Ancient koumiss: what is it?

2024 Author: Isabella Gilson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:14

The oldest drink of mankind smells of wormwood and freedom. He came to us from the spacious steppes, from nomads who quenched his thirst, and also considered him a panacea for many diseases and a sacred product.

It's about a drink called "koumiss". What is it and what does it look like? It is a whitish, frothy fermented milk substance. It is made from mare's milk using microscopic yeast, acidophilus and Bulgarian sticks. The cooking technology is ingeniously simple, but quite laborious. First you need to get mare's milk. Since the horse has a very small udder, it is milked every hour. All milk is poured into a special cylindrical container with a narrow top. It is covered with a lid with a hole: then a pole (churner) is inserted there, which ends with a cross. At the bottom of such a vessel, as a rule, there is a little koumiss from the preliminary batch. It becomes leaven. Fresh mare's milk is constantly added there, and then the mixture is churned. This must be done periodically, for several hours in a row for a couple of days. This is how they get koumiss. The recipe is, of course, subject to change. Sometimes, when churning, fresh cream, s alted horse fat are added to the drink to increase fat content and improve taste. Barrel forthe preparation of the drink is completely emptied every 2-3 weeks. It is lubricated from the inside with oil and smoked with meadowsweet branches. This provides the final product with its characteristic organoleptic qualities.

So, koumiss. What is it, we have already figured out. And what does it taste like? It is a refreshing drink, sweet and sour, lively. It is stored for a short time, and it is virtually impossible to cook it on an industrial scale. Thus, what can sometimes be found in a store cannot be called "koumiss". A real drink, aged according to all the rules and traditions, can be very intoxicating or, conversely, soothing. Depends on the quality of the leaven and the duration of exposure, what will be the koumiss.

What kind of drink is this, every student who is well acquainted with history will tell you. It was known to the Mongols and Kazakhs in the Copper-Stone Age, as evidenced by archaeological finds. And the first written mention of him is found in Herodotus, the father of history. He wrote that the Scythians carefully guarded the recipe for making a special fermented milk drink. Also, koumiss is described in the Ipatiev Chronicle, in the stories of Guillaume de Rubruk.

Let's look at koumiss from a medical point of view. What is it? This is a drink with the richest composition, which contains lactic, pantothenic, folic acids, amino acids, thiamine, cyanocobalamin, riboflavin, carbon dioxide, biotin, ethyl alcohol, vitamin C, macro- and microelements. This is an amazingly useful product that is indicated for various diseases. Contraindications hehas practically none. It should not be used by people with acute gastrointestinal diseases and allergies to dairy products.

How to drink koumiss? As you wish! It quenches thirst, tones, refreshes. And it is also widely used in cosmetologists and traditional medicine, in the treatment of animal diseases. Bon appetit!