🧑‍🤝‍🧑 Mongols

Mongols are a people who make up most of the population of Mongolia, historically nomadic herders. For Mongols, many of whom still move with their herds today, dairy products are the basis of the summer diet. They are called tsagaan idee, “white food”. In Mongolian culture white symbolises purity and well-being, so white food opens festivals and the welcoming of guests.

The main drink is airag, kumis made from mare’s milk. It is made in a leather vessel called a khukhuur, with the milk churned hundreds of times with a paddle; the starter is carefully kept going from year to year. Airag is drunk every day, offered at the Naadam festival and used in rituals of blessing and offerings. In 2019 UNESCO added this technique to its intangible heritage list.

Besides mares, Mongols milk cows, yaks, sheep, goats and camels. Milk is used to make tarag (sour milk), urum (clotted cream), aarts and aaruul — dried curd — as well as the milk vodka arkhi. In summer, guests are welcomed precisely with dairy food.