Serbian · sauce/condiment

Kajmak (Matured Milk-Skin Cream)

Kajmak (Matured Milk-Skin Cream) reads salinity 4.5, richness 3.4 and sweetness 2.6 on Palate's 0–10 flavor X-ray — a Serbian sauce/condiment, about 361 hr 48 min. Measured from the recipe itself: ingredients and technique.

The flavor X-ray — six axes, 0–10

• Umami & Savory — 4.8 / 10
• Sweet & Fruity — 2.8 / 10
• Sour & Bright — 0.6 / 10
• Bitter & Earthy — 1.0 / 10
• Rich & Fat — 3.6 / 10
• Aromatic & Spice — 0.6 / 10

The measured notes (of 18)

Salinity 4.5 · Richness 3.4 · Sweetness 2.6 · Umami 2.2 · Funk & Ferment 0.9 · Earthy 0.9 · Sourness 0.6 · Nutty 0.6

What's in it (7)

• regular milk — 6000 g
• raw sheep milk — 1000 g
• salt — 10 g
• salt — 25 g
• cold water — 2000 g
• flatbread — 400 g
• sweet paprika — 5 g

Time & effort: about 361 hr 48 min (48 min active) · effort: involved

Nutrition (per 100 g, engine-estimated): 240.8 kcal, 23.4 g protein, 0.8 g fat, 34.6 g carbs

Dietary: Vegetarian · Contains dairy — engine-derived; double-check anything allergy-critical.

How it's cooked (9 steps)

1. Kajmak is made from raw milk that has not been homogenised, because homogenisation breaks the fat globules that later float up and knit into a skin. Buy from a small dairy. If you cannot get raw milk safely, use the freshest unhomogenised pasteurised milk you can find and accept a thinner result.
2. Heat the cow milk and the sheep milk together in a wide pan over medium heat to 85C, just below a boil, and hold it there 15 minutes without stirring.
3. Pour it, still hot, into wide shallow pans no more than 8 cm deep. Surface area is everything: the wider the pan the thicker the skin.
4. Stand the pans in a tray of the cold water to bring the temperature down quickly, about an hour, then move them to a cool larder at 10 to 14C.
5. Leave them undisturbed 24 hours. A thick wrinkled skin will have set on the surface, cream on top and a little curd beneath.
6. Lift the skin off in one piece with a slotted spoon, letting the milk drain back, and lay it in a wooden or glazed tub. Repeat with each pan.
7. Salt each fresh skin lightly with the 10 g of salt as you go. Eaten now this is mladi kajmak: sweet, loose, faintly grassy.
8. For matured kajmak, stack the skins in the tub, scattering a little of the 25 g of salt between every layer, press a plate on top and keep it at 12 to 15C for 2 to 4 weeks. It goes firmer, yellower and frankly cheesy, and that is the version that gets spooned onto hot ćevapi and melts.
9. Serve at room temperature with warm lepinje torn open, and a dusting of paprika if you like.

Dishes with a similar flavor shape

• Korean Corn Dogs — Korean
• Olivier Salad (Салат Оливье) — Russian
• Tonkatsu (とんかつ) — Japanese
• Cheese-And-Carrot Mashed Potatoes — American
• Scalloped Corn — American

Keep reading: what salinity, richness, sweetness mean in the flavor lexicon · the world's cuisines, by flavor.

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Every number above is Palate's engine-measured estimate, computed from this recipe's ingredients and techniques — not human-tasted ratings or reviews.