Camel Herder Staple · Fermented Camel Milk
Khoormog
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It's noticeably fizzier and richer than Mongolia's famous fermented mare's milk — locals describe it as numbing the lips slightly, like a stronger, more carbonated cousin of airag.
Fresh camel milk is left to ferment for a day or more, turning tangy, faintly alcoholic and naturally carbonated. Gobi herding families churn it the same way as airag, but only in households where Bactrian camels, not horses, are the main dairy animal.
Why it's made this way: The two-humped Bactrian camel is uniquely suited to the Gobi's arid, sparse grazing land, so herders there built a parallel fermented-milk tradition around camel milk instead of the mare's milk used on the grassier steppe further north.
More from Mongolia
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Tsuivan (Цуйван)
Buuz
Khuushuur
Part of World of Street Food — 3248 dishes from 118 countries.
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