Kaymak belongs to Kurdish breakfast culture and a wider family of milk creams. Local reporting, a food writer’s account and dairy research show why buffalo, cow, sheep and goat milk need to be discussed separately.
What kind of dairy food is kaymak?
Kaymak is concentrated milk cream. Yılmazer and colleagues describe fat globules moving upwards to form a cream layer. They identify buffalo, cow, sheep and goat milk among the materials used. [1] A producer’s milk source and processing help describe the finished cream.
Buffalo dairying around Dukan
Rudaw’s 23 July 2026 report from Raparin interviewed herders Zirak Azad and Ayoub Hama about the effects of renewed water supplies on their buffaloes. It described kaymak production from buffalo milk in villages around Dukan, particularly Kani Maran and Topawa. [2] This local evidence places wetland livestock within Kurdish dairy food culture. It also makes the village and environment part of the story, rather than assuming that every Kurdish cream comes from mountain goats.
A food writer’s breakfast account
Writing as nudemfisli in April 2019, a Kurdish food blogger listed goat-milk kaymak among breakfast foods alongside bread, cheese, vegetables, jam, honey and tahini. [3] This is a useful account of a table and its vocabulary. It does not establish the milk source for all Kurdish households. The photograph shows a separate regional example from Van: shared plates of dairy foods and honey with bread, eggs and tea. Its image record does not specify the milk behind each preparation.
A producer’s account from Wasit
In 964media’s October 2025 report, Um Basim described producing buffalo-milk kaymak, also called geymar, at Albān Al-Battar near Kut. Her account links milking, heating, cooling and separating the surface cream; remaining milk is used for yogurt and cheese. She described both wholesale and retail customers. [4] Wasit is a different Iraqi setting from Raparin. Comparing named producers reveals a connected food economy without turning one account into a universal household recipe.
What a milk-comparison study can show
Yılmazer and colleagues followed cow-, sheep- and goat-milk creams for seven days. Similar-looking samples differed in carbonyl compounds, fatty acids and tocopherols. [1] These are experimental findings about composition; they do not establish a universal taste or one milk source for every national cuisine.
Dry kaymak is another preparation
Albay and colleagues’ 2021 study examined ten dry-clotted-cream samples from Erzurum and Nevşehir. They describe a product made by drying cream in a tandoor or in shade, with varied physical, textural and sensory properties. [5] This dried preparation should be distinguished from the soft cream in the breakfast accounts. The shared name connects related foods, while location, producer, milk and processing explain the differences more precisely.
Sources and further reading
- Mustafa Yılmazer, Ayşe Gül Özaydın, Zehra Albay and Bedia Şimşek, Some Carbonyl Compounds, Free Fatty Acid Compositions and Tocopherol Contents of Kaymak Produced from Cow, Sheep and Goat Milk, JESD 11/3, 2023, pp.1131–1141.
- Rudaw English, Heavy rains revive buffalo herding in Sulaimani’s Raparin administration, 23 July 2026, field report.
- nudemfisli, The Kurdish breakfast, Kurdish Food, 16 April 2019; personal food account.
- 964media, Buffalo dairy tradition endures in Wasit village despite decline in livestock, 7 October 2025; producer interview.
- Zehra Albay, Kader Yıldırım, Esma Çapa and Bedia Şimşek, Some Chemical, Microbiological, Textural and Sensory Properties of Traditional Dry Clotted Cream, TURJAF 9/3, 2021, pp.484–492; research abstract.