🧀 Chhurpi
Also known as: churpi, durkha
A dried Himalayan cheese made from yak, chauri or cow's milk; hard chhurpi has only about 8% moisture and is sucked slowly like a hard sweet.
Chhurpi is a traditional cheese of the Eastern Himalayas: Nepal, Bhutan and India's Sikkim, Darjeeling and Arunachal Pradesh. It comes soft, similar to fresh curd cheese, and hard, dried until it is as hard as stone. Hard chhurpi is mostly made from yak milk and soft chhurpi from cow's milk; milk from the chauri, a hybrid of the yak and local cattle, is also used.
According to the FAO, hard chhurpi is most often made from buttermilk or skimmed milk. The curd is separated, pressed, cut into pieces, threaded on a string and dried for a long time. The irregular pieces, about 7 × 6 cm, weigh around 75 g. Bhutanese chhurpi, according to the FAO, contains only about 8% moisture and 81% protein; soft chhurpi contains much more water.
Hard chhurpi is not bitten but sucked and chewed for hours: the FAO writes that people take it into the mountains to keep their mouths from drying out. Soft chhurpi goes into soups and curries or is eaten as a condiment. Today Nepal exports chhurpi mainly as dog treats: between 2016/17 and 2020/21 exports grew from 3.89 to 18.59 tonnes.
Chhurpi or ordinary cheese, or paneer? Soft chhurpi resembles fresh curd cheese, but hard chhurpi is another thing entirely: the curd of buttermilk or skimmed milk is separated, pressed, cut into pieces, threaded on a string and dried for a long time. It is not melted, sliced or grated, but sucked and chewed. Bhutanese chhurpi has only about 8% moisture and 81% protein (FAO), which is why it is called the hardest cheese; that is a media image. Compare it with fresh cheeses by process: the difference is the drying.
Chhurpi is a traditional product, so look for the name chhurpi or churpi, often with “yak cheese” beside it, rather than a protected-origin symbol. The pieces are irregular, about 7 × 6 cm and around 75 g, threaded or packed dry. It is sold in Himalayan or Nepali food shops, specialist delicatessens and pet shops; check whether the pack says it is meant for people or for dogs. Choose dry, tightly sealed packaging, since damp cheese spoils.
Why it matters to you. Chhurpi's main enemy is moisture: damp cheese spoils, and its price in Nepal falls from about 1,100 to 200 rupees per kilogram. Keep it dry in tight packaging. It is often called “the hardest cheese in the world”, but that is a media image; it is more accurate to say that it contains very little water and is almost pure protein.
Cheese
Chhurpi is listed among hard cheeses, although it becomes hard through drying rather than ripening. In Nepal, Sikkim and Bhutan buttermilk from yak, chauri (a yak-cow hybrid) or cow's milk is heated, and the curd is drained and pressed; soft chhurpi is eaten in dishes, while hard chhurpi is cut into blocks and dried for weeks, sometimes over smoke. Hard chhurpi has only about 8% moisture, so it keeps for a very long time. Tip: do not bite hard chhurpi; let it soften in your mouth for hours like a sweet.
How it connects to milk
How it connects to Cheese
Links
- From whose milk
- 🐃 Yak
- Made from
- 🥛 Yak milk, 🧀 Buttermilk, 🥛 Cow's milk
- How it is made
- 🔄 Drying
- What it contains
- 🧪 Casein, 🧪 Water
- Traditions
- 🌍 Himalayas and Tibet, 🧑🤝🧑 Tibetans, 🧑🤝🧑 Sherpas
- Product type
- 🏺 Traditional dairy products
- Part of
- 🧀 Cheese, 🪨 Hard cheeses
- Similar and different
- 🪭 Rushan
Frequently asked questions
Which milk is chhurpi made from?
Hard chhurpi mainly from yak milk, soft chhurpi mostly from cow’s milk; milk from chauri, a yak–cattle hybrid, is also used.
Is it true that chhurpi is the hardest cheese in the world?
That is a media image, not a measurement. What is known is that Bhutanese chhurpi has only about 8% moisture and 81% protein (FAO), so it really is very hard.
How is hard chhurpi eaten?
It is sucked and chewed for a long time, like a hard sweet; soft chhurpi is added to soups and curries.
Why is chhurpi sold as a dog treat?
Hard dried cheese takes a long time to chew, so Nepal exports it mostly as dog chews: 18.59 tonnes in 2020/21 against 3.89 tonnes in 2016/17.
How should chhurpi be kept dry?
In tight packaging: moisture spoils the cheese, which is why damp chhurpi is hard to sell in Nepal.
What to read next
- 🌍 Himalayas and Tibet — Asia's highlands, where the main dairy animal is the yak: 230–400 kg of milk per 150–180-day lactation, made into butter and chhurpi cheese.
- 🧑🤝🧑 Tibetans — People of the Tibetan Plateau in Central Asia; their signature drink is yak-butter tea, and milk is dried into hard chhurpi cheese.
- 🏺 Traditional dairy products — Products made for centuries to folk recipes: fermenting, cheesemaking, slow baking, drying. Tied to regions and peoples.
- 🧪 Casein — ~80% of milk protein; it curdles into cheese.
- 🐃 Yak — The bovine of Asia's highlands: more than 90% of yaks live in China; a female gives 150–500 litres of rich (5.5–7% fat) milk per season.
Similar
🪭 Rushan · 🧀 Wagasi · 🧀 Ayib · 🧀 Paneer · 🧀 Sulguni · 🧶 Oaxaca cheese
ℹ️ Dairy products contain lactose and milk proteins: if you are lactose intolerant or allergic to milk protein, ask a doctor.
Sources
- FAO — The technology of traditional milk products in developing countries, 7.6.6 Chhurpi
- Panta R. et al. Exploring trade prospects of Chhurpi and the present status of Chhurpi producers and exporters of Nepal. J Ethnic Foods, 2023
- Abedin M. M. et al. ACE inhibitory and antioxidant peptides in yak and cow milk hard chhurpi cheese of the Sikkim Himalayan region. Food Chem X, 2022