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PREPARATIONS OF MILK, PARTICULARLY OF MARES' MILK, USED BY THE KALMUCK
TARTARS.
The ordinary drink of the Kalmucks, and which forms an essential part
of their food, consists of various preparations of the milk supplied by
their cattle. The mares yield milk as well as the cows; and, for several
reasons, they prefer the former. When fresh, this milk has a taste of
onions, which is very repulsive; but, in proportion as it sours, if the
operation is performed with cleanliness, it becomes more liquid than the
other, acquires an agreeable vinous taste, and neither forms cream nor
coagulates. In this state, it furnishes a wholesome and refreshing
drink, and which, when in sufficient quantity, froths in a remarkable
degree. The cow's milk, on the contrary, both on account of the cheesy
matter which it contains and its disagreeable taste, becomes unpleasant
to drink when it sours; and, in persons not accustomed to it, induces
colics and diarrhoeas, although the Kalmucks themselves experience no
inconvenience from it, unless they have neglected to boil it. This they
do, in the first place, and never use it until it has undergone this
operation, without which they would be exposed to the inconveniences
with which sour milk affects Europeans. In like manner, the Kalmucks
do not relish water that has not been boiled. Poor persons, to prevent
their being reduced to the necessity of drinking it pure, mix it with
their milk, in the proportion of a third part or half, in order to make
the most of the latter as a drink.
The milk is therefore heated as soon as it is withdrawn from the animal;
and, when warm, it is poured into a large skin bottle, with which the
poorest hut is furnished, and in which there is always a remnant of sour
milk sufficient to sour the new milk, after it has been stirred with a
stick kept for the purpose. Those bottles are never washed or cleaned:
they are therefore always incrusted with cheese and dirt, and the smell
admitted by them is sufficient to show what they contain. But it is
precisely in this that the secret for making the milk undergo the vinous
fermentation consists. If it be intended to sour milk in empty or new
bottles, all that is necessary is to put into them the least drop of the
milk-brandy to be presently described, or a little of the curdled milk
that is found in the stomach of young lambs.
All the preparations of milk are comprehended under the name of Tchigan.
The drinks prepared from pure mare's milk (the Koumys of the Tartars),
are named Gunna Tchigan, or Horse Tchigan; those into which mares' milk
and cow's milk enter are called Besrek;--sour cows' milk is named Airek;
and all kinds of fresh milk, Ussoun.
In summer, and in general whenever their flocks yield them much milk,
the Kalmucks do not fail to inebriate themselves with the strong drink
which they derive from it. Mares' milk affords most spirit, and the milk
of the cow affords much less, especially in winter, when the fodder is
dry. Sheep's milk is never employed, as it does not contain spirit.
The milk intended for distillation is only allowed to remain twenty-four
hours, in summer, in the skin-bottles to sour; but in winter, and in
cold weather, it may be left two or three days to be rendered fit for
distillation. The cream is not taken off; on the contrary, the milk is
agitated very strongly, from time to time, with the stick, and the
butter which forms of itself on the milk, or even on the common Tchigan,
is removed and employed for other uses.
Notwithstanding the numerous testimonies on the subject, and the daily
experience, not of the nomadic tribes alone, but also of all the
Russians, many people in Europe cannot conceive how a spirituous and
inebriating liquor could be obtained from milk. But it cannot be
supposed that those travellers who have repeatedly seen these tribes
distil their brandy from milk, without adding the least vegetable matter
to the original liquid, and then, in their unbridled passion for
debauch, drink until they stagger and fall, have said so merely to
impose upon the public. Nor can it be objected that the weakness of
their head renders them liable to be easily inebriated by the vapours of
the milk, for the Kalmucks can take very large quantities of grain
brandy without losing the use of their legs; and there are Russians,
who, although professedly great drinkers, are sooner inebriated than the
Kalmucks by milk-brandy, and often even by the sour milk of mares, and
yet are extremely fond of this kind of drink. I am aware that strangers
have in vain tried to make milk-brandy. I shall even confess that I had
a trial made under my own eyes, at Selenginsk, by Kalmucks, and was so
unsuccessful, that I only obtained a watery fluid which had the smell of
sour milk; but the reason of this was, that two clean vessels had been
used. On the contrary, whenever I allowed these people to use their own
vessels, abundant alcoholic vapours were procured. It is, therefore, an
important point to determine, by means of vessels impregnated by long
use with a strong smell, and the remains of sour milk, that sudden
souring which developes a spirituous principle. This fermentation of a
rare species, and entirely _sui generis_, can only be brought to
the desired perfection by frequent repetition of the process, just as,
according to Russel,[5] the thick milk (_leban_), which the Arabs
habitually use for making cheese, can only be obtained by producing the
coagulation of the fresh milk by means of a milk previously curdled, or,
in other words, by the cohobation many times repeated of curdled milk.
After describing the process of distillation, Pallas remarks, if
the brandy is made from cows' milk, what is obtained is equal to the
thirtieth, or at most to the twenty-fifth part of the mass; but when
from mares' milk, it equals the fifteenth part. The new fluid is pale
and watery, and does not inflame; but it keeps without spoiling, in
glass bottles, like weak corn-brandy. The rich Kalmucks render it
stronger by several distillations, and they have names for the products
of each rectification. The _arki_ is named _dang_ after its first
rectification; _arza_, after the second; _khortsa_, after the third.
They seldom go farther, although the rectifications are sometimes pushed to
six. The names given to the two last are _chingsta_ and _dingsta_. The
Kalmucks are generally, however, content with the products of the first
distillation.
The receiver has scarcely been filled, when they pour the brandy warm
from it into a large wooden vessel with a spout, from which they fill
leather bottles, or gourds.
It is customary for the host, with whom the company is then, to pour
brandy into a vessel, and afterwards to throw part of it into the fire,
and part towards the hole by which the smoke issues to render the
spirits of the air or his tutelary angel propitious. Lastly, the warm
brandy circulates among the company, composed of kinsfolk and friends,
in large cups, which often do not hold less than a bottle. If a little
is left, it is heated again before it is drunk. This milk-brandy, on
account of the aqueous parts which it contains, does not inebriate so
easily when a small quantity is taken, as brandy made from grain; but
it is found, by the example of the Russians and all the tribes of the
Steppes, that the drunkenness which it causes continues longer, and
entirely destroys the appetite. On the other hand, it does not produce
violent head-aches, like corn-brandy.
The rich Kalmucks and Mongols are in the habit, when they pass the
winter near towns, of distilling with or without milk brandy from
leavened bread. The product, it is said, is stronger, and has a keener
taste than milk-brandy. The residuum of the distillation of milk-brandy,
which is sharp, and has a smell like wine lees, is applied to various
uses. Sometimes it is mixed with fresh milk, and immediately eaten;
sometimes it is applied for preparing sheep and lamb skins; sometimes
the women boil it, either by itself, or, if it is too sharp, with a
mixture of sweet milk, until it thickens, and then pour the cheesy
substance into bags, which, when thoroughly dried, they throw into
heaps. They also, like the Tartar tribes, frequently form it into round
cakes, which they dry in the sun, and keep principally for journeys and
for winter use. The residuum of distillation is called _bosson_,
and by the Mongols _tsakha_.--The cheese formed in heaps is named
_chourmyk_, that in cakes, _thorossoun_.
They make another kind of cheese also, chiefly of sheep's and goats'
milk. The fresh milk is put into a kettle with a like sour milk
(_ederecksen ussun_), or some remnant of brandy (_bossah_).
They are well mixed, and then left for some time to sour. Fire is
then put under the kettle, and the mixture is stirred while it boils
briskly, that the cheesy parts may be converted into a kind of froth
(_koosoun_). When all the aqueous parts of the milk are expelled by
boiling, it little butter is added. The whole is again stirred, and left
upon the fire until the froth begins to dry and turn brown. It is then
ready, and if properly prepared, has an agreeable taste.
The Kalmucks make their butter in the following manner: A sufficient
quantity of cows' or sheep's milk is put into a kettle, and boiled
for some time, after which there is added a little sour milk cream
(_areyn_). It is then withdrawn, and allowed to stand until it
sours, which does not require a whole day. This milk is then beaten with
a kind of butterstick, and poured into an earthen pot or other vessel,
when the decomposed butter comes to the surface, and is placed in
vessels, skins, or dried stomachs, in which it is kept. If the milk
still seems to contain fat, it is again treated in the same manner.
This milk is called _toussoun_ by the Kalmucks, and _oeroemae_ by
the Tartars.--_Jameson's Journal._
[5] Russel's Aleppo, p. 54.
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