Qurt: The ancient road snack of Central Asian nomads(atlasobscura.com)

110 pointsby CapitalistCartr5 tahun yang lalu30 comments

Qurt: The ancient road snack of Central Asian nomads

https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/what-is-qurt

9 comments

keiferski5 tahun yang lalu

As you might expect, a lot of the traditional Mongolian cuisine is optimized for nomadic living. For example, they didn't really have beer, vodka, or wine, as they didn't have easy access to grain, potatoes, or grapes and didn't want to ferment liquids for months or years on end. Instead, they made alcoholic drinks from milk.

> Kumis is a dairy product similar to kefir, but is produced from a liquid starter culture, in contrast to the solid kefir "grains". Because mare's milk contains more sugars than cow's or goat's milk, when fermented, kumis has a higher, though still mild, alcohol content compared to kefir.

> Strictly speaking, kumis is in its own category of alcoholic drinks because it is made neither from fruit nor from grain. Technically, it is closer to wine than to beer because the fermentation occurs directly from sugars, as in wine (usually from fruit), as opposed to from starches (usually from grain) converted to sugars by mashing, as in beer. But in terms of experience and traditional manner of consumption, it is much more comparable to beer. It is even milder in alcoholic content than beer.

> Traditionally, this fermentation took place in horse-hide containers, which might be left on the top of a yurt and turned over on occasion, or strapped to a saddle and joggled around over the course of a day's riding.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kumis

ArkanExplorer5 tahun yang lalu

I'd also very highly recommend 'On Food and Cooking' which examines the science and history behind many common foods:

https://www.amazon.com/Food-Cooking-Science-Lore-Kitchen/dp/...

By understanding the food science you can also become a better cook yourself.

hirundo5 tahun yang lalu

> Balls of qurt dissolved in water with flour and jerky made for quick camp dinners

The article mentions that qurt is rich in protein, but the fat is key. Jerky is very lean, and lacking carbohydrate rich foods, needs to be supplemented with fat for energy to be sustainable. The American aboriginals added tallow to jerky for this purpose, creating pemmican. Apparently dairy foods weren't part of their culture.

These foods are the closest thing we have to Tolkein's "lembas".

KSS425 tahun yang lalu

There is a similar in purpose Punjabi food called pinni made from flour, sugar, ghee and nuts. They also provide a lot of energy and last a long time.

I have thought of those as lembas.

Ingredients:

• 1 kg atta (wheat flour)

• 500 gm chinni (white granulated sugar)

• 500 gm ghee (clarified butter) or olive oil

• 250 gm khoya (congealed sweet cream)

• Mewa (to taste): badam (almonds), piste (pistachios), kishmish (raisins)

http://www.indoamerican-news.com/mamas-punjabi-recipes-atte-...

NikolaeVarius5 tahun yang lalu

What. Lembas was nowhere neat pemmican. It was explicitly a form of bread, and most likely based on hardtack, that Tolkien would have been exposed to on the seas and while in service.

Pemmican as a specific "thing" came from the Americas, but the concept of mixing dried meats/preserved dairy and fats is something that is common in history

Merad5 tahun yang lalu

Pretty sure that the GP is referring to the effectiveness of lembas. It's described as being extremely nutritious so that one bite can fill a man's stomach and keep him on the march all day.

I'm fairly certain that Tolkien actually stated that lembas is a reference to the Eucharist. No doubt he had experience with hardtack, but IRL hardtack isn't really known for being nutritious or pleasant to eat.

Mediterraneo105 tahun yang lalu

> I'm fairly certain that Tolkien actually stated that lembas is a reference to the Eucharist.

I'd really want to see a cite for that. Tolkien was infamously hostile to any allegorical reading of The Lord of the Rings. Sometimes a fantasy epic is just a fantasy epic.

cynicalkane5 tahun yang lalu

Tolkien both claimed that LOTR was allegorical and that it wasn't. Probably he was using the common definition of allegory in one context and the literary definition in the other.

When Tolkien said he disliked allegory, he meant he disliked literary works that map directly onto some external meaning that was necessary for understanding the story. He thought a story should stand on its own, and, further, it wasn't good writing to try to force a story into allegory rather than let it take its own direction. But we also know from his letters that he purposefully incorporated religious (specifically, Catholic) metaphors into LOTR, which most people would call allegory, including Tolkien on some occasions.

Merad5 tahun yang lalu

Was able to find it through Tokien Gateway (a really great reference, BTW), Letter 213: http://tolkiengateway.net/wiki/Letter_213

> From [Tolkien's] works one could deduce the Christianity but not perhaps the Roman Catholicism, except that one critic related invocations the Elbereth and Galadriel's character to Catholic devotion to Mary. Another saw lembas, which fed the will and became more potent when fasting, as derived from the Eucharist.

Mediterraneo105 tahun yang lalu

From your link (written in rather grammatically flawed English) it is unclear whether Tolkien intended that symbolism, or if he was only relating that a third party claimed that symbolism in his work.

jodrellblank5 tahun yang lalu

Some discussion about the plausibility of lembas here: https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/questions/56044/lemb...

jfengel5 tahun yang lalu

Any idea how the fats avoid becoming rancid? Jerky is made from lean meat to avoid rancidity. Is it the difference between dairy fat and muscle fat?

kk585 tahun yang lalu

I've had these , they taste like salty chalk

tired-dev5 tahun yang lalu

While I admire the resourcefulness of the people who invented these sorts of foods, they aren't really the sort of thing most people like to eat when given alternatives, I think.

hoseja5 tahun yang lalu

Not saddle-jerky? Aw, man, I was really craving that horse sweat.

qiqing5 tahun yang lalu

My coworker just told me it's her favorite. Apparently, if you like the flavor of kefir or salty lassi or parmesan chips or yogurt drops, you might also like these.

madaxe_again5 tahun yang lalu

Just be prepared for them to be hard - “as hard as iron slag” isn’t far off it - first time I had one I nearly broke a tooth - they have the consistency of concrete.

Tasty, though. Great with a frosty beer after a day roasting in the steppes - which is where I first encountered them - mysterious spheres presented with a brew in dusty Aktobe.

AlotOfReading5 tahun yang lalu

They take some getting used to, but I absolutely loved them when I was working in central asia. I haven't been able to find a hookup back in the states though.

qiqing5 tahun yang lalu

I just ordered some from a few sources, and hopefully one of them is good. Found one on Amazon, one on Etsy, and one from Bonanza. They're supposed to have great shelf life, so I guess they are well suited for e-commerce.

I felt like if I made them and didn't like them, I wouldn't know it was me screwing up the recipe or not.

andybak5 tahun yang lalu

Available on eBay: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/323869829071

r29vzg25 tahun yang lalu

I had these in Uzbekistan, they sell them everywhere, and people suck on them like it’s chewing gum. They were not to my taste, very bitter and very salty.

wolfretcrap5 tahun yang lalu

I ate this in Tibet or atleast that was very similar to this so I guess Chinese also have it?

qiqing5 tahun yang lalu

My mom, who lives in Shanghai, orders 'nai pian' on taobao as one of her favorite snacks. Apparently it's yogurt chips (not yogurt balls) and it's very popular, and people generally think of it as being from Mongolia, but eat it like potato chips that happen to be keto.

simonebrunozzi5 tahun yang lalu

I'm pissed off. At how privacy is handled by most sites.

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Fuck this. Really.

mistrial95 tahun yang lalu

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simonebrunozzi5 tahun yang lalu

Thanks for your comment. Reading mine today (a day after I wrote it), I can see why it sounded harsher than it should have been.

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