Art & Sci Cooking Update

Mongolian Dairy Experiment

Order of milk processing:

Urum “White butter or clotted cream”

Khailmag “Caramelized urum”

Tarag “Yogurt”

Isgelen Tarag “Fermented Yogurt/Kefir”

Mongol Arkhi “Milk Vodka”

Aaruul “Dried Curd”

Byaslag “Cheese”

Eezgii “Dried Cheese crumbles”

 

URUM: Clotted Cream

Day 1:

Heat raw milk. Ladle milk from a distance to make frothy. The frothier you make it, the more cream you should get according to what I've seen. Cook for 1.5 hrs.

Leave to sit overnight.

Day 2:

Slice around edge of pan. Slice down center. Gently pick up clotted cream by folding in half and leaving to drain on plate or jar. Mine came out more liquidy that I wanted, but I'll try using it for khailmag instead.

KHAILMAG: Caramelized Clotted Cream

Cook clotted cream (urum) in a pan. The fat liquifies and separates from the solid mixture. Remove some of this shar tos (yellow butter). Add sugar, raisins, and flour and mix to create a pap. Scoop some of the ghee away and serve the pap in a bowl. 

The shar tos can be used at the fuel in altar candles or for frying khuushuur.

TARAG: Yogurt

Take the skimmed milk from the Urum preparation and add lactic acid bacteria culture (raw yogurt culture) to room temperature milk. Can be eaten after a few hours or fermented.

ISGELEN TARAG: Fermented Yogurt/Kefir

Take still warm Tarag and add yeast. Place in vat. Stir regularly with a wooden masher (Buluur). Takes about 1 day of mixing. 

MONGOL ARKHI: Milk Vodka (similar to Airag but made with cow’s milk)

Place kefir in a wok on the stove. Place open vat on top. Hang smaller pot inside. Place a second wok on top and add cold water. Wrap top and bottom of vat to keep steam inside. Cover top wok.

Water will need to be replaced 2-3 times. Remove the top wok and water. Cover the inside collection pan. Can be drunk once cool.

The remaining mash in the bottom pan can be made into stronger Aaruul if dried or Aarz if eaten as is (like cottage cheese).

Three types of cheese:

Pour remaining milk into pot, bring milk to boil, stirring occasionally, add Kefir or Yogurt to curdle curds, stir once, take off heat and leave 15 mins. Split into thirds. Two thirds go into two cloth bags: 1 bag for Aaruul, 1 bag for Byaslag, and the rest remains in the pot for Eezgii.

AARUUL: Dried Curd

Drain curds in cloth bag. Pack looser curd into piping bag and make worm aaruul (Korkhoi Aaruul) or use molds. Dry in shaded area.

BYASLAG: Fresh Cheese

Put curds into cloth bag and press between boards. After ~5 hrs, take curd out of bag and slice into strips. Dry strips in shaded area or eat fresh.

EEZGII: Dried Cheese Crumbles

Cook the cheese and add a little kefir. After curdling, keep cooking until all the liquid is gone. Roast a little more until pieces form golden clumps. Store in dried, dark environment for snacking.

Update: Air dried for 4 days, turning every day. Mold grew 4 days after setting up, so, no dried cheese for me this time. A dehydrator may need to be used due to Florida's high humidity levels. Made goat's cheese instead.