🥣 Katyk

Katyk is a fermented milk product of Turkic peoples, found in Central Asia, the Volga region, the Urals, the Caucasus and the Balkans. To make it, milk is boiled or simmered for a long time until it reduces by about a third, then cooled until warm and soured with what is left of the previous batch of katyk. The starter contains thermophilic lactic acid bacteria, including Lactobacillus bulgaricus and Streptococcus thermophilus, so in composition katyk is close to yogurt.

Katyk is a traditional food of the Tatars, Bashkirs, Kazakhs, Uzbeks, Azerbaijanis and many other peoples. It is eaten with a spoon and added to soups and salads. If katyk is hung in a small bag and strained, it becomes thick suzma (syuzma), and if the strained mass is dried, it becomes kurt.

Katyk differs from ayran in thickness: it is a dense product, while ayran is a drink often made by thinning katyk with water. It differs from ordinary yogurt in that the milk is reduced first, which gives a richer taste and sometimes a creamy colour.