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This popular product in Asian countries has removed to modern life from antiquity and till now remains a favourite delicacy of many people. The original sour-milk product - dried balls «kurt» (it is also called kurut, korot, hurut, gurt, kort) - most corresponded to the way of life of nomads.

«Kurt is made of syuzma (a Turkmen sour-milk product) and if it is not present at hand it is necessary to make it from the very beginning - from milk. In a ready form it represents white balls with a size of apricot or less, and by taste - dry, salty, or sweetish or sour. Correctly made kurt can be stored for several years. It long keeps the flavouring and nutritious qualities», - Merjen, resident of Gubadag district of Turkmenistan tells.

• The turned sour milk long time is filtered in a fabric bag, suspended in a shade (sometimes for 1-2 days), before full removal of whey and the received substance is salted and add spiced to taste. From the prepared substance (salty syuzma) they make kurt in the form of balls, - my interlocutor continues. – They are placed in a big dish, covered with gauze not to become weather-beaten and cracked, and leave to dry under the sun for some days and if there is no sun - that in the dry and warm air. The longer kurt dries, the firmer it becomes.

As historians speak, for the first time kurt was found at excavation of Pazyryk burials mounds in the Altai. It is a source of fibre, mineral salts and vitamins. One ball of kurt with a diameter of 1 sm is equivalent to hundred grams of milk in nutritiousness. It is consumed dry, dissolved in water, receiving kefir, used as seasoning, applied for preparation of soft drinks.

This non-polluting product helps to bear easier heat, it is added into soups or fat meat dishes, some people prefer to use it with tea instead of sweets or candies. Kurt can be taken with oneself for a long journey, without being afraid that it will spoil - the product well bears long storage.

• My children take it for a journey as means for naupathia, also it is easily digested in the stomach and brings feeling of saturation without danger of overeating – Merjen tells.

So, how one can store this «magic delicacy»? in Kazakh «pellet» or «kolobok», from Turkic "dry" or "dried up", firm cheese from pressed and dried sour milk with salt addition, is better to store in cloth sack or in a paper package in the aired place.

Mahri Yagmurova