Yak butter is butter

Butter

Butter is a dairy product made by churning fresh or fermented cream or milk. It is generally used as a spread and a condiment, as well as in cooking applications, such as baking, sauce making, and pan frying...

 made from the milk of the domesticated yak

Yak

The yak, Bos grunniens or Bos mutus, is a long-haired bovine found throughout the Himalayan region of south Central Asia, the Tibetan Plateau and as far north as Mongolia and Russia. In addition to a large domestic population, there is a small, vulnerable wild yak population...

 (Bos grunniens). It is a staple food item and trade item for herding communities

Herder

A herder is a worker who lives a possibly semi-nomadic life, caring for various domestic animals, in places where these animals wander pasture lands....

 in south Central Asia

Central Asia

Central Asia is a core region of the Asian continent from the Caspian Sea in the west, China in the east, Afghanistan in the south, and Russia in the north...

 and the Tibetan Plateau

Tibetan Plateau

The Tibetan Plateau , also known as the Qinghai–Tibetan Plateau is a vast, elevated plateau in Central Asia covering most of the Tibet Autonomous Region and Qinghai, in addition to smaller portions of western Sichuan, southwestern Gansu, and northern Yunnan in Western China and Ladakh in...

. Many different political entities have communities of herders who produce and consume yak dairy products including cheese and butter – for example, China, India, Mongolia, Nepal, and Tibet.

Yak milk has about twice the fat content of cow milk, producing a butter with a texture closer to cheese.

Production

Yaks provide their herders with many different benefits, including dung for fuel, draught power, meat, fiber, and milk. Not all herding communities have a tradition of using yak milk or making butter, although in regions of mountain pastures the practice is common. Each individual yak cow produces little milk, so only when large herds are present can herders expect much milk to be obtained. Milk is much more plentiful in summer than winter; turning fresh milk into butter or cheese is a way to store calories for later use.

In western Tibet, yak milk is first allowed to ferment overnight. In summer, the resulting yogurt-like substance is churned

Butter churn

A butter churn is a device used to convert cream into butter. This is done through a mechanical process, frequently via a pole inserted through the lid of the churn, or via a crank used to turn a rotating device inside the churn.-Process:...

 for about an hour by plunging a wooden paddle repeatedly into a tall wooden churn. In winter, yogurt is accumulated for several days, then poured into an inflated sheep's stomach and shaken until butter forms.

Fresh yak butter is preserved a number of ways, and can last for up to a year when unexposed to air and stored in cool dry conditions. It is sewn into sheep-stomach bags, wrapped in yak skin, or wrapped in big rhododendron

Rhododendron

Rhododendron is a genus of over 1 000 species of woody plants in the heath family, most with showy flowers...

 leaves. Once the container is opened, yak butter will begin to decompose producing veins of blue mold similar to blue cheese

Blue cheese

Blue cheese is a general classification of cow's milk, sheep's milk, or goat's milk cheeses that have had cultures of the mold Penicillium added so that the final product is spotted or veined throughout with blue, blue-gray or blue-green mold, and carries a distinct smell, either from that or...

.

Uses

Yak butter tea is a daily staple dish throughout the Himalaya region and is usually made with yak butter, tea, salt and water churned into a froth. It is the "Tibetan national beverage" with Tibetans drinking upwards of sixty small cups a day for hydration and nutrition needed in cold high altitudes. Sometimes rancid butter is used which gives the tea a different taste.

Melted yak butter may be mixed, in roughly equal proportions, with roasted barley flour (tsampa

Tsampa

Tsampa is a Tibetan staple foodstuff, particularly prominent in the central part of the region. It is roasted flour, usually barley flour and sometimes also wheat flour or rice flour...

). The resulting dough, mixed with dates or sesame seeds, is used for welcoming guests. It can also be stored for later use and then melted into hot water, to which salt or sugar has been added.

Yak butter is used in traditional tanning

Tanning

Tanning is the making of leather from the skins of animals which does not easily decompose. Traditionally, tanning used tannin, an acidic chemical compound from which the tanning process draws its name . Coloring may occur during tanning...

 of hides. Old, rancid butter is preferred over fresh.

Other non-food uses include fueling yak-butter lamps, moisturizing skin, and the traditional butter sculpture

Butter sculpture

Butter sculptures often depict animals, people, buildings and other objects. They are best known as attractions at state fairs in the United States as lifesize cows and people, but can also be found on banquet tables and even small decorative butter pats. The earliest documented butter sculptures...

s for Tibetan New Year. Such yak-butter sculptures may reach nearly 10 meters in height.

In Nepal, particularly in Kathmandu, yak cheese and yak butter are produced in factories and sold commercially. During 1997–8, twenty-six tonnes of butter were produced and sold this way in Nepal.