Mongolian Food | Dried Curd, Fermented Milk, Seabuckthorn

Food

Mongolian food is adjusted to the condition of the way of life. It can be divided into milk products, meat or meat products, and vegetable or green products. Mongolians produced over 3,000 types of food and beverages. Foods that are made in Mongolia include Mongolian milk product-aaruul, wild berry vitamins, seabuckthorn products, a different type of health teas, and chocolate.

Mongolians start tethering foals and colts on the tiger day of summer. We stop tethering foals and colts on the dog day in autumn. There is a feast for fermenting mare’s milk within three days after tethering foals and colts. There is also feast for when we stop tethering foals and colts in autumn. The mare’s milk is fermented by churning. This fermented mare’s milk is called airag. The airag emits a delicious smell and its taste can make your mouth water. Every Mongolian loves to drink airag. Both males and females, including children, can drink airag by the bowls, from morning to evening. A bowl for airag holds 1 to 1.5 liters of liquid. In order to make airag, we use the airag skin of the previous year. We hang the soaked airag skin from the base of the ger roof and pour milked milk of mare into the hung skin and ferment the milk with the dried yeast of the previous airag. Then we churn the milk in the skin many times. The churning accelerates the fermentation of milk. The liquid can be churned 2,000-4,000 times. If you churn many times, you can make a good blend of fermentation. Airag plays roles of quenching one’s thirst, satisfying one’s hunger, and treating one’s illnesses because of its calories and nourishment. It has essential bio active constituents of and improves their metabolism. The airag treatment was and is famous for curing chronic illnesses, heart and lung troubles, stomach illnesses, rheumatism, back trouble, scurvy and dropsy.