Steppe Tradition · Fermented Mare's Milk
Kumys
Photo: A.Savin / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 3.0
Herodotus described the Scythians processing mare's milk in the 5th century BC, and sanatoriums in Bashkortostan still offer kumys cures as a health treatment.
Kumys is made by fermenting raw mare's milk with a live culture over one to several days, producing a tangy, faintly sour, lightly carbonated drink with a low alcohol content. In Bashkortostan, roadside stands and market vendors sell it chilled from bottles or barrels, especially in summer.
Why it's made this way: Kumys production goes back to the Turkic and Mongolic horse-herding peoples of the Volga and Ural steppe, including the Bashkirs, who still treat it as both a refreshment and a traditional health tonic.
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