 | |
| Alternative names | Stewler, simmeler |
|---|---|
| Place of origin | Russia |
| Main ingredients | Milk |
Varenets (Russian: варенец, lit. 'the stewed one'), sometimes anglicised as stewler or simmeler, is a fermented milk product that is popular in Russia.[1][2] Similar to ryazhenka, it is made by adding sour cream (smetana) to baked milk.[2]
Varenets is a fermented dairy drink with a caramel taste and creamy color. Varenets was traditionally produced by baking milk in a Russian oven and fermenting it with sour cream.[3]
Commercially available cultured varenets is milk that has been pasteurized and homogenized (with 0.5% to 8.9% fat), and then inoculated with a culture of Streptococcus thermophilus to simulate the naturally occurring bacteria in the old-fashioned product.[4][5]
Ryazhenka is the Russian word for a very similar fermented dairy product. While some dictionaries treat these two words as synonyms,[6] the industry standard GOST distinguishes between the two products, specifying somewhat different production processes.[4]
Also similar are qatiq and kaymak, commonly found in Turkic countries.[7] The milk should be heated to a high temperature before fermentation. This is the main similarity of ryazhenka, varenets, qatiq, and kaymak that distinct it from other yogurt-based products, although kaymak and qatiq are thicker in consistency.
