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I understand that the title reads a bit strange, but
then again this is no ordinary cheese we’re talking about. It’s the
hardest cheese in the world, and yes, it can be chewed like gum for up
to two hours.
Chhurpi or Durkha is a traditional Nepalese cheese that has been a means
of survival or many remote communities for centuries. Made out of the
milk of yaks, or chauri (the cross of a yak and a cow), chhurpi comes in
two varieties – soft and hard. The soft stuff is usually consumed as a
side dish with rice, as filling for traditional dumplings, or ever as a
soup. But it’s the hard variety that makes chhurpi famous all over the
world. You may think you’ve tried hard cheeses before, but trust me when
I say that this Nepalese staple puts them all to shame. It’s as hard as
a rock, so you can’t even bite into it for at least an hour or so.
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Soft chhurpi is made by heating the milk to 76 degrees Fahrenheit, then
separating the buttermilk and boiling it to lower the water content. The
obtained hard mass is wrapped and hung in a thin cloth to drain out more
of the water content. For the hard variety, soft chhurpi is wrapped in a
jute bag and pressed to eliminate any leftover water. Then, the block is
cut into smaller chunks that are hung outdoors to harden even more.
In its final form, hard chhurpi is literally impossible to bite into.
It’s as tough as a rock, so you need to soften it up before you even try
chewing it. Most people keep it in their mouths for hours, regularly
chewing on the outer layers as they gradually soften. Munching through a
small block of chhurpi the size of a toffee candy can take as long as
two hours, and the amazing thing is that the cheese maintains its flavor
during all that time.
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As you can imagine, even the soft parts that you manage to bite into
aren’t exactly tender, so you can chew on them like chewing gum before
swallowing them.
Eating a small block of chhurpi sounds more like a chore, but the
cheese’s high protein content have ensured Nepalese communities survival
in the country’s harsh mountainous environment for centuries, so it’s an
important part of the culture. You can find it in nearly every small
market at extremely affordable prices (around 5 cents per cube).
Because it’s so high in protein and so hard to chew through, hard
chhurpi has become a popular dog treat in many parts of the world.
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