Antimicrobial activity of camel's milk against pathogenic strains of Escherichia coli and Listeria monocytogenes.
Let me explain. As a researcher for Food Network’s Extreme Cuisine with Jeff Corwin, I talk to some pretty fascinating people around the world. It takes weeks and weeks to pull a show together and find that one person in the middle of a field of the rural country side of our decided country that is eating or doing something outrageous.
When researching for our Morocco episode, I was heart set on finding a camel for Jeff Corwin to milk. Originally, I thought it would be great to have Jeff milk a camel and make a traditional fermented Moroccan butter called smen from the milk. Smen is similar to Indian ghee butter, but has a characteristically strong, rancid, cheesy taste and smell. (I’ve read that in rural Morocco, the day a baby is born, a batch of butter is made and buried for years underground until it is dug up on that baby’s wedding day. That butter is used and incorporated into dishes served at the celebration.) I knew smen was traditionally made from cow and goat butters in Morocco, but hadn’t yet heard of any one making it with camel butter. In fact, I hadn’t even heard of camel butter. Still, I was determined to find that one person who made it, but first, I had to find that one person who milked camels.
I started searching for camel experts in Morocco and this led me to the academic paper: Antimicrobial activity of camel's milk against pathogenic strains of Escherichia coli and Listeria monocytogenes. The author was Noreddein Benkerroum of Rabat whose email details were listed with the paper. Enthused, I contacted him and after a few Skype calls, he was humored to help out but warned that camel milk didn’t have the right properties to make butter. Regardless, he recommended I be in touch with his friend Kamal, a member of the ministry of agriculture in Morocco. I was sure Kamal was the answer to it all, but after talking with him, he assured me with authority, that no one was milking camels north of the Atlas Mountains.
Heartbroken, I tried to forget about Jeff Corwin milking a camel, but it didn’t work.
Days later, I came across www.culinaryanthropologist.org – what a terrific site! My hopes were renewed as I found a blog that went on about Abderrazzak Khoubbane, a Moroccan man who talked about making camel cheese! Thrilled, I contacted the writer of the blog (who is lovely) and finally after being recommended from person to person, I got my hands on Abderrazzak’s contact info. Double bonus, he spoke English.
A vibrant guy, Abderrazzak welcomed the call and immediately invited our crew to make camel cheese with him at his family Kasbah. He said his Kasbah was perfect for TV and had been visited by Moroccan royalty for generations. Abderrazzak explained that he actually learned to make cheese in Canada (which is an entirely different story) but moved back to Morocco and started a cheese business that had been given high remarks by the Moroccan King. He told me that he made cheeses from cow, goat, sheep and camel milk and claimed to be the only person in the world to make cheese from all four mammals. Abderrazzak assured me that he had camels to milk and as we ended our first conversation, he invited the entire crew to a costume party where he planned to dress up as Robin Hood. My quest to find a camel for Jeff Corwin to milk was complete and seemed to have all the bells and whistles.
So when the crew got to Morocco, Jeff milked a camel with Abderrazzak and it was great. If you haven’t seen it yet, you must. Though you won’t find any camel smen or cheese in the show, you will find goat smen in our Citizen fridge... no, seriously though, it’s in our freezer. Ingrid, the unit manager for the episode brought some back. We were all surprised it got through customs... I mean really, the smell of it… but it did and it’s been in Citizen’s freezer for about eh, 8 months. Anyone interested?
There are lots of Extreme Cuisine stories of a story with unexpected paths… any in particular you are curious about?
Elena McIntosh