Smen

What it is

Smen is butter preserved as a store.¹ Mohamed Oubahli distinguishes two kinds: melted or clarified butter, and unmelted butter that is kneaded with salt and ferments; the latter is called s'man l'harr, literally “fiery smen”, or s'man bu draʿ.²

A 2022 review by Moroccan dairy researchers describes smen as fermented, salted butter with about 8 to 10 per cent salt, which serves above all as a seasoning and is meant to keep the butter for a long time; a kilogram, it says, cost more than 120 dirhams.³ Harrell’s dictionary lists smen as salted butter and smen bu-draʕ as matured butter.⁴

Where it comes from

The Encyclopédie berbère describes smen in the Amazigh areas of the south, in the High Atlas, the Anti-Atlas and the Jbel Saghro.⁵ In Marrakesh, Amazigh traders sell it under the names sman ḥarr or sman draʿ.⁶

In Tetouan, according to Hassan Akdi and Noureddine Achboun, two kinds are distinguished: salted smen made from washed butter, used in couscous, harira and in cooking generally, and smen for sweets, for which the butter is melted, the fat strained off and sealed in glazed vessels; the price was 80 to 120 dirhams.⁷

How it is made

There salt is used to preserve the butter: it is lightly salted and put into a jar, in which it turns rancid and keeps for a very long time; its colour changes with age.⁸

According to the review by Benkirane and colleagues, production begins with raw cow’s, sheep’s or goat’s milk, which sours by itself and is churned; the butter is washed with warm and then with salted water until the water stays clear, then packed with about 8 to 10 per cent salt into a clay pot, which is filled completely so that no air remains.⁹ In a dark, cool place the smen matures for three to six months; in some areas the pot is buried in the ground for this, and coarsely crushed thyme or rosemary is added against mould and for the aroma.¹⁰ The butter is not heated; only in Marrakesh is it warmed for an hour before salting so that residual water evaporates.¹¹

The FAO, by contrast, lists smen as the Moroccan and Tunisian name for clarified butter and notes that in Morocco it is flavoured with rosemary and thyme before storage.¹² This corresponds to the second kind, which Oubahli and the study of Tetouan likewise know under the name smen: melted or clarified butter alongside the salted, matured kind.¹³

When

Smen is used above all to give flavour to couscous and tagines.¹⁴ In Tetouan the salted smen also goes into harira and into assida, a semolina porridge with smen and honey.¹⁵