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28-556: The name Uvs Nuur (sometimes spelled Ubsa Nor or Ubsunur) derives from subsen , a Turkic/Mongolian word referring to the bitter dregs left behind in the making of airag (Mongolian fermented mare milk drink), and nuur , the Mongolian word for lake. The name is a reference to the lake's salty, undrinkable water. In one Mongolian folk tale a character named Sartaktai, known for digging wondrous canals and setting courses for rivers, tries to connect Uvs lake to another nearby lake by digging

56-551: A canal between them. But when the water of Uvs lake refuses to flow, Sartaktai angrily declares "Be thy name Subsennor!" A name that is defined as "bad wine, dregs of the spirit that comes from the still..." Uvs Lake has a length of 84 km and a width of 79 km, with an average depth of 6 m. Its basin is separated from the rest of the Great Lakes Depression by the Khan Khökhii ridge; however, it

84-488: 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. Rubruk also mentions that the Mongols prized a variety of kumis he calls caracomos ("black comos"), which was reserved for "great lords". In the 19th century, "kumyss" was used to treat gastrointestinal disorders . Strictly speaking, kumis

112-466: A technique Central Asian nomads are reported to have employed. It can also be made into the distilled beverage known as araka or arkhi . Archaeological investigations of the Botai culture of ancient Kazakhstan have revealed traces of milk in bowls from the site of Botai , suggesting the domestication of dairy animals. No specific evidence for its fermentation has yet been found, but considering

140-532: Is a traditional fermented dairy product made from mare milk . The drink is important to the peoples of the Central and East Asian steppes , of Turkic and Mongolic origin: Kazakhs , Bashkirs , Kalmyks , Kyrgyz , Mongols , and Yakuts . Kumis was historically consumed by the Khitans , Jurchens , Hungarians , and Han Chinese of North China as well. Kumis is a dairy product similar to kefir , but

168-423: 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

196-414: Is in its own category of alcoholic drinks , because it is made neither from fruit nor from grain. Technically, it is closer to wine than to beer, because the fermentation occurs directly from sugars (wine is usually fermented directly from fruit, whereas beer relies on starches, usually from grain, which convert to sugars by mashing ). In terms of experience and traditional manner of consumption, however, it

224-401: Is much more comparable to beer and is even milder in alcoholic content than beer. It is arguably the region's beer equivalent. Kumis is very light in body compared to most dairy drinks. It has a unique, slightly sour flavor with a bite from the mild alcoholic content. The exact flavor is greatly variable between different producers. Kumis is usually served cold or chilled. Traditionally it

252-648: Is not a rift lake as some mistakenly think. The main feeding rivers are the Baruunturuun , Nariin gol, and Tes (primary feed of the lake) from Khangai Mountains in the east, and the Kharkhiraa River and Sangil gol from the Altai Mountains in the west. The very large catchment area with no exit results in highly saline water, primarily due to sulphate and sodium ions. It has a salinity of 18.8 ppt, or 1.88%, making it half as salty as

280-431: Is produced from a liquid starter culture , in contrast to the solid kefir "grains". Because mare's milk contains more sugars than cow's or goat's milk, when fermented, kumis has a higher, though still mild, alcohol content compared to kefir. Even in the areas of the world where kumis is popular today, mare's milk remains a very limited commodity. Industrial-scale production, therefore, generally uses cow's milk, which

308-524: Is pulled away by another person, but left touching the mare's side during the entire process. 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 litres of milk, of which about half is left to her foal. Kumis is made by fermenting raw milk (that is, unpasteurized ) over the course of hours or days, often while stirring or churning. (The physical agitation has similarities to making butter .) During

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336-468: 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 may be added to allow a comparable fermentation. Another technique adds modified whey to better approximate the composition of mare's milk. Kumis comes from the Turkic word kumïŕ . Gerard Clauson notes that kımız is found throughout

364-463: Is sipped out of small, handle-less, bowl-shaped cups or saucers, called piyala . The serving of it is an essential part of Kyrgyz hospitality on the jayloo or high pasture, where they keep their herds of animals (horse, cattle, and sheep) during the summer phase of transhumance . During the Yuan dynasty of China, kumis was essentially made to be the replacement of tea. Furthermore, Möngke Khan ,

392-481: Is using the designation "Uvs Lake site" as an umbrella term to summarize twelve separate clusters of protected sites, each a representative of a major eastern Eurasian biome . The Uvs Lake is the terminal basin for the Uvs Lake Basin , which covers an area of 70,000 km and represents one of the best-preserved natural steppe landscapes of Eurasia . The border between Mongolia and Russia runs through

420-521: The Soviet Union specifically for producing milk to make into kumis . Rinchingiin Indra, writing about Mongolian dairying, says "it takes considerable skill to milk a mare" and describes the technique: the milker kneels on one knee, with a pail propped on the other, steadied by a string tied to an arm. One arm is wrapped behind the mare's rear leg and the other in front. A foal starts the milk flow and

448-651: The Turkic language family and cites the 11th-century appearance of the word in Dīwān Lughāt al-Turk written by Mahmud al-Kashgari in the Karakhanid language . In Mongolia , the drink is called airag ( айраг ) or, in some areas, tsegee . William of Rubruck , in his 13th-century travels, calls the drink cosmos and describes its preparation among the Mongols . A 1982 source reported 230,000 mares were kept in

476-969: The Uvs Lake Basin as a natural World Heritage Site . It was nominated as "one of the largest intact watersheds in Central Asia where 40,000 archeological sites can be found from historically famous nomadic tribes such as the Scythians , the Turks and the Huns ." This transboundary patrimony is one of the largest sites inscribed in the World Heritage List to date. Kumis Kumis ( / ˈ k uː m ɪ s / KOO-mis , rarely / ˈ k ʌ m ɪ s / KUM-is ), alternatively spelled coumis or kumyz , also known as airag ( / ˈ aɪ r æ ɡ / EYE-rag ),

504-429: The best part; the under portion is of less account. This is widely believed to be the first description of ancient kumis-making. Apart from the idiosyncratic method of mare-milking, it matches up well enough with later accounts, such as this one given by 13th-century traveller William of Rubruck : This cosmos , which is mare's milk, is made in this wise. […] When they have got together a great quantity of milk, which

532-469: The depression is home to 173 bird species and 41 mammal species, including the globally endangered snow leopard , argali , and Asiatic ibex . The population density is low here. The lack of industry and the reliance of the inhabitants on traditional ways such as nomadic pasturing have little impact on the landscape and allow the ecosystem to remain relatively pristine. In 2003, the UNESCO listed

560-416: The fermentation, lactobacilli bacteria acidify the milk, and yeasts turn it into a carbonated and mildly alcoholic drink . Traditionally, this fermentation took place in horse-hide containers, which might be left on the top of a yurt and turned over on occasion, or strapped to a saddle and joggled around over the course of a day's riding. Today, a wooden vat or plastic barrel may be used in place of

588-599: The fourth Great Khan of the Mongol Empire , had a drinking fountain made in his capital of Karakorum , including kumis alongside Chinese rice wine , Scandinavian mead , and Persian grape wine as a symbol of the empire's diversity and size. Bishkek , the capital of Kyrgyzstan , is supposedly named after the paddle used to churn the fermenting milk. The famous Russian writer Leo Tolstoy in A Confession spoke of running away from his troubled life by drinking kumis . The Russian composer Alexander Scriabin

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616-494: The leather container. In modern, controlled production, the initial fermentation takes two to five hours, at a temperature of around 27 °C (81 °F); this may be followed by a cooler aging period. Kumis itself has a very low level of alcohol, between 0.7 and 2.5%, comparable to small beer , the common drink of medieval Europe that also helps to avoid the consumption of potentially contaminated water . Kumis can, however, be strengthened through freeze distillation ,

644-519: The location of the Botai culture and the nutritional properties of mare's milk, the possibility is high. Kumis is an ancient beverage. Herodotus , in his 5th-century BC Histories , describes the Scythians processing of mare's milk: Now the Scythians blind all their slaves, to use them in preparing their milk. The plan they follow is to thrust tubes made of bone, not unlike our musical pipes, up

672-569: The northern periphery of the basin. Here the world's most northern desert meets the world's most southern tundra zone. Apart from the Uvs Lake, the basin comprises several smaller lakes. As these lakes lie to the north of other inland seas of Central Asia , they are of key importance for waterfowl migration. Since the basin spans the geoclimatic boundary between Siberia and Central Asia , temperatures may vary from −58 °C in winter to 47 °C in summer. Despite its harsh climate,

700-480: The oceans. The lake freezes over from October to May. In summer, it exhibits a temperature gradient from 25 °C at the surface to 19 °C at the bottom. 29 different species of fish are known from Uvs Lake, and one of them, the Potanini altai osman ( Oreoleuciscus potanini ), is suitable for human consumption. All of the lake and many parts of its surroundings have been declared protected sites. The UNESCO

728-465: The shelf life of the product while enhancing its taste and improving the digestibility of its milk. There is evidence that fermented milk products have been produced since around 10,000 BC. A range of different Lactobacilli strains has been grown in laboratories allowing for many cultured milk products with different flavors and characteristics. These bacteria allow the production of many fermented milks such as cheese, yogurt, kefir, butter Most of

756-407: The vulva of the mare, and then to blow into the tubes with their mouths, some milking while the others blow. They say that they do this because when the veins of the animal are full of air, the udder is forced down. 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

784-583: Was recommended a kumis diet and "water cure" by his doctor in his twenties, for his nervous condition and right-hand injury. The Japanese soft drink Calpis models its flavor after the taste of kumis . Fermented milk products Fermented milk products or fermented dairy products , also known as cultured dairy foods , cultured dairy products , or cultured milk products , are dairy foods that have been made by fermenting milk with lactic acid bacteria such as Lactobacillus , Lactococcus , and Leuconostoc . The fermentation process increases

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