🧑🤝🧑 Bashkirs
Also known as: Bashkir people, Bashkort
Kumis and katyk are long-standing traditions; the region is known for kumis sanatoriums.
The Bashkirs are a Turkic people of the Southern Urals. Historically they were semi-nomadic: in winter they lived in villages, and in spring they moved with their herds to summer pastures called yaylau. Large herds of horses were the backbone of their economy, and mare’s milk was an important summer food.
Kumis (ҡымыҙ) is the Bashkirs’ national drink. It is made in wooden tubs or leather vessels and churned with a stirrer. Since the 19th century the region has had kumis sanatoriums, where people came to drink kumis to improve their health; today scientists study its properties, but the evidence for its therapeutic effect remains limited.
Besides kumis, Bashkirs make katyk from boiled cow’s milk, korot (kurt), a dried fermented milk cheese, eremsek, a curd cheese made from whey, and clarified butter. The summer festival of Sabantuy is never without kumis and dairy treats.
What it includes
How it connects to milk
🧑🤝🧑 Bashkirs ← among ← 🍶 Kumis → made from → 🥛 Milk
Links
- Where they live
- 🌍 Urals and Volga region
- Traditional products
- 🍶 Kumis, 🥣 Katyk
Frequently asked questions
Why is kumis considered a Bashkir drink?
Horse breeding was the basis of the Bashkir economy, and kumis made from mare’s milk became their traditional summer drink.
What is a kumis sanatorium?
A health resort where guests drink kumis; such places appeared in the Southern Urals in the 19th century.
What is korot?
A dried fermented milk cheese (kurt) that keeps for a long time.
Similar
🧑🤝🧑 Tatars · 🧑🤝🧑 Uzbeks · 🧑🤝🧑 Yakuts · 🧑🤝🧑 Kyrgyz · 🧑🤝🧑 Mongols · 🧑🤝🧑 Kazakhs
Sources
- Koumiss (Fermented Mare's Milk) as a Functional Food: Bioactive Proteins, Peptides, and Future Perspectives. Foods, 2025
- Nutritional ingredients and prevention of chronic diseases by fermented koumiss: a comprehensive review. Frontiers in Nutrition, 2023