18 BULLETIN 319, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



(4) Add the yeast culture to the buttermilk in the proportion of 

 one teaspoonful to a quart of buttermilk. 



(5) Mix thoroughly and bottle. The bottles should be very strong, 

 as sufficient gas pressure is sometimes generated to break ordinary 

 bottles; the heavy bottles used for ginger ale or other carbonated 

 drinks answer this purpose very well. They should be carefully 

 cleaned and boiled or steamed before filling ; fill them full and stop- 

 per tightly, wiring or tying the stoppers securely in place. 



(6) Place in a cool place to ferment. 



If the fermentation is too active the kefir will have a yeasty taste 

 and the curd is likely to become lumpy and filled with large gas bub- 

 bles. A temperature of 18° C. (65° F.) to 21° C. (70° F.) will be 

 found satisfactory for kefir which is to be used on the third or fourth 

 day. The floor of a cool cellar is a convenient place to ferment kefir 

 made in the home. The bottles should be shaken as often as may be 

 necessary to keep the curd in a finely divided condition. The finished 

 product should be smooth and creamy, effervesce rapidly when 

 poured from the bottle, and have the pleasant, acid taste of but- 

 termilk, with the added sharpness caused by the gas and the trace 

 of alcohol. Kefir 2 or 3 days old may have a yeasty taste, but if it 

 has been properly made this will disappear as the fermentation of 

 the sugar nears completion; made under these conditions it should 

 be used when 3 to 5 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 penetrated the 

 undulating, treeless plains of European Eussia and central and south- 

 western 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 inhabited 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 de- 

 veloped 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 fermenting 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 



