Strained yogurt — Uzbek labneh equivalent, hung in cloth overnight, served as the dairy condiment of the plov table.
Nomadic Turkic dairy technology, the name from the Turkic root suz- (to strain) — literally 'the strained one.' Cow, sheep, or mare's milk is fermented to yogurt (qatiq), then hung in a cotton or canvas cloth bag overnight in the cool dawn (sahar) hours of summer; an old, standard household preparation across Central Asia. Functions as labneh, sour cream, and crème fraîche simultaneously.
Standard yield is 40% by weight from yogurt to suzma; the rest is zardob whey. Tashkent's Chorsu dairy section sells fresh suzma by the half-kilo wrapped in waxed paper, 18,000 som/kg. The qurut variant is rolled into walnut-sized balls and sun-dried for winter — keeps 2 years.
Thick, spreadable, almost crumbly — drier than Greek yogurt, lighter than fresh cheese. Tangy-clean, slight grassy note from the cow or sheep diet. Eaten by the spoonful with non bread, dolloped on shurpa, mixed with garlic-and-dill as manti sauce.
Fresh whole-milk yogurt poured into a cotton cloth, suspended over a basin overnight (8-12 h) at 10-15°C — whey drains, solids stay. The whey (zardob) is reserved as drink or starter. No salt added unless for long-storage qurut balls.
Variations
Fresh suzma (the standard, unsalted), salted suzma for longer storage, qurut (dried, salted balls — the long-keeping nomad version), kaymak-mixed suzma (Bukharan, with clotted cream), qatiqli suzma (with garlic and dill, the manti sauce).
On the Palate
Where Suzma sits in the Uzbek flavor cloud
Ingredients
Serves 6How it's made
4 steps · 7 min active + 12 hours waiting
- 12 min
Whisk 1 L plain yogurt with 1 tsp salt.
- 23 min
Line strainer with cheesecloth; pour yogurt in.
- 3720 min
Hang overnight in cool place; whey drips off, leaving thick curd.
Watch outHang it until it stops dripping and the curd feels thick enough to hold a spoon-mark — too soon and it's runny, too long and it turns to paste.
- 42 min
Scoop into bowl; serve as dairy condiment at plov table.
