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Fermented milk from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia

Koumiss / qymyzқымыз

Raw mare milk is added to a vessel that still holds some of the last batch and beaten with a wooden plunger for 1 to 3 days. Lactic bacteria sour it while yeasts make alcohol and a little carbon dioxide.

Fully documentedFermented milk28 h – 3.2 days

Recipe

Amounts from a sourceProportions only. Choi (2016) gives a starter rate of 20 % old koumiss to fresh milk; traditional makers keep topping up the same vessel, so there is no fixed batch. The controlled method uses 30 % bulk starter.
Raw mare milk, filteredMilked in the summer season[afzaal2021]
Old koumiss (airag) as starterAbout 20 % of the milkLast year's or freshly made koumiss[choi2016]
Starterbackslop (old koumiss)

Total time across the recorded steps: 28 h – 3.2 days

Start
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What changes: Starting material: raw mare milk, milked in summer

Step 1 of 5
Milk the mares
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: raw mare milk, July to October.

Flavour
sweet while fresh (Rubruck)
Texture
Not documented
Colour
Not documented

Microbes at work in this step

raw milk flora

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

Raw mare milk is added to a vessel that still holds some of the last batch and beaten with a wooden plunger for 1 to 3 days. Lactic bacteria sour it while yeasts make alcohol and a little carbon dioxide. Made in 5 steps over 28 h – 3.2 days. The longest step, beat with a plunger as it ferments, takes 24 h – 3 days (Afzaal M. et al. 2021) and runs at 20–30 °C (Choi S.-H. 2016). Lactobacillus helveticus and Lactobacillus kefiranofaciens and L. kefiri do most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main step24 h – 3 daysReported[afzaal2021]Beat with a plunger as it ferments
Temperature20–30 °CReported[choi2016][afzaal2021]Beat with a plunger as it ferments
AciditypH 3.3–5Reported[afzaal2021]Ripen to weak, medium or strong

What makes this one different

Koumiss is beaten with a stick or plunger, not left still. Alongside the lactic acid it carries 0.6–3 % alcohol and a little carbon dioxide.

Related ferments

Variants

  • Airag (Mongolia)The Mongolian name for koumiss, kept in a bag made of animal hide during fermentation (Choi 2016; see its entry).
  • Caracosmos (black koumiss)Rubruck's 13th-century "caracomos" ("black comos"), a kind of koumiss reserved for great lords.
  • Cow-milk koumissCow milk fortified to resemble mare milk before fermentation.
  • Chigee (Inner Mongolia)Acidity 168 ± 50.6 °T, alcohol 0.5 ± 0.7 %, lactose 4.2 ± 1.6 %; yeasts mostly Dekkera (54.19 %) and Kazachstania (40.56 %) (Guo et al. 2021).

Safety

Traditional koumiss is made from raw mare milk. Sequencing of three samples of Inner Mongolian chigee, a mare-milk ferment, found reads of Enterobacter (10.7 %), Citrobacter (4.25 %) and Escherichia-Shigella (1.75 %) (Guo 2021). The results are at genus level, with no test for pathogenic strains. The authors call the Citrobacter and Escherichia-Shigella reads contamination that may come from unpasteurised milk, unclean tools or artisanal fermentation. The CDC says raw milk and products made from it can carry germs such as Campylobacter, Cryptosporidium, E. coli, Listeria, Brucella and Salmonella, and that children under 5, adults over 65, pregnant women and people with weakened immune systems are at higher risk of serious illness.

Hazards the sources name: Enterobacter, Citrobacter and Escherichia-Shigella reads in three samples of Inner Mongolian chigee, a related mare-milk ferment.

History and sources

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

Herodotus describes Scythians stirring mare milk in wooden casks. William of Rubruck (13th century) describes cosmos and caracosmos.

  1. [afzaal2021] Afzaal M. et al. 2021, Nutritional and ethnomedicinal scenario of koumiss: a concurrent review, Food Science and Nutrition 9:6421 (doi:10.1002/fsn3.2595)paper
  2. [choi2016] Choi S.-H. 2016, Characterization of airag collected in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia with emphasis on isolated lactic acid bacteria, Journal of Animal Science and Technology 58:10paper
  3. [guo2021] Guo L. et al. 2021, Comparative study of physicochemical composition and microbial community of Khoormog, Chigee and Airag from Xilin Gol, Food Science and Nutrition 9:1564paper
  4. [wp] Wikipedia, Kumis (history outline)wiki
  5. [cdc-rawmilk] US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Raw Milkgov