Skip to main content
Support

Browse by category

All categories
Home

Fermented milk from Røros, Norway

Tjukkmjølk (Økologisk Tjukkmjølk fra Røros, PGI)tjukkmjølk

Organic skimmed milk is pasteurised but not homogenised, seeded with 0.5–1.5 % of a traditional ropy culture at 20–23 °C and soured in its carton for about a day. The culture goes back to milk poured over butterwort leaves, whose lactococci make the milk set thick and pudding-like.

Fully documentedFermented milk24 hPGI (Norway)

Recipe

Amounts from a sourceProportions only; the regulation fixes the culture at 0.5–1.5 % of the milk.
Organic cow milkSkimmed and pasteurised, never homogenised[forskrift]
Traditional tettekultur0.5–1.5 % of the milkA blend of three selected traditional tettekulturer from the area, renewed and re-seeded regularly[forskrift]
Starterbackslop of traditional tettekultur; historically started on butterwort (Pinguicula vulgaris) leaves

Total time across the recorded steps: 24 h

Start
Drag the bar or press Play

What changes: Fresh milk poured over butterwort leaves picks up the culture

Step 1 of 4
Historical start on butterwort leaves
Time
Not documented
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Lactococcus lactis
Lactic acid bacteria

Output: the first tettemelk, then kept alive by adding a little to raw milk.

Flavour
mild sour
Texture
sets thick
Colour
Not documented

Microbes at work in this step

lactic bacteria on the leaves seed the milk

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

Organic skimmed milk is pasteurised but not homogenised, seeded with 0.5–1.5 % of a traditional ropy culture at 20–23 °C and soured in its carton for about a day. The culture goes back to milk poured over butterwort leaves, whose lactococci make the milk set thick and pudding-like. Made in 4 steps over 24 h. The longest step, fill cartons and sour in a tempered store, takes 24 h (Mattilsynet 2004). Lactococcus lactis subsp. cremoris strains that make exopolysaccharide and Lactic acid bacteria living on butterwort leaves, the traditional source of the culture do most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main step24 hSet[forskrift]Fill cartons and sour in a tempered store
Temperature20–23 °CSet[forskrift]Add the culture and temper

What makes this one different

The Røros culture differs from other butterwort cultures tested in how it uses citrate and in its thickness. It sours in the carton, so the gel forms in the pack.

Related ferments

Variants

  • Tjukkøl (Østerdalen summer farms)Off-tasting beer mixed with a cup of tettemelk.
  • Emigrant dried-cloth cultureA cloth soaked in thick milk and dried, then revived in lukewarm milk in America.

Safety

The protected product is made from pasteurised milk with a traditional culture, and the regulation says the finished product is kept cool. The regulation also describes the older method, which poured freshly strained milk over butterwort leaves and kept the culture alive in raw milk; it records no heating step for that method.

History and sources

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

The regulation traces tjukkmjølk in Nord-Østerdal and Røros at least to the 1850s; it was an important part of the diet of Røros miners and their families, largely because it kept well. The name was protected in 2004.

  1. [forskrift] Mattilsynet 2004, Forskrift om beskyttelse av produktbetegnelsen Økologisk Tjukkmjølk fra Røros som Beskyttet geografisk betegnelse (FOR-2004-02-10-581), via FAOLEXspec
  2. [porcellato2016] Porcellato D., Tranvåg M. and Narvhus J. 2016, Short communication: Presence of Lactococcus and lactococcal exopolysaccharide operons on the leaves of Pinguicula vulgaris supports the traditional source of bacteria present in Scandinavian ropy fermented milk, Journal of Dairy Science 99:7049–7052 (abstract)paper
  3. [wp-no] no.wikipedia, Tettemelk (folk uses and variants)wiki