Ideal Event

[Mark Harris]

>Ok, Mordraut. Just for you, I think I can help you with some of your
>perfect event. I have recipes for kummis. If you will drink it
>(especially if you will accept cow's milk instead of mare's milk), I
>will make you some.
>
>Stefan li Rous


Hey, I can get some mare's milk for you! 'Course there might be some
unhappy babies, but...

>>>>>
We don't need much. What several people seemed to be saying though,
was that mare's didn't like to be milked. Mongul horses were much
smaller than most you see today.
<<<<<

Does goat's milk work as well?  and I wonder if 2% cow's milk would be
closer to mare's milk since it doesn't have all that butterfat.  Anyone
know?

>>>>
>From my kumiss file:

Todric:
Take skim milk (or regular milk, but watered down). Add lactose to this.
Mare's milk is much higher in lactose than cow's milk. Then use bread
yeast, not brewer's yeast, as a starter. This apparently has the desired
effect of producing the alchohol out of the lactose. Mix this in one of
those plastic water carriers (the five gallon ones with the handle and
spout), and hang it up so you can shake it vigorously from time to time.
This prevents the kumiss from turning to yoghurt. The spout can also be
opened periodically to burp it and release the pressure (or you end up
with kumiss mines exploding in camp).

Corun MacAnndra:
I have a friend who's family raises Shires, the biggest horse in existence,
but she has yet to talk her father into milking one of them. This is a
daunting task on even as horse a small as the ones common to the steppe,
and even more so on one as large as a Shire. She once told me of a foal
their mare had that stood nearly eleven hands at birth. That's a big baby.

Barak Raz:
     Some years ago a gentleman from Ostgard, as I heard the tale,
contacted the embassy of the People's republic of Outer Mongolia to the
U.N., asked for and received a recipe for koumis. You might try that option.
My understanding is that it went something like this:
         Take a goat's stomach, fill it with mare's milk, sew it shut. Get
several huskies with hardwood staves to beat this for a while, then let it
sit until the curds and whey separate. Drain off the whey, mix it with
honey, then seal it up again. Go away for a month or two. When you come back,
it's koumis time.

Tofi:
I leave the question of whether one would *want* to make this stuff in
one's fridge to the reader.  I did sample the result -- kinda like
fizzy, slightly alcoholic, not-sweet milk.  Odd stuff.

Yaakov:
          Note from experience- do not try this with chocolate milk.
          I did once, the chocolate precipitated out and made the
          texture fairly horrid.

          Yaakov (who before marraige used to add kumiss to his
          morning tea, but has given it up in the interests of marital
          harmony)

Again, if anyone wants a copy of the complete file, just let me know.

Stefan li Rous

PS: Mordraut hasn's said he'll drink it yet. Any other takers?
<<<<<<

Catherine