Camel's milk cheeses
A rare cheese of the desert: the camel cheeses of Mauritania and the Gulf.
Camel's milk is the dairy of the desert, from Mauritania and the Sahel to the Horn of Africa, Arabia, Rajasthan and Central Asia. It is hard to make into cheese: its proteins are built differently from those of cow's milk and it sets only weakly with ordinary calf rennet. Herders have mostly drunk it fresh or soured. Cheese from camel's milk became practical only with modern research, and it remains among the rarest cheeses in the world.
Why it is difficult
Camel's milk has less kappa-casein, the protein that calf rennet acts on, and its casein particles are larger than those in cow's milk. With ordinary rennet it forms a soft, fragile curd, if it sets at all. Researchers working with the Food and Agriculture Organization in the 1990s found ways to make a firmer curd, by adding calcium and adjusting the acidity and the dose of rennet. Later, a chymosin modelled on the camel's own enzyme, made by fermentation, made the work easier still.
Caravane of Mauritania
The first well-known camel's milk cheese was Caravane, made in Nouakchott, Mauritania, from the early 1990s by the Tiviski dairy, founded by Nancy Abeiderrahmane, which collected milk from nomadic herders. A soft cheese with a white bloomy rind, it was often compared with Camembert. Its sale in Europe was held back by animal health rules, so it was eaten mostly at home and in neighbouring countries, but it showed that camel's milk could make a fine ripened cheese.
New camel cheeses
Since then, small dairies in the Gulf, the Netherlands and elsewhere have made fresh, brined and even aged camel cheeses. In India, the camel herders of Rajasthan and Kutch, such as the Raika and the Rabari, have found new buyers for camel milk, and the National Research Centre on Camel at Bikaner has worked on camel's milk products including cheese. On the steppe, camel's milk is still mostly drunk as shubat, a fermented milk of Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan.
Worth knowing
- Caravane: Bloomy-rind camel cheese of Mauritania
- Shubat: Fermented camel's milk of Kazakhstan
- Suusac: Somali fermented camel's milk
- Camel milk paneer: Fresh acid-set cheese tried in Rajasthan
Good to know
- Camel cheese is usually soft and best eaten fresh.
- Expect a slightly salty, clean flavour, since camel's milk itself tastes a little salty.
Sources and further reading
Original text by the EveryCheese desk, written with AI assistance and checked against the sources above. Customs are described as tradition, not as advice. If we have something wrong, tell us.
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