🌍 Urals and Volga region

The Urals and the Middle Volga are a transition zone between forest and steppe, where Turkic peoples (Tatars, Bashkirs, Chuvash) and Finno-Ugric peoples (Mari, Udmurts, Mordvins) have long lived side by side. Steppe horse-breeding traditions and settled farming with cows gave the region a mixed dairy culture.

Bashkirs and Kazakhs of the steppe areas have long made kumis from mare’s milk; in the 19th–20th centuries kumis sanatoriums opened in the Southern Urals, where people came for kumis cures, although its therapeutic benefit has been only partly confirmed by science. Tatars and Bashkirs make katyk, a sour milk from baked or boiled milk, and from it suzma and kort (kurt), dried balls.

Among Finno-Ugric peoples, soured milk, tvorog (curd cheese) and smetana (sour cream) are common in baking and soups. Dairy dishes here are part of both everyday and festive cooking.