Traditional Fermented Butter Smen/Dhan: Current Knowledge, Production and Consumption in Algeria

Rania Boussekine, Ryma Merabti, Malika Barkat, Fatima-Zohra Becila, Nora Belhoula, Jerome Mounier and Farida Bekhouche

Journal of Food Research, 2021, vol. 9, issue 4, 71

Abstract: Algerian Smen/Dhan is an ethnic dairy product which is a traditional fermented butter made from whole raw milk by empirical methods. This product constitutes a significant part of the Algerian diet and represents a gastronomical heritage that need to be preserved and protected. The aim of the present study was to investigate the place and use of this product in the Algerian culture as well as to identify the traditional methods used for its preparation. A survey was conducted on 880 households in the South and East of Algeria. The results revealed that 96.47% of the surveyed population knew what Smen/Dhan was, 75.22% consumed it and 47.61% prepared it at home. Concerning the production method, raw milk (cow, goat and/or sheep milk) is spontaneously fermented until coagulation. Then, the obtained coagulum (Raib) is churned with different tools to obtain the butter used for Smen/Dhan preparation. Then, two different preparation modes are used depending on the surveyed regions. Households from Batna, Khenchela and Setif proceed directly with butter salting while in the Biskra, Jijel, El Oued and Ouargla regions, a different process is used which first involves a heat-treatment of the butter followed by the addition of one or more ingredients. After packing in a traditional ceramic container (Ezzir) and other containers, a maturation step is applied with a long duration varying from one month to several years. This product is consumed as an additive to enhance the taste and aroma of some traditional dishes (couscous/other) and is also used in traditional medicine.

Date: 2021
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://ccsenet.org/journal/index.php/jfr/article/download/0/0/43254/45313 (application/pdf)
https://ccsenet.org/journal/index.php/jfr/article/view/0/43254 (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ibn:jfrjnl:v:9:y:2021:i:4:p:71

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Journal of Food Research from Canadian Center of Science and Education Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Canadian Center of Science and Education ().