Skip to main content
Support

Browse by category

All categories
Home

Cheese from Central Asia

Suzma / chakkasuzma

Suzma is katyk (qatiq), a sour milk made from milk preheated to about 90 °C and fermented from 40 °C, that is concentrated and salted by draining it in a cloth. The Afghan form, chakah, drains the sour buttermilk left after churning mast for 8–10 hours, then salts it. Salted suzma is also rolled into balls and dried into qurut.

Fully documentedCheese8 h – 10 hFamily: Fresh lactic (acid-set) cheese family

Recipe

No fixed amounts recordedHousehold process with no fixed amounts.
Katyk, qatiq or mast (yoghurt-like sour milk)[kochetkova2022][fao-tmp]
Saltsome[fao-tmp]

Total time across the recorded steps: 8 h – 10 h

Start
Drag the bar or press Play
shapes, not to countStreptococcusLactobacillusS. thermophilusL. delbrueckii40 °CMilk proteinGel (curd)

What changes: Milk heated to about 90 °C cools to 40 °C and then ferments into katyk

Step 1 of 5
Make katyk
Time
Not documented
Temperature
40 °C
Reported
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Streptococcus
Lactobacillus
S. thermophilus
L. delbrueckii

Output: katyk, qatiq or mast.

Flavour
Not documented
Texture
soft, sour gel
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

Suzma is katyk (qatiq), a sour milk made from milk preheated to about 90 °C and fermented from 40 °C, that is concentrated and salted by draining it in a cloth. The Afghan form, chakah, drains the sour buttermilk left after churning mast for 8–10 hours, then salts it. Salted suzma is also rolled into balls and dried into qurut. Made in 5 steps over 8 h – 10 h. The longest step, hang in a cloth to drain, takes 8–10 h (FAO 1990). In two matsoni-like products from Russia (matsoni is called katyk in Uzbekistan), Streptococcus made up 74–98 % of bacteria, with Lactobacillus the next genus and Streptococcus thermophilus and Lactobacillus delbrueckii subsp. bulgaricus do most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main step8–10 hReported[fao-tmp]Hang in a cloth to drain
Temperature40 °CReported[kochetkova2022]Make katyk

What makes this one different

Katyk drained in a cloth until it is a thick, salted paste rather than a drink or a set gel; ayran is made by diluting suzma or katyk with water. Afghan chakah drains the buttermilk left after butter making.

Related product
In Iranian Tuluq and Torba bag yoghurts, a related product, pH ran 3.89–4.56 and total solids 12.5–37.5 % across the samples tested

Related ferments

Variants

  • Mâst chekide (Iran)Strained mast for dips and side dishes.
  • Chakah (Afghanistan)Drained sour buttermilk from churned mast, salted.
  • Tuluq and Torba yogurts (Iranian Azerbaijan)Concentrated yogurts kept in Tuluq or Torba bags.

Safety

The FAO sheet for Afghan chakah says it is eaten fresh after making. In eastern Turkey, süzme (condensed) yoghurt stored buried under soil carried type A botulinum toxin and caused an outbreak of 10 cases, the largest reported in Turkey to date. In an Iranian study of bag-strained yoghurts, a related product, psychrotroph, mould and yeast counts rose during storage, while coliform, S. aureus and E. coli counts did not change.

Hazards the sources name: Coliforms, Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli (tested in Tuluq and Torba; counts did not change during storage); Clostridium botulinum type A toxin, found in Turkish süzme yoghurt stored buried under soil.

History and sources

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

Oskenbay (2016), quoting the Russian food historian Pokhlyobkin, lists suzma, which she defines as sour milk strained in a canvas bag, with qatyk, qurt and ayran among the milk products of the Turkic-speaking peoples of Central Asia, Kazakhstan and the Caucasus.

Starter
The sources we found do not say how its fermentation begins.
  1. [kochetkova2022] Kochetkova T.V., Grabarnik I.P., Klyukina A.A., Zayulina K.S. et al. 2022, Microbial communities of artisanal fermented milk products from Russia, Microorganisms 10(11):2140, doi:10.3390/microorganisms10112140paper
  2. [fao-tmp] FAO 1990, The technology of traditional milk products in developing countries, Animal Production and Health Paper 85, part II, Acidified milks (Chakah, Afghanistan)gov
  3. [akdeniz2007] Akdeniz H., Buzgan T., Tekin M., Karsen H., Karahocagil M.K. 2007, An outbreak of botulism in a family in Eastern Anatolia associated with eating süzme yoghurt buried under soil, Scandinavian Journal of Infectious Diseases 39:108–114, doi:10.1080/00365540600951317 (abstract)paper
  4. [alirezaloo2016] Alirezaloo K., Hesari J., Azad Mard Damirchi S., Faraj Nia S., Fathi Achachlooi B. 2016, Evaluation of chemical and microbiological properties of concentrated "Tuluq" and "Torba" yoghurts during storage, Iranian Food Science and Technology Research Journal 13(59):37–47 (abstract)paper
  5. [oskenbay2016] Oskenbay M. 2016, Fermented dairy products in Central Asia, methods for making Kazakh qurt and their health benefits, Crossroads 14:205–218paper
  6. [wp] Wikipedia, Strained yogurt (outline)wiki
  7. [wp-2] Wikipedia, Qatiq (outline)wiki