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Fermented milk from Mongolia

Isgelen taragисгэлэн тараг

Boiled cow or yak milk, often the skim left after making urum cream, is seeded with culture from the last batch and stirred with a wooden plunger like airag. Lactic bacteria sour it and yeasts make it fizzy and lightly alcoholic in about a day.

A short entry: the sources we found record only what is said here about Isgelen tarag itself.

Short entryFermented milk24 h

Recipe

No fixed amounts recordedHousehold practice with no fixed amounts in any source found.
Cow or yak milk, boiledOften the skim left after urum is made[mongolfood]
Culture kept from the last batchAdded once the milk has cooled to hand temperature[mongolfood]
Starterbackslop: culture kept from the last batch

Total time across the recorded steps: 24 h

Start
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What changes: The milk is boiled, often after its cream is skimmed off

Step 1 of 3
Boil the milk (often after skimming off urum)
Time
Not documented
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Lactic acid bacteria
Yeasts

Output: boiled skim milk.

Flavour
cooked
Texture
thin, low fat
Colour
Not documented

Microbes at work in this step

Not documented for this step.

Method

Measured measured in a studySet fixed by a specification or tested recipeReported one source reports itTypical a general value, not sourced for this fermentUnconfirmed not yet checked against a source

At a glance

Boiled cow or yak milk, often the skim left after making urum cream, is seeded with culture from the last batch and stirred with a wooden plunger like airag. Lactic bacteria sour it and yeasts make it fizzy and lightly alcoholic in about a day. Made in 3 steps over 24 h. The longest step, ferment with regular stirring, takes 24 h (Mongolfood.info). Lactobacillus helveticus, L. kefiri, L. fermentum, L. paracasei and L. acetotolerans and Yeasts, which make carbon dioxide and alcohol do most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main step24 hReported[mongolfood]Ferment with regular stirring

What makes this one different

Isgelen tarag is stirred like airag, so yeasts grow and it turns fizzy and alcoholic.

Related ferments

Variants

  • Tarag (set)The plain Mongolian soured milk (see entry).

Safety

Made from boiled milk and fermented by a culture of Lactobacillus bacteria and yeast. A recipe page puts its alcohol at about 2 %.

History and sources

Every number is labelled with how it is known. How this atlas is made

  1. [uchida2007] Uchida K., Hirata M., Motoshima H., Urashima T. and Arai I. 2007, Microbiota of 'airag', 'tarag' and other kinds of fermented dairy products from nomad in Mongolia, Animal Science Journal 78:650–658 (abstract)paper
  2. [mongolfood] Mongolfood.info, Isgelen Tarag – Исгэлэн Тараг (recipe page)web
  3. [wp] Wikipedia, Isgelen tarag (outline only)wiki