Qurt: The ancient road snack of Central Asian nomads

https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/what-is-qurt

110 30 5 years ago

keiferski• 5 years ago

As you might expect, a lot of the traditional Mongolian cuisine is optimized for nomadic living. For example, they didn't really have beer, vodka, or wine, as they didn't have easy access to grain, potatoes, or grapes and didn't want to ferment liquids for months or years on end. Instead, they made alcoholic drinks from milk.

Kumis is a dairy product similar to kefir, but 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.
Strictly speaking, kumis 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, as in wine (usually from fruit), as opposed to from starches (usually from grain) converted to sugars by mashing, as in beer. But in terms of experience and traditional manner of consumption, it is much more comparable to beer. It is even milder in alcoholic content than beer.
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.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kumis

ArkanExplorer• 5 years ago

I'd also very highly recommend 'On Food and Cooking' which examines the science and history behind many common foods:

https://www.amazon.com/Food-Cooking-Science-Lore-Kitchen/dp/...

By understanding the food science you can also become a better cook yourself.

simonebrunozzi2• 5 years ago

I'm pissed off. At how privacy is handled by most sites.

Should we consider banning, or flagging, websites on Hacker News submissions that offer a particularly painful, evil, approach to privacy?

This is what you get from the evil folks that run Atlas Obscura's website:

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"cookie policy" is a link, and from there, good luck trying to figure out how to NEGATE consent.

Fuck this. Really.

mistrial9• 5 years ago

I support the cause, but the execution here is flawed. I have done professional museum work, creative writing 'zine illustration, and other cultural arts to try to make a living. This site and the people who publish it are not the ones to excoriate, or YNews the place to dramatically vent your own frustrations. Please adjust accordingly

simonebrunozzi2• 5 years ago

Thanks for your comment. Reading mine today (a day after I wrote it), I can see why it sounded harsher than it should have been.

HDMI_Cable• 5 years ago

At this point, I've just found it easier to block cookies and JS unless specifically needed. You get around all of these cookie warnings that shouldn't be there to begin with.

literallycancer• 5 years ago

Just block the consent dialog with the ublock element picker, they can't legally collect anything until you accept, that's why they make them so annoying.

jtsiskin• 5 years ago

I think it’s a pretty big stretch to call them “evil”. You can block cookies if you want. But wanting analytics on your site or ad revenue from your publications isn’t exactly “evil”

numpad0• 5 years ago

The cookie consent popup is for awareness only.

hirundo• 5 years ago

Balls of qurt dissolved in water with flour and jerky made for quick camp dinners

The article mentions that qurt is rich in protein, but the fat is key. Jerky is very lean, and lacking carbohydrate rich foods, needs to be supplemented with fat for energy to be sustainable. The American aboriginals added tallow to jerky for this purpose, creating pemmican. Apparently dairy foods weren't part of their culture.

These foods are the closest thing we have to Tolkein's "lembas".

NikolaeVarius• 5 years ago

What. Lembas was nowhere neat pemmican. It was explicitly a form of bread, and most likely based on hardtack, that Tolkien would have been exposed to on the seas and while in service.

Pemmican as a specific "thing" came from the Americas, but the concept of mixing dried meats/preserved dairy and fats is something that is common in history

Merad2• 5 years ago

Pretty sure that the GP is referring to the effectiveness of lembas. It's described as being extremely nutritious so that one bite can fill a man's stomach and keep him on the march all day.

I'm fairly certain that Tolkien actually stated that lembas is a reference to the Eucharist. No doubt he had experience with hardtack, but IRL hardtack isn't really known for being nutritious or pleasant to eat.

KSS42• 5 years ago

There is a similar in purpose Punjabi food called pinni made from flour, sugar, ghee and nuts. They also provide a lot of energy and last a long time.

I have thought of those as lembas.

Ingredients:

• 1 kg atta (wheat flour)

• 500 gm chinni (white granulated sugar)

• 500 gm ghee (clarified butter) or olive oil

• 250 gm khoya (congealed sweet cream)

• Mewa (to taste): badam (almonds), piste (pistachios), kishmish (raisins)

http://www.indoamerican-news.com/mamas-punjabi-recipes-atte-...

jfengel• 5 years ago

Any idea how the fats avoid becoming rancid? Jerky is made from lean meat to avoid rancidity. Is it the difference between dairy fat and muscle fat?

jodrellblank• 5 years ago

Some discussion about the plausibility of lembas here: https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/questions/56044/lemb...

andybak• 5 years ago

Available on eBay: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/323869829071

kk58• 5 years ago

I've had these , they taste like salty chalk

tired-dev• 5 years ago

While I admire the resourcefulness of the people who invented these sorts of foods, they aren't really the sort of thing most people like to eat when given alternatives, I think.

r29vzg2• 5 years ago

I had these in Uzbekistan, they sell them everywhere, and people suck on them like it’s chewing gum. They were not to my taste, very bitter and very salty.

hoseja• 5 years ago

Not saddle-jerky? Aw, man, I was really craving that horse sweat.

qiqing3• 5 years ago

My coworker just told me it's her favorite. Apparently, if you like the flavor of kefir or salty lassi or parmesan chips or yogurt drops, you might also like these.

AlotOfReading• 5 years ago

They take some getting used to, but I absolutely loved them when I was working in central asia. I haven't been able to find a hookup back in the states though.

qiqing3• 5 years ago

I just ordered some from a few sources, and hopefully one of them is good. Found one on Amazon, one on Etsy, and one from Bonanza. They're supposed to have great shelf life, so I guess they are well suited for e-commerce.

I felt like if I made them and didn't like them, I wouldn't know it was me screwing up the recipe or not.

madaxe_again• 5 years ago

Just be prepared for them to be hard - “as hard as iron slag” isn’t far off it - first time I had one I nearly broke a tooth - they have the consistency of concrete.

Tasty, though. Great with a frosty beer after a day roasting in the steppes - which is where I first encountered them - mysterious spheres presented with a brew in dusty Aktobe.

wolfretcrap• 5 years ago

I ate this in Tibet or atleast that was very similar to this so I guess Chinese also have it?

qiqing3• 5 years ago

My mom, who lives in Shanghai, orders 'nai pian' on taobao as one of her favorite snacks. Apparently it's yogurt chips (not yogurt balls) and it's very popular, and people generally think of it as being from Mongolia, but eat it like potato chips that happen to be keto.

Qurt: The ancient road snack of Central Asian nomads

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