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Drink

Koumiss, or Milk Beer

Fermented milk beverage made by adding rennet or sour koumiss to diluted milk and allowing it to sit.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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Koumiss, or Milk Beer

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare and culture

  1. Dilute the new milk with water.

  2. Add rennet or sour koumiss.

  3. Cover and let sit in a warm place for 24 hours.

Rest and mix

  1. Stir or churn until curd and whey are mixed.

  2. Let it rest for another 24 hours.

Finish

  1. Transfer to a tall vessel and agitate until homogeneous.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

What each ingredient does

New milk
Provides the proteins and lactose that curdle and ferment into the drink.
Rennet or sour koumiss
Starts coagulation or souring, turning the milk into curd and whey.

The step that matters

Holding the warm resting period. Rennet and the lactic cultures in sour koumiss work faster and more evenly when the milk stays warm. A cool spot slows curdling and souring, so the mixture may stay thin or develop unevenly.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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