🧀 Kurt
Also known as: qurt, qurut
Dried balls of fermented, strained milk: nomads' food that keeps for months.
Kurt is a hard, dried fermented dairy product of the peoples of Central Asia: salty balls or small flat cakes of strained and dried sour milk. It is traditionally made from cow's or goat's milk, and sometimes from sheep's, camel's or mare's milk. Its names in the languages of the region are close: qurt in Kazakh, kurut in Kyrgyz, qurut in Uzbek and Tajik, and gurt in Turkmen.
For nomads, kurt was an indispensable food reserve: it keeps for a long time, is light to carry and is nourishing. Soured milk is strained or pressed, and the mass is salted, shaped into balls and dried in the sun. In modern production in Kazakhstan, milk is pasteurized and fermented for 6–8 hours at 38–42 °C; the curd (katyk, or qatiq) is then pressed, salted and dried at 35–40 °C to a moisture content of 10–13%.
Kurt made this way contains over 46% protein and about 750 mg of calcium per 100 g, with about 260 kcal on average. It holds so little water that microbes barely multiply, which is why it keeps so long. Kurt is nibbled as a snack, dissolved in hot water to make thick soups and added to vegetable dishes instead of salt.
Kurt, qurt or kurut? These are the same product under close names in the languages of the region: qurt in Kazakh, kurut in Kyrgyz, qurut in Uzbek and Tajik, gurt in Turkmen. Kurt is not katyk, the thick sour milk it starts from, and it is not a soft cheese: soured milk is strained or pressed, salted, shaped and dried hard, in modern Kazakh production to 10–13% moisture. That dryness, not a rind or ageing, is what keeps it for months.
Packs spell the name kurt, qurt, kurut or gurt, depending on the maker's language, and show salted dried balls or small flat cakes in bags or jars. There is no PDO symbol: look at the ingredients (soured milk, salt) and the sodium figure, since kurt is very salty. You will mostly find it in Central Asian or Eastern food shops, at oriental markets and in delicatessens. Keep it dry in a tightly sealed package.
Why it matters to you. Kurt is very salty. An analysis of street food in Kyrgyzstan found that homemade kurut contains an extremely high amount of sodium, far above the WHO daily limit of less than 2,000 mg of sodium, or 5 g of salt. So eat kurt a little at a time, as a snack or seasoning, and don't add extra salt to dishes you put it in. Store kurt dry in a tightly sealed package.
Cheese
Kurt is a hard dried cheese of Central Asia made from strained soured milk. In the Cheese section it sits among the hard cheeses: once dried it is as hard as an aged cheese, although no rennet is used. The milk is usually cow's or goat's, sometimes sheep's, camel's or mare's. Technology: the milk is soured with a starter culture, the curd is strained or pressed, salted, shaped into balls or flat cakes and dried in the sun or a dryer to 10–13% moisture. That is why kurt keeps for months without a fridge. It is eaten as a snack or dissolved in hot water for soups; it is very salty, so eat it in small amounts.
How it connects to milk
How it connects to Cheese
Links
- Made from which milk
- 🥛 Cow's milk, 🥛 Goat's milk
- How it is made
- 🔄 Drying
- Made from
- 🥛 Milk
- What is made from it
- 🥣 Katyk
- Traditions
- 🌍 Central Asia, 🌍 Urals and Volga region, 🧑🤝🧑 Kazakhs, 🧑🤝🧑 Kyrgyz, 🧑🤝🧑 Uzbeks, 🧑🤝🧑 Tatars
- Product type
- 🏺 Traditional dairy products
- Part of
- 🥣 Fermented milk products, 🪨 Hard cheeses
- Similar and different
- 🍘 Aaruul, 🧀 Shanklish
Frequently asked questions
Is it true that kurt is a light diet snack?
Not quite. It contains over 46% protein, but also about 260 kcal per 100 g, and homemade kurt is very high in salt.
How is kurt different from katyk?
Katyk is thick sour milk. Kurt is pressed katyk, salted and dried to 10–13% moisture.
Which milk goes into kurt?
From sour milk: cow’s or goat’s, sometimes sheep’s, camel’s or mare’s.
How is kurt used in cooking?
Nibbled as a snack, dissolved in hot water for thick soups and added to vegetable dishes instead of salt.
Which names does kurt have across the region?
Qurt in Kazakh, kurut in Kyrgyz, qurut in Uzbek and Tajik, and gurt in Turkmen.
What to read next
- 🔄 Drying — Removing water from milk: at the plant, condensed milk is sprayed into hot air to make a powder with up to 5% moisture, while nomads have long dried fermented milk curd in the sun.
- 🌍 Urals and Volga region — A region of Turkic and Finno-Ugric peoples: kumis, katyk, kurt.
- 🥛 Cow's milk — The most widespread milk in the world: versatile, inexpensive and the basis of almost all dairy products.
- 🧑🤝🧑 Kazakhs — A Turkic people, the main population of Kazakhstan in the steppes of Central Asia, historically nomadic horse breeders and herders; their main dairy tradition is koumiss, along with shubat and kurt.
- 🏺 Traditional dairy products — Products made for centuries to folk recipes: fermenting, cheesemaking, slow baking, drying. Tied to regions and peoples.
Similar
🥣 Tvorog · 🧀 Chhurpi · 🪭 Rushan · 🧀 Queso fresco · 🧀 Leipäjuusto · 🧀 Sbrinz
ℹ️ Dairy products contain lactose and milk proteins: if you are lactose intolerant or allergic to milk protein, ask a doctor.