Cheese, Egg, and Yogurt Dishes

With its lush pastures, Georgia produces excellent dairy products. The milk from cows, sheep, goats, and water buffalo yields pungent cheeses and creamy yogurt, as well as a variety of other products, such as nadugi, a whey cheese that is often mixed with fresh herbs. Georgian cheeses are so nourishing and rich that in the western provinces of Guria, Samegrelo, and Imereti they traditionally took the place of butter.

Georgians like to mix different dairy products together in a single dish. Nadugi, for instance, is spread on thin slices of suluguni cheese, which are rolled into cornets for a tasty snack; suluguni is also frequently boiled in milk, then kneaded with mint. Other preparations are less elaborate. A simple treat enjoyed in Abkhazia is akhshtsa, or fresh hot goat’s milk, for which a flat river stone is heated over coals and placed in the bottom of a wooden mug. The goat is then milked directly into the mug. As the milk hits the hot stone, it hisses, sending up steam and a marvelous aroma.