Dairy
Yak
B tier
Yak milk from the Tibetan Plateau and Himalayan highlands is rich and slightly sweet, produced at altitudes where lowland cattle struggle for oxygen and forage. Pastoralists churn it into yak butter for salted tea, ferment it, and dry hard cheeses that travel with caravans and herding camps. Mouthfeel is fuller than many cow milks, with a clean highland character from alpine and steppe plants. Fresh milk is seasonal and local; butter and chhurpi-style hard cheeses travel farther into lowland markets. Specialty restaurants now feature yak dairy as a high-altitude product. Treat it like rich bovine milk for cooking, remembering small-scale supply and the central role of butter tea in Tibetan and Himalayan foodways.
Track this ingredient
Characteristics
Preparations
Traits
History
Yak pastoralism on the Tibetan Plateau included milking for butter and cheese.
Himalayan trade carried yak butter and dried cheese along mountain routes.
Collective and household yak dairying continued at high altitude.
Specialty export of yak cheese and butter reached lowland gourmet markets.