Dry Yogurt (Kurud)

Most kurud is cooked, not bitten. Grate or crush the balls, soak them in hot water and stir, and within minutes you are back to a thick, tangy yogurt sauce. Poured over torn flatbread with fried onion and tomato, that sauce is the heart of qurutob, the great shared dish of Tajikistan, and it works just as well over roti at home. A piece simmered into a soup or thin daal gives the whole pot a salty depth plain salt cannot. Eaten straight, as travellers have always eaten it, one warning from experience: a properly dried ball is genuinely hard. Suck and nibble small pieces. Do not bite down on a whole ball unless you enjoy surprising your dentist.

Because the water is gone, what remains is concentrated yogurt: strong protein and calcium in a very small weight, which is exactly why this food sustained people on long journeys. The caution is salt, which is part of how kurud keeps. If you are watching your salt or your blood pressure, treat kurud the way you would a salty cheese: worked through a dish for a family, not eaten by the bowl. Spread through bread, vegetables and soup, the way the tradition serves it, the salt spreads too. I have written the full story of this food, its names and its making, in our kurud guide.

Keeping kurud is mostly a matter of keeping it dry. Sealed in a jar in a cool cupboard it keeps for a very long time, far longer than anything else dairy in your kitchen. Moisture is the only real enemy: take pieces out with a dry hand and never return a soaked piece to the jar. In a humid kitchen, the fridge is a sensible home. You will find kurud with the rest of the shelf in our dried items collection, and the full rates are in the dry fruits price list.

What is the kurud price in Pakistan? At WD Foods, Rs 1,800 for 1kg and Rs 900 for 500g.

Is kurud a cheese or a yogurt? It starts as yogurt, strained and dried. Dissolve a piece in hot water and it turns back into a yogurt like sauce, which settles the question.

How do I soften it? Grate or crush it first, then soak in hot water, stirring as it melts down. Whole balls take far longer.

WD Foods is the online store of Wahid Nimco, working from Quetta since 1990. Order kurud here and we deliver across Pakistan in 3 to 5 business days, or pick it up at the Masjid Road shop in Quetta, open every day from 9 AM to 10 PM. First time? Start with 500g and make the bread dish.