The traditional process of making kajmak – a dairy product obtained by separating the fat layer during the cooling of boiled milk. The skill and craft of making kajmak, as an important element of food culture, are typical of traditional cattle-breeding communities and they have maintained their vitality to this day. In some regions (e.g. the Užice region), kajmak making is used as a local identity hallmark. Rural areas have preserved the traditional practice according to which kajmak is made by women, homemakers. The raw material for the production of kajmak is fresh milk, which is most often obtained by manual cow milking (sheep milk is less often used), which is filtered and heated to the boiling temperature, after which it is poured into shallow and wide vessels to facilitate the formation of crust. The formed crust is removed, the excess water is decanted off, and then salt is added and kajmak is placed into the vessels in which ripening takes place. Salt is added to each layer of kajmak.
Kajmak is produced using traditional methods in the rural households in the hilly and mountainous regions of central and western Serbia: the Western Morava valley, Zlatibor and Tara mountains, as well as the Toplica and Kopaonik regions.
