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EveryCow

Butter and ghee

Smen

Salted butter packed into jars and left to ripen into a pungent cooking fat, spooned into couscous and tagines.

Smen is butter that has been salted, sometimes flavoured with herbs, packed into clay jars and left to ripen for weeks, months or years. It develops a strong, cheese-like smell and taste. A small spoonful is stirred into couscous, harira and tagines. It is made in Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia, and in Yemen, from the butter of sheep, goats or cows.

What goes in

Fresh butter: 77%77%Salt: 15%15%Herbs such as za'atar: 8%3parts
  • Fresh butter1077%, From the churn, washed in cold water.
  • Salt215%, Helps it keep.
  • Herbs such as za'atar18%, Optional.

Rough parts by weight. The ring shows each input's share of the product.

Made step by step

Each drawing shows the operation for that step. Quantities and timings differ from house to house and herd to herd; this is one traditional way, in outline.

  1. Step 1: Churn Churn soured milk for butter and wash the butter in cold water.
  2. Step 2: Shape Knead in salt and herbs.
  3. Step 3: Set Press the butter into a clay jar, seal it and store it in a cool place.
  4. Step 4: Ferment Leave it to ripen for weeks or longer.
  5. Step 5: Serve Stir a spoonful into couscous or tagine.
  6. Fresh butter: 77%77%Salt: 15%15%Herbs such as za'atar: 8%
    Finished Smen, by share.

Ripening

Fresh butter from the churn is washed, salted and sometimes cooked briefly, then pressed into a jar, sealed and stored in a cool place. Some households add za'atar or other herbs. Old smen is valued for its depth and used sparingly. A widely told Moroccan custom speaks of burying a jar when a daughter is born and opening it on her wedding day.

In the kitchen

Smen is used as a seasoning more than a fat. A little goes into the steaming couscous, onto chicken and lamb tagines and into the soup harira. Berber cooks of the Atlas use it in winter dishes. In the Levant, samneh is a clarified butter closer to ghee. A jar of well-aged smen is often kept back for special dishes and guests.

Where it is used

CouscousTaginesHarira

The breeds behind it

Holstein FriesianMuch of Morocco's cow butter now comes from Friesians.MontbéliardeFrench dairy breed kept on farms in the Maghreb.

More on EveryCow

No breeds here yet. New pages are added every day.

Sources and further reading

About this page

Original text and drawings by the EveryCow desk, written with AI assistance and checked against the sources above. The shares are a rough, illustrative ratio, not a recipe: every family and dairy makes it differently. If we have something wrong, tell us.

Photo credits on this page

The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.

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