At any tiny roadside or large city bazaar in Central Asia, you can find small white balls with a salty taste for sale. This is a world-famous kurt. This dish, perhaps, cannot be compared in popularity with any other food product. Kurt can be used as an independent dish, as an appetizer, as an addition to green soup or as the main ingredient in a sauce.

This product is very popular in Azerbaijan, Georgia, Armenia and, of course, Kazakhstan. Steppe peoples have been preparing this dish for a long time and believe that it helps them survive the unbearable summer heat. The product stores well, so you can take it on a long trip without worrying that it will spoil. Kurt tolerates storage well under any conditions.

Variety of flavors

It must be said right away that kurt is a dish that has not only a salty taste. Depending on what ingredients were used during its preparation, it can be sweet, sour, spicy and even with a bright piquant bitterness. For example, in Mongolia and Tatarstan, kurt is made from mare's milk. In Kyrgyzstan, camel is used. In Armenia, buffalo milk is most often used to prepare kurt.

Traditional Kazakh recipe

Each Asian country has its own opinion on how to prepare proper kurt. The dish, recipe and taste can vary significantly even among neighbors. For preparation, you can use different types of milk: cow, goat, sheep.

The main thing in the technology of preparing kurta is strict adherence to the temperature regime. In order for the milk to ferment and dry properly, the temperature must reach forty degrees for a couple of days.

Kurt is the national dish of Kazakhstan. To prepare it you need only two ingredients: three liters of milk (any kind) and salt (to taste). Today we will prepare a dish according to a traditional recipe that is used by most Asians.

Step by step recipe

So, we have already figured out that kurt is a Kazakh dish. The cooking recipe, the cuisine of this country and its features will be discussed in more detail below. First of all, you need to decide exactly how the dish will be prepared. Kurt can ripen in the shade or in full sun. If milk is fermented in the shade, the resulting product will be softer and more tender. If you choose the sun, the kurt will become hard and dry, but will cook faster.

Step one

Let's get started. Milk must be poured into a large container prepared in advance. It is better if it is enamel (safe for milk) dishes. Bring the liquid to a boil. Now turn down the heat and wait for the milk to evaporate. About one third of the total volume should “go away”. This way you will achieve a high percentage of fat content.

The milk should now be fermented. It is better to pour it into a container made of clay. The fermentation effect will be achieved much faster. When the curdled milk is ready, you can continue cooking. Kurt is a dish that requires constant attention. First we monitor the boiling, then the fermentation of the milk.

Step two

The time has come to monitor the transformation of milk into cottage cheese. To do this, pour the sour milk, which is called katyk in Kazakhstan, into a fabric bag. We hang it outside for two to three days. We are waiting for the moment when all the serum is gone.

As a result of these manipulations, a product such as Suzma is obtained. After removing the whey, the curdled mass is more reminiscent of soft cheese. It will be necessary to add salt to taste. Again we put everything into a bag so that the mass is slightly compressed.

Step three

We continue to prepare Kazakh kurt. The cooking recipe now requires the formation of those same balls. They are made very quickly and easily from the cheese mass, which is pliable and plastic.

The prepared balls need to be laid out on a large board, baking sheet or special drying rack. We send it to the sun or shade (depending on what qualities you want to achieve from the final product). Remember that the kurt must be covered with a rag or gauze while drying to avoid dust particles getting on the cheese.

Beneficial features

Kurt is an incredibly popular dish. But it would be difficult to achieve such popularity without the benefits of the product for the body. Let's highlight the advantages and understand the disadvantages (contraindications) of this cheese.

The dish contains a full range of useful biologically active substances and vitamins necessary for the full growth and development of the human body. Let's add microelements, carbohydrates, a large amount of protein and beneficial enzymes.

Experts confirm that consuming kurt leads to normalization of the gastrointestinal system. The product is quickly and easily digested, so it can be consumed by children and pregnant women. The vitamin A included in the composition has an excellent effect on the organs of vision. B vitamins and vitamin D - strengthen the immune system, promote cell growth, rejuvenation and skin regeneration.

This product is also useful for children and the elderly because it contains a lot of calcium. Constant consumption of kurt leads to strengthening of bone tissue (reduction of symptoms of rickets), as well as improvement of metabolic processes in the body.

Contraindications

It is not recommended to eat this dish only for those who have an individual intolerance to dairy products. It is better not to eat kurt that is too salty for people suffering from kidney disease. Otherwise, there are no contraindications.

How to prepare kurt at home?

1. special reed is cut lengthwise, laid crosswise in several layers and pressed
2. Methods of preparing kurta
   231
   1 2 3 4 5 (5 votes, average 5.00 out of 5) Cooking - Simple popular dishes
   Kurt is simply salted dried cottage cheese. You need to let the milk sour, then cook for a long time, stirring, until a significant part of the liquid has boiled away. Strain, salt, roll into balls and dry in the fresh air. This is the easiest way.

   Ideally, kurt is made from sheep's milk, fermented with rennet (this is what is produced in the stomach of the lamb, the first
   having tasted colostrum once).

   It is made simply, at least in my homeland, in Northern Kazakhstan.
   This is done like this: you take horse milk, wait until it sours, drain the whey, squeeze the curd from excess water,
   salt thoroughly.

   You leave it in a warm place for 3 days (not hot, about 30 - 40 degrees)

   You take a felt mat and roll a hand-formed ball of cottage cheese back and forth along it several times and put it on it to dry.

   The size of the ball is up to your taste, but the larger it is, the longer it will take to dry. After you have laid the entire mass on the felt, take it out into the sun and keep it there for 7 - 10 days until it dries.

   After this you can use it.

   In our latitudes (Moscow) it is quite difficult to produce using original technology, especially in the fall, and mainly because the curd mass does not ripen as well under other temperature conditions (it is rarely hot here), but milk is not critical - kurt is made and from camel, and from sheep, and even from cow’s milk, and in general - kurt in Kazakh “Katyshek”, this is rather the name of a method of preserving dairy products by drying. About horse milk - it’s just that Kazakhs consume it more

3. * - 500 g of homemade cottage cheese, well pressed from the market;
   * - 250 g whey;
   * - 3 tbsp. spoons of salt.

   1. The original recipe for making kurta is very long, requiring patience and some, somewhat exotic in urban conditions, ingredients.
   2. So. Dissolve salt in whey. Mix salt whey with cottage cheese in a blender to achieve uniform salting. Place the salted curd mixture in a colander with a thick mesh or cheesecloth. Allow to drain and, if necessary, squeeze out excess liquid. The consistency of the mass should be such that it is convenient to roll the balls.
   3. I made the balls not much larger than a quail egg. Dried for 10 days in a dry, warm but cool place.
   4. The taste of kurta is simple, but difficult to describe. The beauty of it is to bite off a piece and wash it down with your favorite tea. My husband prefers to eat kurt with beer, my daughter eats it instead of chips. I really like it with tea.

What is kurt and how is it prepared? Calorie content and chemical composition of cheese. Benefits and harm to the body, recipes with fermented milk products. Interesting facts in short.

The content of the article:

Kurt is a dry cheese, a national dish of many Turkic peoples. Cow, sheep or camel milk can be used as raw materials. In Azerbaijan, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, the product is called kurut, and in Russia, Altai, Bashkortostan and Tatarstan - korot or kort. There are 3 varieties of it - dry, semi-moist, wet (curd consistency). The taste depends on the variety. When dry, it is sharply salty and spicy; semi-moist, boiled has a creamy hue and a more delicate structure; pasty, reminiscent of salted cottage cheese. The color of the cut can be white, yellowish, light and dark brown, with splashes on the cut when seasonings are added. Korot is offered to consumers in the form of balls, pyramids, and small cheese wheels. The paste is packaged in plastic containers.

How to cook korot?

The starting material for making korot is milk. It should be boiled first.

In industrial production, the preparation of kurt is as follows:

• The milk is cleaned, pasteurized, and treated with a separator.
• Cool to 47-50°C, add starter, which in industrial production uses a mixture of mesophilic lactic acid streptococci and lactobacilli.
• Leave to ferment until a dense clot is obtained.
• Decant the whey.
• Press the residue while heating.
• Sprinkle with salt.
• Form the desired shape.
• Dry and carry out pre-sale preparation.

The fat content of korot made according to traditional recipes is 7%. The problem of how to make low-fat kurt is easily solved. A mixture of cow's milk and skim milk is used as the starting material. Receiving the return is carried out at the purification stage. During separator processing, milk is separated into cream and a whitish liquid. This is the reverse.

Black cumin oil, cumin and coriander seeds, and dried herbs are often used as flavoring additives.

Comparison of dietary and regular shortening indicators:

Index	From milk	From the return
Fats, %	4	1,8
Proteins, %	16	18
Humidity, %	76	80
Acidity, °T	175	180

There are many ways to prepare kurt yourself:

1. Bashkir korot recipe. Cow's milk is boiled and fermented with katyk. Boil again until a cheesy sediment falls out. Suspended in a canvas bag (capsyk) for 8-12 hours. Then the cottage cheese is squeezed out and placed in salt. Before squeezing, the curd mass can be mixed with dried pitted cherries or crushed bird cherry berries. Next, balls or pyramids are formed and placed on a wooden grid (tergu), covering with gauze. Dry in the sun during the daytime and put it in a ventilated room at night. After removing excess moisture, smoking or freezing is allowed. To prepare soft kurt at home, fermented milk is boiled for 2-3 hours, hung for 6-7 hours in a canvas bag, but not pressed. Place in the sun to allow the moisture to evaporate. To speed up the process, the cheese heads are placed in an oven at a temperature of 60-80°C with the door open. To prepare a paste-like kurt, the fermented raw material is boiled in meat (lamb) broth and filtered like cottage cheese.
2. Kazakh kurt recipe. Sheep milk is collected, boiled and cooled to 30–32°C. Fermented with kumys (fermented milk product made from mare's milk). Ferment in a warm place for 24 hours (when using a yogurt maker, the process is reduced to 8 hours). Boil the sour milk for 15 minutes and hang it in a canvas bag. After a few hours, the desired shape is formed, the balls are sprinkled with salt, and left in the oven with the door ajar for 3-4 hours (60-70°C). You can use a fruit dehydrator.

Each family has its own recipe for how to make kurt at home, which is passed down from generation to generation. You can even make a dessert version of cheese using sugar instead of salt. In this case, cinnamon and raisins are added to improve the taste.

Composition and calorie content of kurt

The nutritional value of the product depends on the preparation recipe and the type of raw materials.

The calorie content of korot made according to a traditional recipe is 133 kcal, and homemade wet korot can reach 260 kcal per 100 g, of which:

• Proteins - 14.9–25 g;
• Fats - 7–16 g;
• Carbohydrates - 2.6–2.7 g;
• Ash - 3.8 g;
• Water - 6 g.

Vitamins per 100 g:

• Vitamin PP (Niacin equivalent) - 4.2 mg;
• Vitamin H (biotin) - 2.2 mcg;
• Vitamin E - 0.2 mg;
• Vitamin D - 0.64 mcg;
• Vitamin C - 0.1 mg;
• Vitamin B12 (cobalamin) - 0.4 mcg;
• Vitamin B6 (pyridoxine) - 0.12 mg;
• Vitamin B2 (riboflavin) - 0.23 mg;
• Vitamin B5 (pantothenic acid) - 1.1 mg;
• Vitamin B1 (thiamine) - 0.02 mg;
• Beta-carotene - 0.1 mg;
• Vitamin PP - 0.2 mg;
• Vitamin B9 (folic acid) - 29 mcg;
• Vitamin A - 0.105 mg.

Minerals per 100 g:

• Zinc (Zn) - 2.5 mg;
• Iron (Fe) - 0.3 mg;
• Copper (Cu) - 30 mg;
• Sulfur (S) - 98 mg;
• Phosphorus (P) - 160 mg;
• Potassium (K) - 40 mg;
• Sodium (Na) - 370 mg;
• Magnesium (Mg) - 15 mg;
• Calcium (Ca) - 420 mg.

The composition of kurt per 100 g:

• Mono- and disaccharides (sugars) - 1.1 g;
• Polyunsaturated fatty acids - 4.4 g;
• Organic acids - 0.1 g;
• Cholesterol - 12 mg.

The benefits and harms of kurt are determined not only by the rich chemical composition, but also by the method of preparation. A high-calorie product will help you quickly recover from anemia, after debilitating diseases, and a low-calorie product will help you lose excess weight while maintaining fresh skin.

Most weight loss diets are designed to expel “excess” fluid. The body becomes flabby and sags. Salted shortbread normalizes the water-electrolyte balance, and with increased load, the fat layer breaks down into water and glycerol. Glycerin is used as an energy boost, and water remains in the body.

Useful properties of kurt

When preparing korot, a starter made from lacto- and bifidobacteria, Bulgarian bacillus and streptococci is used.

The beneficial properties of substances and raw materials ensure the benefits of kurt for the human body:

1. Increases immunity, helps restore vitamin and mineral reserves, normalizes metabolic processes.
2. Suppresses the activity of putrefactive bacteria in the stomach and small intestine, prevents the development of dysbacteriosis, and increases the activity of beneficial microorganisms.
3. Prevents early aging, helps retain fluid in the body. Prevents the appearance of wrinkles, increases the elasticity of epithelial tissues.
4. Used for recovery from anemia, after heavy physical and mental stress, stimulates mental activity.
5. Suppresses nausea, increases blood pressure during hypotension and restores heart rhythm.
6. Improves the functioning of the optic nerve, strengthens local immunity.
7. Prevents the development of osteoporosis, reduces the frequency of painful symptoms associated with arthritis, gout, and osteochondrosis. Helps strengthen bone tissue.
8. Has an antioxidant effect.

The beneficial properties of kurt are not limited to the above. Thanks to it, amateur tourists and experienced travelers can not exclude healthy fermented milk products from their diet. A cheese ball weighing 500 g contains 50 ml of milk.

Dry salted korot retains all its healing and nutritional qualities for 8 days without refrigeration, regardless of weather conditions. And in a dark, cool, dry place, properly prepared homemade cheese can be stored for up to 8 years.

Contraindications and harms

If you are intolerant to the starter, raw materials or additives, allergic manifestations may occur: rashes of various types, digestive disorders, abdominal and epigastric pain, nausea and vomiting, headache.

There are quite a few contraindications to introducing salted cheese into the diet. But one piece, even if consumed daily, will not provoke the development of negative consequences.

If you overeat, harm from kurt may occur:

• For lactase deficiency, as it contains a high amount of lactose and milk sugar.
• For obesity. The calorie content of fermented milk product is quite high.
• If you have a history of atherosclerosis, cholesterol levels may increase.
• For varicose veins and thrombophlebitis. The salt in the product causes blood thickening.
• Korot contains a high amount of the amino acid tryptophan. When there is an excess of it, migraines, insomnia, nausea, and dizziness appear.
• Blood pressure may increase and tachycardia may occur. The likelihood of stroke, heart attack, heart failure and vascular problems increases.
• Excess salt increases the load on the kidneys, promotes blood thickening, and increases the likelihood of peptic ulcers due to irritation of the organ mucosa.

Homemade shortbread is allowed to be introduced into the diet of pregnant women and children under 5 years of age only if it is certain that the heat treatment of the raw materials has been carried out in full. Insufficiently processed sourdough may contain dangerous listeria bacteria, which cause a dangerous disease - listerosis. The disease's symptoms resemble encephalitis or meningoencephalitis. In children, immunity has not yet developed; the probability of death is 97%. It is impossible to carry a pregnancy to term after infection.

Cow's milk contains small amounts of codeine and morphine. When making kurt, these substances are preserved - it is to them that the cheese owes its sedative effect. Abuse causes craving for this type of product. It is impossible to become a drug addict, but weight gain will appear quite quickly.

Kurt recipes

The taste of korot goes well with sweet and sour dishes. Drinks are made from it and added as an ingredient to soups and salads. Soft cheese is used for sandwiches - spread on bread.

Recipes with kurt:

• Soup. Chop half a celery root, 3 medium potatoes and 1 onion and fry in a frying pan in sunflower oil. Excess oil is drained, water is added to the pan and the vegetables are boiled until they become soft. Pour crushed kurt (300 g), it is better to take the hard, dried one, into a frying pan and boil until it is completely dissolved. Pour the finished soup into a saucepan, bring to a homogeneous consistency with an immersion blender, let stand for 3 minutes. At this time, cut the dried bread and make croutons. When serving, pour several croutons into each plate and add chopped dill.
• Bashkir noodle soup. Boil chopped vegetables: diced potatoes, grated carrots, and onions lightly stewed in melted butter. Then add homemade noodles (tukmas) and leave to finish cooking. 3 minutes before turning off, add kurt, dill umbrellas, and pepper to taste. The soup is ready when the cheese is completely dissolved.
  To prepare tukmas, knead a stiff elastic dough from water, flour and eggs. Cut into strips, sprinkle with flour and place on the refrigerator shelf for half an hour. When serving the soup, the umbrellas of dried dill are removed, and chopped parsley and fresh herbs are poured into the plate.
• . Knead the dough: 1 glass of hot water, 1 egg, a tablespoon of sunflower oil and vinegar, a teaspoon of salt and a tablespoon of sugar, 200 g of butter, 3.5 cups of flour. Salt and sugar are dissolved in water, an egg is broken into a basin, flour is added, and they begin to stir, slowly pouring in water. Then the dough is poured onto the board, kneaded by pouring in vinegar. To make it easier to work, it is better to divide the entire dough into 4 parts. Next, roll out 1 part of the layer into a layer, coat the surface with butter, bend it so that the butter is inside, and roll it out again into a layer. Repeat the process 4 times. Each piece is rolled out like this. Place the finished dough in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes, wrapped in film. Then take half of the dough out of the freezer to let it rise and make the filling. Fresh mushrooms (porcini, boletus or champignons), 150 g, cut into thin slices. Pour into a saucepan, add 2 tablespoons of lemon juice and one tablespoon of butter. Cook, stirring constantly, for 10 minutes. At this time, you can put the oven on to warm up, the required temperature is 200°C. The dough is divided into parts - one is 2 times larger than the other, the larger one is rolled out and placed in a mold with sides, greased with sunflower oil. Bake the pie base for 10 minutes. Strain off excess liquid from the contents of the pan. Mix in 2 beaten eggs (discard a little to grease the cake) and 250 g of chopped kurt and a little chopped parsley. Place the filling on the base, roll out the reserved dough into a layer, close the pie, securing the edges well. Make several cuts and brush with the remaining egg. Bake for 10 minutes. This pie is served hot.
• Salad with tomatoes. The crumbled cheese is mixed with tomatoes and seasoned with olive oil; no salt is needed.
• Apple salad. Combine sliced ​​apples, several thorn berries, chopped fresh cabbage and a chopped garlic clove. Dressing - apple cider vinegar and a little mint.
• Mediterranean salad. A bunch of lettuce leaves are laid out on a plate. Place on them a handful of cherry tomatoes, chopped red onion, 1.5 tablespoons of capers and the same amount of pitted black olives, divided into 3 parts, crushed garlic cloves, 200 g of kurt. No need to stir. Dressing - 5 tablespoons of olive oil and 1 lemon juice. There is no need to salt the salad, just add pepper.

A drink made from kurt - irkit - is very simple to prepare. A ball of semi-moist cheese is dissolved in hot water. The result is a thick, sour-milk, salty drink that quenches thirst well. Cool before use. Irkit is used as a remedy - it eliminates nausea during motion sickness and dizziness. Based on the fermented milk drink, you can prepare a green smoothie by blending Irkit with chopped parsley or dill in a blender.

For nomadic peoples, korot was an ideal food product. It did not spoil in the heat and temperature changes; adults and children ate it. Previously, when there was no baby food, cheese was crushed and diluted with milk. Milk was also always with them - families moved from place to place along with numerous herds.

In 1930, Kurt saved the lives of many women, wives of “traitors to the Motherland,” who were exiled to the Kazakh steppes. Poet Raisa Golubeva, according to the memoirs of camp prisoner Gertrude Platais, wrote the poem “Kurt is a precious stone.” “Oh, Lord, it’s not a stone. He smells like milk. And a flame of hope began to flutter in my soul, and a lump formed in my throat.”

Exhausted women were forced to work 12-17 hours a day. And once, when they were taken to work, local residents began throwing stones. For the first days, the women could not understand anything, and then one of them was “knocked down” by a stone. She fell on his face and smelled the cottage cheese. The woman ate, she gained strength, collected the “stones” and brought them to the barracks. Thanks to the local Kazakhs and kurt cheese, survival in the steppe camps was much higher than in the North.

Fidel Castro called shorts “guerrilla food.” Having become acquainted with a new product in the USSR, he organized production in his homeland.

Nowadays kurt is made at home and in dairies. Consumers are offered the following types of cheese:

1. Classic kurt, soft. It is formed in the form of cylinders up to 20 cm in length and 1.5-2 cm in diameter, the color in the cut is white, the structure is homogeneous, the taste is creamy, moderately salty.
2. Smoked, hard. The shape is like that of soft cheese. The color in section is from light to dark brown, more saturated at the edges. The taste is interesting, spicy, with pronounced saltiness.
3. Spiced. Most often packaged in balls. The taste is fermented milk, curd, largely depends on the type of spices, slightly salty. In cross-section, slightly yellowish with inclusions.

How to cook kurt - watch the video:

If they come to visit the house and there is shortbread in the refrigerator, they will not leave hungry. To prepare a salad, just combine it with any vegetables. Or you can dilute it with milk, mix it with herbs and make a delicious dressing for sandwiches. Just don’t forget - the use of kurt should be limited. Excess salt is harmful to the body.

Kurt cheese is a hard cheese made from milk. This dish is a national product for residents of Central Asia. Each country has its own peculiarities in the production of this product, but there is still a traditional recipe. For this cheese, you can use sheep, goat and cow milk; curdled milk is prepared on its basis. It is transferred to a linen bag, which is hung for 2-3 days to separate the whey. After this, the resulting mass is combined with salt and made into balls with a diameter of no more than 5 cm, which are placed on wooden boards and exposed to the sun. Cover the top of the cheese with a towel. A maximum of 4 days are spent on drying.

Kurt has a dry, salty taste with a creamy undertone. Depending on the ingredients used, this cheese can be sweet, sour, spicy and even spicy. The color of the product may also differ, so it may be white or dark.

How to store?

Kurt cheese is highly resistant to temperature changes and can be stored without refrigeration. A properly prepared product will be suitable for consumption for 8 years. It is best to store the kurta in hanging bags made of canvas material in a ventilated room.

Beneficial features

The benefits of kurta cheese lie in its composition of minerals and vitamins. The unusual properties of this product include the fact that it has the ability to suppress nausea. Considering this, it is recommended to use it for people on the road who suffer from motion sickness. Kurt has the ability to restore beneficial intestinal microflora, and it is also quickly and easily absorbed by the body.

This cheese contains vitamin A, which is necessary for visual acuity, and it also promotes growth, cell renewal and also improves immunity. This product also contains vitamin E, which resists the aging process of cells and saturates the body with oxygen. This cheese also contains large quantities of vitamin D, which reduces the risk of osteoporosis and cancer. Kurta also contains ascorbic acid, which strengthens the immune system and increases the body's protective functions.

Kurta contains calcium in large quantities, which strengthens bone tissue and also improves metabolism in the body. This mineral also takes an active part in the formation of collagen, which is necessary for youthful skin. Kurt cheese is an excellent tonic, which is recommended to be consumed during exhaustion, anemia, as well as during periods of mental and physical stress.

Use in cooking

Kurt cheese is a universal product, as it can be combined with almost any food. This is an excellent independent dish that many people like to eat with beer. In addition, kurt cheese is included in the recipe for some soups and salads, and it also goes well with both fish and meat. You can also use this product to prepare various sauces and dressings for a huge number of dishes.

How to make homemade kurt cheese?

This product is very easy to make at home; you don’t need any special culinary skills. It is necessary to take milk, the temperature of which should be approximately 33 degrees and combine it with 4% of the starter. The milk will ferment for about 7 hours. After this, the curd needs to be heated to 60 degrees and left for about half an hour. Then the whey must be removed, and the cheese curd must be poured into a canvas bag and left to compress for a couple of hours. The next step is to add salt to the cheese mass and form it into balls, which need to be placed in the sun or in a special dryer. After a few days, after the cheese becomes hard, it is ready to eat.

Harm of Kurt cheese and contraindications

Kurt cheese can be harmful to people with individual intolerance to the product. It is also worth considering the rather high calorie content of the product, which means that it is not recommended to abuse it for people who are watching their figure or want to lose weight, as well as for those who are obese. It is also not recommended to eat kurt cheese in large quantities for people who have problems with the kidneys, heart and blood vessels, as it contains a large amount of salt.

The favorite delicacy of Kazakh children with a unique taste is kurt. Salty, with a slight sourness and the smell of summer... From the first bite it takes us back to childhood. Our grandmothers always knew how to cook kurt. And we propose to continue the age-old tradition and try to prepare kurt at home.

Ingredients:

Milk – 2 liters

Kumis or fermented milk starter – 200 ml

Salt - to taste

Hint: if you want to make a white kurt, then take skim milk, if you want a yellow one with an intense taste, then make it with full-fat milk.

Preparing the kurt:

1. Boil the milk and cool to 30-35 degrees;
2. Pour the starter into the milk. In the original recipe it should be kumys or katyk, but if you don’t find them, you can use sour milk or a special starter;
3. Stir the resulting mass thoroughly, wrap it in warmth and leave for a day;
4. When the milk has fermented, put it back on low heat and cook until flakes appear in the mass and the whey separates;
5. Drain off the separated whey. Place the resulting cottage cheese in cheesecloth and hang it over the dish so that excess liquid drips off;
6. Salt the resulting thick mass and roll into balls. The larger you make the kurta shape, the longer it will take to dry;
7. You can dry it naturally - in the air and the sun, then this process will take 4 days or more. But you can do this in the oven, turn the oven on to the minimum temperature and turn on the ventilation, or leave the oven door slightly open.