🌍 North Africa
Also known as: Maghreb
The Maghreb and Egypt: salted aged smen butter, soured milk, and cheeses from goat's, sheep's and cow's milk.
North Africa — the Maghreb (Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya) and Egypt — is a region where dairy farming combines cows with sheep and goats, and in desert areas with camels. In Egypt water buffalo have also long been raised. According to the FAO, about a fifth of Africa’s milk comes from animals other than cows.
In the hot climate milk is traditionally kept by souring and processing it. Across the Maghreb people drink lben, a fermented milk drink, and eat raib, a set soured milk, and fresh cheeses. A special product is smen, a salted, aged clarified butter with a sharp aroma; it is added to couscous, tagines and soups, and aged smen is valued more than fresh. It is made at home, and its taste depends on local bacteria and yeasts.
Today, alongside home-made products, city shops sell industrial yogurts, cheeses and milk, while traditional products remain part of festive and family meals.
What it includes
- Peoples
- Traditional products
How it connects to milk
🌍 North Africa → kind of → 🌍 World regions → kind of → 🥛 Milk
Links
- Traditional products
- 🫕 Smen
- Peoples
- 🧑🤝🧑 Moroccans
- Traditions
- 🫒 Olives, 🫒 Meski, 🫒 Oueslati, 🫒 Aggezi Shami, 🫒 Chemlali, 🫒 Chemlal, 🫒 Toffahi
- Part of
- 🌍 World regions
- Wine and milk
- 🍷 Wine in ancient Egypt
- Olive cultivars
- 🫒 Moroccan Picholine
Frequently asked questions
What is smen?
A salted, aged clarified butter from the Maghreb, used as an aromatic seasoning.
What milk do people drink in North Africa?
Cow’s, goat’s and sheep’s milk, and in desert areas camel’s milk; in Egypt buffalo milk as well.
What is lben?
A fermented milk drink found throughout the Maghreb.
What to read next
- 🧑🤝🧑 Moroccans — The people of Morocco in northwest Africa; their dairy cooking features aged smen butter, lben and raib.
- 🫒 Moroccan Picholine — Morocco's main cultivar, used both for oil and for green and black table olives.
- 🍷 Wine in ancient Egypt — Egyptians painted grape harvests on tomb walls and labelled their jars.
- 🫒 Olives — The fruit of the olive tree, pressed for oil or cured and eaten as table olives.
- 🫒 Meski — Tunisia's main table-olive cultivar, originally from Manouba in the north; grown mostly on irrigated land.
Similar
🌍 Southern Europe · 🌍 Anatolia and the Middle East · 🌍 West Africa · 🌍 Southern Africa · 🌍 Himalayas and Tibet · 🌍 Arctic and the North
Sources
- Deciphering the Microbiota and Volatile Profiles of Algerian Smen, a Traditional Fermented Butter. Microorganisms, 2022
- FAO — Gateway to dairy production and products: Dairy animals