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Kumis (also spelled kumiss, koumiss, kymys; called airag in Mongolian cuisine) is a fermented milk drink traditionally made from the milk of horses. It remains an important drink to the people of the Central Asian steppes, including the Bashkirs, Kazakhs, Kyrgyzs, Mongols, and Yakuts.

It is traditionally made from fermenting mare's milk in a horse-hide container over the course of hours or days, often while stirring or churning. During the fermentation, Lactobacilli bacteria acidify the milk and yeasts turn it carbonated and mildly alcoholic. In modern production, the initial fermentation takes two to five hours at a temperature of around 27°C (80°F); it may be following by a cooler aging period. The finished product contains between 0.7 and 2.5% alcohol. Kumis can be strengthened through freeze distillation, a technique Central Asian nomads are reported to have employed.McGee p. 761 It can also be distilled into the spirit known as araka or arkhi.

Kumis is similar to kefir, but is made from mare's milk and is produced from a liquid starter culture, in contrast to the solid kefir "grains". Because mare's milk contains more sugars than the cow's or goat's milk fermented into kefir, kumis has a higher alcohol content. Even in the areas of the world where kumis is popular today, mare's milk remains a very limited commodity. Industrial-scale production of kumis thus generally uses cow's milk, which is richer in fat and protein but lower in lactose than the milk from a horse. Before fermentation, the cow's milk is fortified in one of several ways. Sucrose, a simple sugar, may be added, to allow a comparable fermentation. Another technique adds modified whey in order to better approximate the composition of mare's milk.Law p. 121.

Mare's milk

In Mongolia, the milking season for horses traditionally runs between mid-June and early October. During one season, a mare produces approximately 1,000 to 1,200 kilograms of milk, of which about half is left to the foals.Indra p. 73.

Documenting Domestication says "unfermented mare's milk is generally not drunk, because it is a strong laxative and purgative." Varro's On Agriculture, from the 1st century BC, also mentions this: "as a laxative the best is mare's milk, then donkey's milk, cow's milk, and finally goat's milk..." Yet today mare's milk is sometimes recommended as a substitute for cow's milk for people with milk allergies, and little mention is made of this laxative effect. In fact, mare's milk is well-tolerated by people of northern European descent and others who are lactose tolerant. Lactose-tolerant people can digest lactose even as adults; most of the world's population cannot, including the majority in the Central Asian steppes where mare's milk is popular. Mare's milk has almost 40% more lactose then cow's milkBy weight, cow's milk averages 4.8% lactose and mare's 6.3%. McGee p. 13. (and, validating Varro's observations, goat's milk has even less); drinking six ounces (190 ml) a day would be enough to give a lactose-intolerant person severe intestinal symptoms. During fermentation, the the lactose is converted into lactic acid, ethanol, and carbon dioxide, and the milk becomes an accessible source of nutrition.See also Nutritional Adaptation by O'Neil, Dennis, Palomar College: "In the Indian subcontinent and much of Central and Western Asia, dairy products are consumed frequently but usually only after bacteria (lactobacilli) have broken down the lactose. After this has occurred, milk becomes yoghurt or kumis, both of which are relatively easily digested even by people who produce little lactase."

History

Kumis is an ancient beverage. Herodotus, in his 5th century BC Histories, describes the Scythians' processing of mare's milk:

The milk thus obtained is poured into deep wooden casks, about which the blind slaves are placed, and then the milk is stirred round. That which rises to the top is drawn off, and considered the best part; the under portion is of less account.Histories, book four. Translation by George Rawlinson; available online at The Internet Classics Archive.

It is widely believed that this is a description of ancient kumis making, and it matches up well enough with later accounts, such as William of Rubruck's. Strabo, writing within 25 years of Year 1AD, refers to the Sarmatians as "milk eaters", and given that fresh milk would certainly not keep in the conditions then prevalent, it must have fermented and effectively be kumis, the traditional beverage of the steppe.

Traveller William of Rubruck offers a description of Kumis from the 13th century:

This cosmos, which is mare's milk, is made in this wise. When they have got together a great quantity of milk, which is as sweet as cow's as long as it is fresh, they pour it into a big skin or bottle, and they set to churning it with a stick [... and when they have beaten it sharply it begins to boil up like new wine and to sour or ferment, and they continue to churn it until they have extracted the butter. Then they taste it, and when it is mildly pungent, they drink it. It is pungent on the tongue like rapé wine when drunk, and when a man has finished drinking, it leaves a taste of milk of almonds on the tongue, and it makes the inner man most joyful and also intoxicates weak heads, and greatly provokes urine.Rockhill, William, translator (1900). The Journey of William of Rubruck to the Eastern Parts of the World, 1253-55. p. 67. London: Hakluyt Society.

Kumis and its cousin Kefir are still produced in many parts of the world.

Health

Toward the end of the 19th century, kumis had a strong enough reputation as a cure-all to support a small industry of "kumis cure" resorts, mostly in southeastern Russia, where patients were "furnished with suitable light and varied amusement" during their treatment, which consisted of drinking large quantities of kumis. W. Gilman Thompson's 1906 Practical Diatetics reports that kumis has been cited as beneficial for a range of chronic diseases, including tuberculosis, bronchitis, catarrh, and anemia. Gilman also says that a large part of the credit for the successes of the "kumis cure" is due not to the beverage, but to favorable summer climates at the resorts.Gilman p. 81 and 84. Among notables to try the kumis cure were writers Leo Tolstoy and Anton Chekhov. Chekhov, long-suffering from tuberculosis, checked into a kumis cure resort in 1901. Drinking four bottles a day for two weeks, he gained 12 pounds but no cure.Boyd, William (2004). Anton Chekhov: An A-Z. A Penguin Classics feature. Retrieved July 12 2006.

References and notes