“What is koumiss? A gracious drink flowing from paradise rivers that can revitalize and give strength to a sick body, ”Ruzbikhan described it (an author from Central Asia of the 15th century).
Kalmyks put this drink on a par with a jomba in value. Koumiss was a significant drink in the diet of the steppe nomadic peoples. Mare’s milk healed, invigorated, quenched hunger and thirst.
What is koumiss
Compared to a cow, a mare gives little milk - only to her child. And in order to get it, a foal that sucks the udder is brought to her. After this, the baby is taken aside, and the milkmaid is taken for business. This procedure is carried out every hour, and one mare gives about 5 liters per day.
What is the difference from cow's milk? The content of fats and proteins in the mare is much less, and the amount of sugar is greater, so it is more suitable for fermentation than cow.
The resulting drink cannot be stored, which means that it is impossible to obtain a real koumiss on an industrial scale. Its price is high (from 300 rubles per 0.5 liter), since it is prepared using special technology.
In the old days, milk was poured into a leather bag and tied to a horse's saddle. After which she was persecuted, and under the influence of strong shaking, he was saturated with oxygen and acquired its airiness. There is a belief that for the preparation of this koumiss it is necessary to mix it at least 5,000 times.
Even now, many families put a sour-milk drink in a bag and hang it above the front door. Each person, before crossing the threshold, had to shake the wineskin.
The legend of Lola
Like other drinks, koumiss has its own history of popularity. The beneficial properties of a nutritious product became known in the 18th century. When spring began to decorate the steppe with its outfits, a beautiful daughter was born in the rich Kalmyk family of the Balzanovs. But soon the trouble came to the family - Lola fell ill with tuberculosis. Healers and elders unanimously reiterated that only koumiss would save her. Since no one knew the recipe in the Kalmyk steppes, Lola's father ordered the faithful detachment of soldiers to bring specialists to the doorstep of their house at all costs. By force and deception, but the Kazakhs were brought. They taught Kalmyks a secret recipe for making a drink with the outlandish name “koumiss”. Beneficial features the fermented milk product helped Lola defeat tuberculosis, and the specialists were thanked with gifts and delivered to the native steppes intact.
On the territory of Kalmykia, there was a tuberculosis sanatorium where koumiss treatment was actively used. Today he is already gone, but thanks to the initiative of activists there are 130 horses, 36 of which give milk for the preparation of a medicinal nutritious product.
Koumiss treatment in Russia
Silence, tranquility, blooming flower beds around the gazebo, benches and cleanliness - this is what the first kumysoleznichnitsa opened in 1858 looked like. Before that, people knew about this drink and came here to enjoy its excellent taste every day. Even Leo Tolstoy himself was among the people who enjoyed not only the dairy product, but also from this atmosphere far from civilization.
Terms of use
Unfortunately, many doctors of our time do not know why koumiss is useful, and some even hear this word for the first time. But this did not make the drink worse. In order for him to help cope with the disease, you need to follow some rules:
- It is advisable to use it in places of its preparation. As mentioned earlier, it is not subject to storage. Therefore, the best option would be a koumiss treatment center or a sanatorium where such therapy is practiced. The dairy product that is on the shelves of all supermarkets is not koumiss. There are no useful properties in it, even the taste itself is far from true.
- The treatment should last at least a month, only then will you enjoy its effect all year long.
- Use koumiss only as prescribed by the doctor. Only a specialist is able to develop an individual scheme for the prevention or treatment of diseases. The drink has an unusual property: after drinking 1 glass, a healthy person is filled with strength and feels a surge of energy, but if you increase the amount of koumiss, it immediately envelops a state of weakness and drowsiness.
Read more on the beneficial properties of a divine drink
Note slimming: this drink is considered a dietary product. If you drink a glass of koumiss before eating food, then it will create a feeling of overcrowding, which means that the intake of the main dish will be reduced several times.
Here is a whole list of its advantages:
- due to the fact that he copes with hunger and thirst, he can be taken as a snack;
- helps to assimilate heavy food;
- contributes to the full recovery of the body after an illness;
- treats vitamin deficiency;
- has a calming effect on the nervous system;
- facilitates toxicosis;
- Along with brine, koumiss can also be an excellent remedy for a hangover.
The beneficial properties of this fermented milk drink can be enumerated indefinitely, but, like others, it has its contraindications. If you use koumiss in unreasonable quantities, then it can cause diarrhea or gas formation. Also, they should not get involved in pregnant and lactating women - 1 tbsp. per day will be enough.
Calorie content
In 100 gr. The product contains 50 kcal. In order to determine the number of calories in a serving, at home, use the table below:
| Cutlery | Mass g | Calorie content, kcal. |
| tea spoon | 5 | 2,5 |
| tablespoon | 18 | nine |
| glass - 200 gr. | 200 | 100 |
| faceted glass - 250 gr. | 250 | 125 |
For Beauty Gourmets
On the basis of koumiss wonderful and effective hair masks are prepared. For example, you can mix 1 cup of a drink with one yolk. The resulting mixture is first rubbed into the roots, then spread over the entire length. The mask should be kept for about half an hour, then rinsed hair with a solution of koumiss and boiled water (1: 1 ratio). The only drawback of this mask is the “special smell”, but if you wash your hair with ordinary shampoo, it will disappear.
Also, based on a fermented milk product, whitening face masks are made. Take 1 cucumber, previously chopped in a blender, and mix with koumiss. Apply for 20 minutes to the face and décolleté. Wash off with warm water and enjoy the effect, which is noticeable after the first time.
For oily skin, it is recommended that you wipe your face twice a day with a cotton pad dipped in mare's milk.
Good to know
Many luminaries of medicine who know about this product assure that drinks made from cow, camel or goat milk are also considered koumiss. Never been in the desert, but chatting! A drink made from camel's milk is called shubat, and cow's milk is called katyk. No one argues about the usefulness of these dairy products, but they have very different useful properties.
Before embarking on kumysotherapy, be sure to go through an examination and find out about your diseases. No matter how miraculous the koumiss may be, it is categorically contraindicated for people with an allergy to dairy products.
And finally, do not buy it from random and dubious people. Such manufacturers often do not comply with basic sanitary standards. The consequence of the acquisition and use of this drink may not be treatment, but an infectious disease.
Unfortunately, many koumiss medical hospitals, having not received support from the states, ceased to function. But the nomadic peoples of Kazakhstan, Kalmykia, Yakutia and Buryatia still use this drink in the treatment of many infectious diseases, including tuberculosis.