Fw: Paul D. Buell on Tea Meal was: Fw: [Sca-cooks] Re: Sca-cooks digest, Vol 1 #2334 - 12 msgs

[Phlip]

OK.... wondering what might happen if you tried to make it from foal's milk
substitute?

Phlip


> >----- Original Message -----
> >From: "Paul D. Buell" <>
> >To: "Phlip" <phlip at 99main.com>
> >Sent: Thursday, August 29, 2002 11:52 PM
> >Subject: Re: Paul D. Buell on Tea Meal was: Fw: [Sca-cooks] Re: Sca-cooks
> >digest, Vol 1 #2334 - 12 msgs
> >  > I live in Washington State; no camels, except in the zoo. Well, maybe
in
> >>  Eastern Washington.
> >>
> >>  Cow and goat or ewe milk will not work very well. The needed sugar is
> >mostly
> >>  lacking in the milks. You need six lactating mares, by the way, to
keep
> >one
> >>  nomad drinking in kumiss during the summer.
> >>
> >>  Milking mares, by the way, I am told is a LOT of work. Camels are even
> >more
> >>  fun since they are big and like to kick people in the head.
> >>
> >  > Paul
>
> <snip>
>
> >  > > > >  If its Mongol food the beverage choices
> >>  > > > > would be a) kumiss, the preferred drink, b) a sharbat,
probably
> >>  > > > > non-alcoholic but fermented ones were served as well, use a
> >Persian
> >  > > > > recipe,
>
> <snip>
>
> >  > > > > > excellent. However, in general, no self-respecting Mongol
during
> >the
> >>  > period
> >>  > > > > would have been without his kumiss. That was THE prestige
food. If
> >>  you
> >>  > can't
> >>  > > >
> >  > > > > > get horse kumiss, use camel.
>
> Hello!
>
> Thanks, Phlip, for the forward!
>
> Bearing in mind that text wrapping and quote marks may have me
> confused as to who is saying what, I was interested in the kumiss
> conversation.
>
> I seem to recall that someone (was it William of Rubrick?) stated
> that the various Mongol groups were also quite fond of mead, drinking
> it in enormous quantities. I wonder if perhaps this is a
> mistranslated reference to sharbats (both being honey based, at least
> in part, and both being [sometimes] fermented).
>
> But it does make a certain amount of sense, the idea that wild honey
> is something a nomadic culture would become accustomed to using in
> this way.
>
> As regards kumiss, it's true that cow's milk is weak in fermentable
> sugars (lactose being a heavier sugar yeasts can't easily deal with,
> which is why we can have things like milk stout) compared to other
> milks, specifically that of mares. I also understood that kefir was
> what you get when you use camel's milk. I've tried commercial kefir,
> which is a lot like buttermilk or even thinned-down yogurt, but I
> have no information on whether commercial kefir bears any resemblance
> to the real stuff made on the steppes. I suppose the differences
> could also be attributed to different microbes at work, in creating a
> cultured yogurt-y product rather than a fermented, alcoholic beverage
> made from camel's milk.
>
> Adamantius, who once made a faux kumiss by adding maltose to cow's
> milk, to get a product at least vaguely fitting the descriptions...