chapter B 32. Not an EU PDO.Family: Ripened acid-curd cheese family (Harzer, Olomoucké tvarůžky, Gamalost)

Recipe

No fixed amounts recordedTraditional process with no fixed recipe; the making differs from alp to alp and from the valley dairies. Cheeses are made as half-kilo blocks or 2 kg loaves. The alps turn about 725,000 kg of milk a year into Sura Kees.
Cow milk, filteredLeft to stand in wooden Brenten so the cream can be skimmed for butter; only the skim milk makes the cheese[bml-sura]
SaltRubbed on the drained cheese[bml-sura]
Paprika (optional)Sometimes rubbed on with the salt[bml-sura]

Total time across the recorded steps: 37 days – 2.2 months

Start
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What changes: Cream rises to the top of the milk and is skimmed off for butter

Step 1 of 7
Let the milk stand for the cream to rise
Time
24 h – 2 days
Reported
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented

Output: cream for butter; skim milk for cheese.

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

Milk stands one to two days in wooden tubs so the cream rises for butter. The soured skim milk is warmed to no more than 40 °C, and the curd drains under its own weight in a cylindrical mould, then is rubbed with salt. It is eaten young after about a week, or ripened for weeks more until a glassy, greasy rind called the Muffa forms. Made in 7 steps over 37 days – 2.2 months. The longest step, ripen until the Muffa forms, takes 28–42 days (Austrian Federal Ministry of Agriculture (BML…) and runs at 18–20 °C (Austrian Federal Ministry of Agriculture (BML…).

Key numbers
Main step28–42 daysReported[bml-sura]Ripen until the Muffa forms
Temperature18–20 °CReported[bml-sura]Ripen until the Muffa forms

What makes this one different

Sura Kees is a sour-milk cheese made from skim milk left after butter making, so it has little fat. The government register notes that the Montafon kept this sour-milk method after most regions switched to rennet cheese in the 17th century.

Milk
Cow skim milk, a by-product of butter making
Fat
About 1 % fat in dry matter for valley cheese and up to 10 % for alp cheese
Season
Made on the alps from mid-June to mid-September and in valley farm dairies in winter
Size
Half-kilo blocks or 2 kg loaves

Related ferments

Variants

  • Alp Sura KeesMade in summer on the alps, with up to 10 % fat in dry matter.
  • Valley Sura KeesMade in winter in valley farm dairies, with about 1 % fat in dry matter.

Safety

The ministry sheet heats the soured skim milk to at most 40 °C and names no pasteurisation. Listeria monocytogenes was found in lots of Austrian quargel, a related acid-curd cheese, in a 2009–2010 study; none of the sources reports it in Sura Kees.

Hazards the sources name: Listeria monocytogenes, found in lots of Austrian quargel, a related acid-curd cheese, in a 2009–2010 study (not Sura Kees itself).

History and sources

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

The register cites the Celts as early cheesemakers in Vorarlberg and names the Käsker mould as their legacy. In the 17th century rennet cheese, which kept and travelled better, pushed out sour-milk cheese in most regions, but not in the Montafon. The Montafon tourism site dates the flourishing of sour cheese there to the 13th to 17th century, until rennet cheese replaced it, and says only the Montafon kept the knowledge. Dairies began to close in the 1960s and the cheese declined until a revival in the early 1990s. The association "Montafon bewusst-er-leben" was founded in 1997 to market regional farm products and has promoted Sura Kees since 2008.

Starter
The sources we found do not say how its fermentation begins.
  1. [bml-sura] Austrian Federal Ministry of Agriculture (BMLUK), Traditionelle Lebensmittel register, "Montafoner Sura Kees" (references accessed 19 July 2024)gov
  2. [montafon-tourism] Montafon Tourismus GmbH, Sura Kees in the Montafonweb
  3. [schoder2014] Schoder D. et al. 2014, Population diversity of Listeria monocytogenes in quargel (acid curd cheese) lots, Food Microbiology 39:68–73 (abstract)paper