Dairy
Yak
Yak-milk cheese comes from high-altitude Bos grunniens herds across the Himalaya and Tibetan Plateau. Milk is rich and seasonally scarce; traditional products include hard, long-kept chhurpi and softer fresh coagulated cheeses dried for travel. Flavour is robust, slightly sweet, and animalic compared with lowland cow cheese. Hard yak cheeses are chewed or cooked into soups; softer styles crumble into stews. Availability outside highland Asia is limited—treat as a specialty mountain dairy, not a supermarket staple.
Also known as: Chhurpi, Tibetan yak cheese
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Characteristics
Preparations
Traits
Nutrition and pairings
Nutrition
Typical values per 100 g edible portion. Nutrient names open the reference page.
Nutrition Facts
Per 100 g edible portion
Amount per 100 g
- Total Fat 10.4 g
- Saturated Fat 5.89 g
- Trans Fat 0.3 g
- Monounsaturated Fat 3.02 g
- Polyunsaturated Fat 0.31 g
- Cholesterol 31.6 mg
- Sodium 77.1 mg
- Salt 0.21 g
- Total Carbohydrate 4.88 g
- Dietary Fibre 0 g
- Total Sugars 5.2 g
- Complex / starch 0 g
- Protein 8.17 g
- Water 73.9 g
- Energy 145 kcal
- Water 73.9 g
- Carbohydrates 4.88 g
- Sugars 5.2 g
- Protein 8.17 g
- Fat 10.4 g
- Saturated Fat 5.89 g
- Monounsaturated Fat 3.02 g
- Polyunsaturated Fat 0.31 g
- Omega-3 0.03 g
- Trans Fat 0.3 g
- Vitamins 28.6 mg
- Vitamin A 15 µg
- Vitamin B1 — Thiamine 0.04 mg
- Vitamin B2 — Riboflavin 0.18 mg
- Vitamin B3 — Niacin 0.09 mg
- Vitamin B5 — Pantothenic Acid 0.36 mg
- Vitamin B6 0.04 mg
- Vitamin B7 — Biotin 1.8 µg
- Vitamin B9 — Folate 7 µg
- Vitamin B12 — Cobalamin 1.2 µg
- Vitamin C 2 mg
- Vitamin D 0.4 µg
- Vitamin E 0.09 mg
- Vitamin K 0.4 µg
- Minerals 351 mg
- Major Minerals 349 mg
- Trace Minerals 1.5 mg
- Iron 1.5 mg
- Salt 0.21 g
- Cholesterol 31.6 mg
Vitamins
vitamin-c: 2 · vitamin-b12-cobalamin: 1.2 · vitamin-a: 15 · vitamin-b1-thiamine: 0.04 · vitamin-b2-riboflavin: 0.18 · vitamin-b3-niacin: 0.09 · vitamin-b5-pantothenic-acid: 0.36 · vitamin-b6: 0.04 · vitamin-b7-biotin: 1.8 · vitamin-b9-folate: 7 · vitamin-d: 0.4 · vitamin-e: 0.09 · vitamin-k: 0.4 ·
Minerals
Yak of Cheese: composition reflects this culinary part relative to the whole ingredient.
History
Tibetan and Himalayan pastoralists dried and hardened yak dairy for winter stores.
Hard chhurpi-style yak cheeses became trade and trail food across Nepal and Bhutan.
Specialty exports introduced yak hard cheese and chhurpi to global mountain-food markets.