Qort (dried Tatar cheese)
Dried cheese made from fermented milk (qatıq) drained then dried in the sun or a low oven. Comes in small hard balls, slightly sour and salty, which keep for months. Eaten as is, grated into soups, or dissolved in water for a nourishing travel drink.
Dried cheese made from fermented milk (qatıq) drained then dried in the sun or a low oven. Comes in small hard balls, slightly sour and salty, which keep for months. Eaten as is, grated into soups, or dissolved in water for a nourishing travel drink.
Qort is what my women slip into saddlebags when we must leave — and God knows we have had to leave often. Take the qatıq well soured, press it in a cloth, then dry it in the steppe wind or near the fire. It becomes hard as a stone, but a piece in the mouth, with water from the Volga, and you are fed for the road. When the Russians tore me from my son and from Kazan, I had qort in my sleeve — the last taste of my free city.
- •Qatıq (fermented cow or mare's milk) — a large pot (base)
- •Salt — a handful (preservation)
Qort (dried Tatar cheese)
Dried cheese made from fermented milk (qatıq) drained then dried in the sun or a low oven. Comes in small hard balls, slightly sour and salty, which keep for months. Eaten as is, grated into soups, or dissolved in water for a nourishing travel drink.
Why this dish? Qort is the travel companion of steppe nomads and warriors. When Söyembikä was taken captive from Kazan to Moscow in 1551, then exiled to Kasimov, her Tatar servants certainly carried qort — this dry cheese that keeps for months and tastes of the homeland in exile.
Qort is what my women slip into saddlebags when we must leave — and God knows we have had to leave often. Take the qatıq well soured, press it in a cloth, then dry it in the steppe wind or near the fire. It becomes hard as a stone, but a piece in the mouth, with water from the Volga, and you are fed for the road. When the Russians tore me from my son and from Kazan, I had qort in my sleeve — the last taste of my free city.
Ingredients (period version)
- Qatıq (fermented cow or mare's milk) — a large pot (base)
- Salt — a handful (preservation)
Ingredients
- Full-fat plain yogurt (sheep or cow) — 1 kg (fermented base)
- Fine salt — 1 tsp (preservation and flavor)
Method
- Mix yogurt with salt in a large bowl.
- Pour into a cheesecloth-lined sieve over a container. Tie and let drain 24 h in the refrigerator.
- Collect the thick drained mass. Form into walnut-sized balls between your palms.
- Place balls on a rack covered with a clean cloth. Dry in the oven at 50 °C with the door ajar for 6-8 h, or in the open air in a dry, ventilated place for 3-5 days, turning regularly.
- Qort is ready when balls are hard and dry to the touch. Store in a cloth bag in a dry place — keeps for several months.
How it was made : Qort (or kort, kurut) is common to Turkic-speaking steppe peoples, from Kazakhs to Tatars. A direct legacy of the semi-nomadic lifestyle of the Volga Bulgars, it allowed preserving summer dairy surpluses for long winters or journeys. Qatıq (fermented milk) was the central dairy product of Tatar cuisine, and qort its most durable form.
The contemporary twist : Roll some balls in ground cumin or dried herbs before drying for a contemporary appetizer version.
Sources : Pokhlebkin, V. Natsionalnye kukhni nashikh narodov, Moscow, 1978 · Rorlich, A.-A. The Volga Tatars: A Profile in National Resilience, Stanford, 1986
Söyembikä · Charactorium
