502 MANUAL OF MILK PRODUCTS 



conditions it should be used when three to five days old, but if 

 put on ice it may be held for a week or even longer. 



Kumiss 



The missionary monks and other wanderers who first pene- 

 trated the undulating, treeless plains of European Russia and 

 central and southwestern Asia brought back descriptions of a 

 fermented drink which in the light of more recent investigations 

 is easily recognized as kumiss. These vast prairies are in- 

 habited by tribes of nomads who live in tents or squalid huts 

 in the winter and wander during the summer, seeking pasture 

 for their horses, their herds of cattle, or flocks of sheep. They 

 are all horsemen, and by a process of selection in which they 

 have probably played only a passive part have developed an 

 exceptionally hardy race of horses. The mares give much more 

 than the ordinary amount of milk, which constitutes almost the 

 entire food of the people during the summer. This is never 

 used in the fresh condition, but is fermented to make kumiss. 

 Unlike kefir, there is no dried "ferment," "seeds," or "grains" 

 with which the fermentation of the mare's milk is started. It 

 is the practice of the natives, when it becomes necessary to 

 establish the fermentation anew, to add to milk some ferment- 

 ing or decaying matter, such as a piece of flesh, tendon, or 

 vegetable matter. Whatever the material used to supply the 

 essential organisms, it is evident that the milk is so cared 

 for that a combination of an acid and an alcoholic fermentation 

 is favored and the necessary bacteria and yeast are soon estab- 

 lished. No doubt the change in the milk is produced under 

 different circumstances by different combinations of bacteria 

 and yeast, and there are usually present various contaminat- 

 ing organisms which are detrimental or at least are not essen- 

 tial to the production of the kumiss. Native kumiss-makers 

 lay great stress on the quality of the milk, the breed of the 

 mares, and the condition of the pastures; but it is probable 



