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Drink

Koumiss

Fermented mare's milk beverage made with koumiss, milk, water, sugar, and brewer's yeast.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 77,875 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Koumiss

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mixture

  1. Dissolve the sugar in the water.

  2. Add the milk, then the koumiss, and finally the yeast.

  3. Stir all together in an earthen jar.

Ferment and bottle

  1. Place the jar in a temperature of 70°F to 75°F until fermentation is established, indicated by bubbles on the surface.

  2. Transfer the mixture into strong bottles and cork them tightly.

  3. Store the bottles on their side in a temperature of 40°F to 50°F for 24 to 48 hours.

Serve

  1. Use a champagne faucet to draw the koumiss from the bottles.

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

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Milk and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 77,875 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Old koumiss
Supplies the starter culture that begins fermentation in the fresh milk.
New milk
Provides the base liquid and the lactose that the culture ferments into alcohol and acid.
Loaf sugar
Feeds the fermentation and adds sweetness to balance the sour, tangy flavour.
Brewer's yeast
Adds additional fermenting organisms that drive the production of carbonation and alcohol.

The step that matters

Cork the bottles tightly and store them on their side. Fermentation produces carbon dioxide, so bottles must be strong and tightly sealed to hold pressure. Storing them on their side keeps the cork moist and airtight, helping the drink stay carbonated.

“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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