Sulguni ( ka, სულგუნი, სულუგუნი ''sulguni, suluguni''; ''selegini'') is a brined Georgian cheese from the Samegrelo region. It has a sour, moderately salty flavor, a dimpled texture, and an elastic consistency; these attributes are the result of the process used, as is the source of its nickname "pickle cheese". Its color ranges from white to pale yellow. Sulguni is often deep-fried, which masks its odor. It is often served in wedges. Sulguni is

patented A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an enabling disclosure of the invention."A ...

by Georgia since 24 January 2012. A typical sulguni cheese is shaped as a flat disc, 2.5 to 3.5 centimeters thick. It weighs and contains 50% water and between 1% and 5% salt. Dry fat content averages 45%.Gudkov, p. 296. Sulguni is produced only of natural ingredients: normalized cow milk by clotting by rennet with pure cultures of lactic bacteria.

Etymology

The name is etymologized as (''selegini''). A

folk etymology Folk etymology – also known as (generative) popular etymology, analogical reformation, (morphological) reanalysis and etymological reinterpretation – is a change in a word or phrase resulting from the replacement of an unfamiliar form by a mo ...

posits that the name ''sulguni'' comes from two Georgian words: ''suli'' (which means "soul") and ''guli'' ("heart"). According to an alternative theory, the word is etymologized as Ossetic (Digor dialect) сулугун (''sulugun'') adding Georgian nominative formant ''i'', where ''sulu'' means

whey Whey is the liquid remaining after milk has been curdled and strained. It is a byproduct of the manufacturing of cheese or casein and has several commercial uses. Sweet whey is a byproduct resulting from the manufacture of rennet types of hard c ...

, and ''-gun'' means "made of". However, this version does not take into account the fact that initially this cheese was produced in Samegrelo region in the western Georgia, which doesn't border to other regions of Georgia where partially Ossetian language is used. At the same time, initially in Megrelian language the name sounds as ''selegin'' (''sele'' - verb. "to knead", ''gin'' - cattle family (buffalos, cows) whose milk is used to produce the cheese). Kneading of the primary cheese is the key stage of the final cheese production process. These arguments contradict the etymologization on the basis of Ossetian ''sulu''. It is assumed that ''selegin'' was transformed into ''suluguni'' as a result of migration of the name into Georgian and to Eastern and other regions of Georgia.

Production

According to the 1970s sources, sulguni accounted for around 27% of cheese production in Georgia. It was the third most popular pickled cheese of the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

, with 16.5% share in 1987 (after bryndza and Ossetian cheese).Gudkov, p. 295. Sulguni may be produced from normalized milk of cow, buffalo, or a mix of these milks. It is a "quick cheese" maturing in just one or two days. The mix of normalized milk and bacterial starter is scalded at 36-38 °C or, alternatively,

rennet Rennet () is a complex set of enzymes produced in the stomachs of ruminant mammals. Chymosin, its key component, is a protease, protease enzyme that curdling, curdles the casein in milk. In addition to chymosin, rennet contains other enzymes, su ...

ed without scalding. It is then cheddared in

at 34-35 °C for up to five hours, reaching titratable acidity of 140-160°C. The cheddared mass is then diced into pieces 1 to 3 centimeters long. They are heated to 60-80 °C in a rotating mixer, either directly or with added whey or brine. Plasticizing of raw mass takes five to seven minutes. Direct dry plasticizing yields fatter, drier cheese with superior taste.Gudkov, p. 298. Plasticized cheese mass is then cooled, drained of whey and shaped by hand. Shaped cheeses are cured in cold (8-12 °C), mildly acidic brine for 6 to 48 hours. For a long time, sulguni rennet cheese was produced only by local Georgian farmers but in 2012 the Georgian dairy company "LTD Sante GMT products" started producing packaged sulguni. They are utilizing a fully automated production process, with minimized manual operations. In

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

, suluguni cheese is produced by technology described in

GOST GOST () refers to a set of international technical standards maintained by the Euro-Asian Council for Standardization, Metrology and Certification (EASC), a regional standards organization operating under the auspices of the Commonwealth of I ...

R 53437-2009 "Suluguni and Sloistyi cheeses. Specifications". Word "sloistyi" () means "layered"; this name (layered cheese) is being used sometimes in the

USSR The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

and disused in current Russian language.

Notes

References

* Jones, Evan (1984). ''The World of Cheese''. * Gudkov, A. V. (1999). ''Cheeses of the former USSR'', in: Fox, Patrick P. (1999).
Cheese: Chemistry, Physics and Microbiology: Major Cheese Groups
', volume 2. Springer. , . *http://santegmtproducts.ge/en/products/361/ {{Webarchive, url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304065530/http://santegmtproducts.ge/en/products/361/ , date=4 March 2016 Georgian cuisine Georgian products with protected designation of origin Brined white cheeses Stretched-curd cheeses

Etymology

Production

See also

Notes

References