Purvya Volod'kina, Milk Products and Vodka

Abstract

Purvya talks about how Kalmyks made cheese and milk vodka. Her story: In the past, we made special bags, poured bozo (what is left from distilling milk vodka) into them and hung them outside to dry. The water dripped through these bags and what was left inside quickly dried in the sun. The dried stuff was then cut into squares called khurskh. When khurskh was dried further, it became cheese called shuurmg. In winter people put these shuurmg into boiling milk to make a sour drink. About milk vodka. We poured 3 buckets of chigyan (sour milk) into a big pot and covered it with a wooden lid. Then smeared it around with mud to make the pot air-tight. There were 2 holes on the lid – one was for a pipe through which vapor travelled to another pot called idsh. When the vodka was ready people cooked meat, made tea and ate together.