🧑‍🤝‍🧑 Kazakhs

The Kazakhs are a Turkic people, the main population of Kazakhstan, historically nomadic herders of the steppes. The Kazakhs are a Turkic people and the main population of Kazakhstan, a large country of steppes, semi-deserts and mountains in Central Asia. Kazakhs also live in neighbouring countries, including China, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan. For centuries they migrated with their herds and flocks between summer and winter pastures, and in the 20th century they were forced to settle (UNESCO).

The Kazakhs’ main dairy animals are mares, cows and camels, as well as sheep and goats. According to FAOSTAT, in 2023 Kazakhstan had 3.9 million horses and produced 3.4 million tonnes of milk, almost all of it cow’s milk.

The best-known drink is koumiss, made from mare’s milk. Lactic acid bacteria and yeasts ferment it together, so it is slightly alcoholic, roughly 0.6–3%. Shubat is a fermented camel milk drink like a thin drinking yoghurt; researchers call it a Kazakh “product of identity”, drunk throughout the day, mostly after meals. Kurt is a hard, sun-dried cheese of soured, pressed milk. Salty, nourishing and long-keeping, it went with nomads on journeys; today it is also dissolved in hot water for soups.

The most colourful festival is linked to koumiss. In 2018 UNESCO inscribed the spring rites of Kazakh horse breeders in the village of Terisakkan in Ulytau on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. Biye baylau, “tethering the mares”, is the first milking, with songs, dances and games, while «қымыз мұрындық» (Kymyz muryndyk) opens the koumiss season: each household serves the first koumiss. The rites last about three weeks and express traditional Kazakh hospitality.

Today most Kazakhs live a settled life, but the bearers of the tradition have adapted horse breeding to modern conditions. Shubat is also produced at modern plants, and food technologists are looking for ways to enrich kurt without losing its taste.