Technical article
How to Automate Churchkhela Production
Churchkhela production has three very different steps: threading nuts onto string, dipping the strings in thickened grape must, and drying them. Two of them scale easily. The first one does not — and it is where most of the labour sits.
How Churchkhela Is Made
Walnut kernels — or hazelnuts, almonds and other nuts — are threaded onto a cotton string. The strings are dipped repeatedly in grape must thickened with flour until a coating builds up, then hung to dry. In Türkiye the same product is known as köme or cevizli sucuk.
What Already Scales
Cooking and thickening the grape must is a batch process with standard kettles and mixers. Dipping can be done with frames carrying many strings at once. Drying is a matter of racks, space, air and time. None of these needs a machine that handles individual nuts.
Why Threading Is the Bottleneck
Every kernel has to be picked, oriented, pierced in the right place and pushed onto the string — dozens per string, thousands of strings per day in a larger plant. Kernels differ in size, thickness and brittleness, break if pierced wrongly, and have to be counted so that strings come out even.
What Automating Threading Involves
A threading machine has to do what the hands do, with checks at every step:
- Separate kernels from the bulk and present them one at a time
- Check each kernel with a camera and choose where it can be pierced
- Place it in a supported position under a fixed needle
- Pierce with controlled force to limit breakage
- Carry the thread through and move the kernel along it
- Count confirmed kernels and release the finished string
What to Validate Before Scaling Up
Breakage at piercing, reliable thread transfer, correct counting, and sustained operation on walnuts from different suppliers and seasons. Throughput and staffing only make sense once those are proven on representative product.
DOKTEK FoodTech is engineering such a machine; it is an engineering project under validation, and its page states what is and is not confirmed.
After Threading
Finished and dried churchkhela is packed for sale — flow-wrapped, vacuum packed or placed in cases — which is where standard food packaging machines take over.
Next step
Evaluate the process on your product.
The correct automation decision depends on your product, line layout and target process.