Bulyash Chumudova, About Milk Vodka

Abstract

Bulyash talks about how she made milk vodka in her youth. 2 buckets of chigyan (sour, fermented milk) was poured into a big pot. Then the pot was covered with the lid. The lid had a small hole for a special pipe called tsorg that connected the pot with another pot, smaller in size. When the chigyan boiled in the big pot, the vodka vapor moved through the pipe to the smaller pot. In order to test it, a small amount of vodka was given to elderly men who sprinkled it into the fire. By the hissing sound it was possible to determine whether the vodka was ready or not. After distillation, a layer of cheese (aarmg) formed inside the big pot. It was given to children to eat. Bulyash reminisces that in 1976 when her son defended his PhD in Mongolian studies, she distilled vodka. She invited women and elderly men for the occasion. The women made butter from chigyan and added the butter to the vodka. Before drinking, the elderly men offered libation to the fire by sprinkling 3 times. In the past, young people were not allowed to consume alcohol.