About Georgian Dambalkhacho with Clarified Butter (Khachoerbo)
დამბალხაჭო · 4 servings · Easy · 18 minutes
Dambalkhacho is a distinctive mold-ripened cheese associated with Pshavi and Tianeti in Georgia's Mtskheta-Mtianeti region. The registered cheese is low-conical or oval, with a grey-brown rind marked by blue mold and a pale interior. Its flavour is piquant and slightly bitter, so a little goes a long way.
Georgia Travel describes Dambalkhacho eaten dry or warmed in clarified butter, a local preparation called khachoerbo. This recipe turns that serving idea into a small, manageable pan for four. The stated cheese-to-butter ratio is a practical home version; it is not presented as one fixed traditional formula. Plain shoti gives the melted cheese something to cling to.
Use finished cheese from a traceable seller and follow its label. Traditional cheese may be made from unpasteurized milk, so choose a pasteurized-milk product when available. Heating does not guarantee that harmful germs in raw-milk cheese are killed. The recipe adds no salt because the cheese is already salted.
