Tarak

Fermented milk products occupy an important and can be said that a fundamental place in the healthy diet of people of all ages. In any culinary national tradition, there are hundreds of recipes for various fermented milk products, including drinks. Tarak or tarakh is one of the main fermented milk foods that are characteristic of the inhabitants of Mongolia, as well as Kalmykia, Buryatia, Tuva and Altai.

Such a fermented milk product as a cockroach can be put on a par with matsoni, darkness, katyk or yogurt. All of the above listed food products are native primarily to the method of production, and in addition, distinctive taste and consumer characteristics. In the production of cockroach, milk is heated, and then a special starter is introduced into the product, which was obtained as a result of the production of a previous batch of a similar product.

The type of starter determines one or another type of fermented milk product. It is worth noting that researchers consider Mongolia to be the birthplace of the cockroach, where the product has been made since ancient times. In addition, recipes for cooking fermented milk products were found in ancient books of Jews, which strongly resemble takrak or modern yogurt.

It is also noteworthy that when studying the culinary traditions of the nationalities that inhabited the territory stretching from Mongolia to Crimea, one discovery was made. As it turned out, all nomadic nationalities made their own types of fermented milk food, which differed from each other only in the type of starter. Therefore, tarak is yogurt, as well as katyk or suzma.

True, in fairness, it should be noted that in the process of producing cockroaches, a stick of the species Lactobacterium helveticum is used. However, the differences do not end there. As a rule, cockroaches are made from a mixture of several types of milk. Usually for the production of cockroach, cow, sheep, as well as goat milk are used. Often, about yak or camels are mixed into the product.

Mixing different types of milk helps to achieve high quality of the final fermented milk product. During the production of cockroach, milk is not boiled, but only slightly heated. Then one performs cooling to a temperature in the 23S and introduction of a special starter.

Most often, germinated wheat, talnyk bark, rye bread or previously prepared tarak are used as a starter for the production of a fermented milk product. In consistency, the cockroach resembles kefir. Tarak is considered not only delicious. but also a useful food that helps to establish digestive and metabolic processes in the human body.