Kashk

Lore & Background

The ancient form of kashk was a porridge of grains fermented with whey and dried in the sun, valued for its long shelf-life and nutritional content by peasants, soldiers, and travelers. Modern kashk is usually dried buttermilk that can be crumbled and turned into a paste to thicken soups and stews, or used in meat, rice, and vegetable dishes. It is central to the Iranian eggplant dish kashk-e bademjan.

Reader's Guide

Kashk has been a staple in the Iranian diet for thousands of years and appears in the cuisines of Iran, Tajikistan, Iraq, Syria, Egypt, and the Caucasus. Its etymology traces to Middle Persian (kašk), thought to derive from a word meaning 'dry,' referring to sun-drying during fermentation. The term was loaned into Arabic, Syriac, Turkish, Azerbaijani, and many other languages. In Turkic languages it is known as qurut/kurut, from the verb 'to make dry.' In Armenian, chortan combines 'dry' and 'buttermilk.' The first known literary use of the term comes from the Armenian historian Yeghishe. A 10th-century Arabic cookbook describes two types of kashk: one of wheat and leaven, another of sour milk. By the Middle Ages the word had two meanings—barley flour or a mix of barley and cracked wheat, and a meat or fowl dish cooked overnight. Kashk is the origin of tarhana in Turkish and Greek cuisines. In modern Iran, kashk is a thick whitish liquid similar to whey or sour cream, used in dishes like ash reshteh and kale joush. In Turkey, it is a dried yogurt product also called keş peyniri, kurut, or taş yoğurt. In the Levant and Arabian Peninsula, kishk is a powdery cereal of burghul fermented with milk and laban.

Did You Know?

• The first known literary use of the term 'kashk' appears in a 10th-century Arabic cookbook, not in the works of the Armenian historian Yeghishe.
• Kashk is the origin of tarhana found in modern Turkish and Greek cuisines.
• In Armenian, chortan means 'dry buttermilk' (chor = dry, tan = buttermilk).