Boil milk, let it cool, and a thick, fatty crust forms on top. Lift it off, salt it and let it ripen, and you have kajmak, or skorup, as it has always been called in Montenegro. On the high plateau around Durmitor it is still made on summer pastures and matured in wooden tubs and hide sacks, and Durmitorski skorup is one of only seven Montenegrin foods with a protected name.
Kajmak, or skorup as Montenegro's highlanders call it, is salted cream from boiled milk. How Durmitor skorup is made, why it's protected and where to taste it.
Kajmak or skorup?
Across the Balkans, the rich salted cream skimmed from boiled milk is called kajmak, a Turkish word. In Montenegro it has always been skorup, a Slavic word for the top layer or crust. Montenegrin cooks use both names today, and they mean the same kind of thing: the fatty skin that forms on milk as it cools, lifted off, salted and left to mature. It is spread on bread, stirred into kaÄŤamak and cicvara, and served with baked potatoes and fresh cheese on the katuns.
What makes Montenegro's version different is where it finishes ripening. According to the producers' own specification, only in Montenegro is skorup finally matured in a mješina, a sack made of animal hide.
How Durmitor skorup is made
Durmitorski skorup comes from three mountain municipalities, Žabljak, Plužine and Šavnik, and is made from cow's, sheep's or mixed milk between June and mid-October, while the animals are on the high pastures. The animals must be raised in the area and fed at least 90 per cent on its grass and hay.
Each milking is strained and boiled separately; morning and evening milk are never mixed. The milk is poured into shallow pans and left for one to three days while the crust forms. The crust is then skimmed off and layered with salt in numbered wooden tubs, where it matures for at least 30 days. That is skorup iz kace. For the stronger skorup iz mješine, also called old skorup, it is packed into a hide sack for at least another 30 days, turned and cleaned every few days, and can then keep for up to a year. Sheep's skorup is almost white; cow's is pale yellow. Its texture, the specification says, sits between cheese and butter.
A protected mountain product
Durmitorski skorup is a protected designation of origin, the sixth Montenegrin food to be registered, in 2019. Its history is long: skorup appears in Montenegro's export figures for 1905–1910, and in 1910 skorup from the dairy of the livestock institute in Nikšić won a prize at an exhibition in London.
Did you know?
Montenegro is the only place where skorup is finally ripened in a mješina, a sack of animal hide. Aged this way, Durmitor skorup keeps for up to a year, and in 1910 skorup from Nikšić won a prize at an exhibition in London.
Where to taste it
The easiest way is Durmitor Healthy Food Days, a fair organised every August in Žabljak by the local culture centre, where producers from the villages and katuns sell cheese, skorup, lamb and honey. In summer, katuns such as Potrk on Sinjajevina serve their own kajmak, and at Čakorski konaci above Plav guests help make cheese and kajmak. In Pljevlja, young and aged kajmak have their own categories at the annual cheese fair.
