Dried and hard-dried
Churpi, qurut, aaruul and kashk: cheese dried until rock hard, for the road and the long winter.
Dried cheeses are pressed, cut and left in sun, wind or smoke until they are hard enough to carry for months. They belong to herders who move with their animals: churpi of the Himalaya, kurt and qurut of the Central Asian steppe, aaruul of Mongolia, and kashk and jameed from Iran to Jordan. Some are sucked slowly like a sweet; others are soaked and ground into sauces and soups.
Churpi of the Himalaya
Chhurpi is made in Nepal, Bhutan, Tibet, Sikkim and Darjeeling from the milk of yaks, of the chauri, a yak and cattle cross, or of cows. Butter is churned first, and the buttermilk left behind is heated until curd forms. Soft churpi is eaten fresh in curries and pickles. Hard churpi is pressed in cloth, cut into small blocks and dried for weeks until it is one of the hardest cheeses in the world. A piece is held in the mouth for an hour or more, softening slowly.
Kurt, aaruul and kashk
On the steppe, drained yoghurt or sour curd is salted, rolled into balls and laid out to dry in sun and wind. Kazakh and Kyrgyz kurt, Uzbek qurut and Mongolian aaruul keep through winter and long journeys. Aaruul is boiled curd pressed, cut into shapes and dried on the roof of the ger. In Iran, kashk is thinned with water into a sauce for kashk-e bademjan, an aubergine dish, and in Jordan, jameed, dried salted yoghurt of sheep's or goat's milk, is the base of mansaf.
Kalari and the dried cheeses of India
In the Jammu hills, the Dogra kalari is made from raw milk set with soured milk, packed into small bowls of leaves and dried in the sun. It is fried in a hot pan in its own fat, which makes it crisp outside and stretchy within, and eaten with a pinch of salt or in a kalari kulcha. Further east, Bhutan's chugo is a hard cheese, often of yak's milk, strung on cords and chewed by travellers, and hard churpi is sold the same way in Darjeeling markets.
Worth knowing
- Chhurpi: Soft or rock-hard cheese of the Himalaya
- Chugo: Bhutan's hard dried cheese, sold on strings
- Kurt: Salted dried curd balls of the Kazakh and Kyrgyz steppe
- Aaruul: Mongolian dried curd, made in summer for winter
- Kashk: Iranian dried dairy, thinned into sauces
- Jameed: Jordanian dried yoghurt, the base of mansaf
- Kalari: Dogra sun-dried cheese of Jammu, fried in its own fat
Good to know
- Store dried cheeses in a dry, airy jar; damp makes them soften and mould.
- Soak hard churpi or kurt in warm water before grating or cooking with it.
- Hard churpi is meant to be softened slowly in the mouth, not bitten.
Sources and further reading
Original text by the EveryCheese desk, written with AI assistance and checked against the sources above. Customs are described as tradition, not as advice. If we have something wrong, tell us.
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