But seriously: what IS skyr, anyway?
Icelandic dairy that makes you incredibly strong—that’s skyr. At least, if you believe the packaging. Low-fat, healthy, packed with protein, good for athletes. But Keuringsdienst van Waarde isn’t satisfied with that and investigates further. What actually is it?
One pot says yoghurt, another label says quark; it’s white and sometimes you can drink it, but sometimes you have to eat it with a spoon. What on earth is skyr? ‘It’s just low-fat yoghurt,’ says a customer service representative. But it costs three times as much, and that can’t be fully explained. And the reporters from Keuringsdienst van Waarde aren’t allowed into the factory where skyr is made either. It’s a mystery.
‘No recipe’
Eventually, Teun finds one dairy maker who welcomes him: Klaas de Lange. He makes yoghurt, quark and skyr, so if anyone can explain the difference, it’s him. ‘It’s a mix of quark and yoghurt,’ he explains. ‘Quark is actually a soft cheese, and we make the dairy with rennet, just like cheese. And then we add yoghurt.’
To Iceland
A little yoghurt mixed with quark—is that skyr? To find out, Marijn travels to Iceland to visit a traditional skyr maker. ‘There is no recipe for skyr,’ the man says. ‘It has just three ingredients: fresh milk, a little skyr and some rennet, that’s all.’ He heats the milk, adds rennet and skyr, lets it thicken and then hangs it up, just like hangop. Only half remains: a thick, quark-like yoghurt. Expensive, but well, you get what you pay for, says the Icelandic farmer.
Extra protein
You won’t hear the Icelandic farmer talk about it, but every skyr package in a Dutch supermarket says ‘high in protein’. Apparently, it’s good for people who exercise a lot. Where does that come from? ‘Using milk that contains only 3.5 percent protein, you can never reach the 10 percent protein skyr is supposed to have,’ reveals milkman Klaas. ‘So we add protein powder.’ According to him, that addition has also been done for centuries, but the Icelandic skyr maker knows nothing about it.
Double custard?
‘So if I simply stir a bowl of yoghurt and a bowl of quark together at home, do I have skyr too? Is skyr basically the double custard of the yoghurt-quark varieties?’ asks Teun. But the Icelandic skyr maker is very clear about it: no. Skyr is something completely different from yoghurt or quark; it’s simply skyr. And you don’t need those extra proteins either, because if you eat too much protein, it ends up in the toilet anyway. ‘What did you think happened to the protein your body doesn’t use?’
Source: Keuringsdienst van Waarde, image: KRO-NCRV
