KOUMYSS (KOUMISS)
Put into a self-sealing pint bottle, one tablespoonful of sugar, one-six of a Fleischman’s yeast cake and fill the bottle to within three inches of the top with new milk and seal. Let it remain in a warm place nine hours, shaking frequently at least once an hour. Then let it stand in a cold place for three hours when it will be ready for use. And excellent and nourishing drink.
CONVENIENT METHODS OF PREPARING KOUMYSS.
Dr. Sakovich, in the Vratch, 1882, No.12, highly recommends a method of preparing koumiss from cow’s millk, as it was originally given by Dr. Toropoff. He takes half a champagne-bottle of morning unskimmed milk, and fills up the bottle with pure fountain water. This mixture is triturated in a mortar with one frame of best yeast, and again returned into the bottle, with the addition of two tablespoons of finely powdered sugar. During the first 24 hours the bottle is kept uncovered, at the temperature of 14 Reaum, 63.5 F, then it is hermetically corked and kept in a cold cellar for 5 days. On the sixth day the koumiss is ready to use , and presents then a white, creamy, slightly gaseous fluid of pleasant taste. London Medical Record.
Koumyss can be easily prepared by any household in the country by the following formula of Dr. Wolf:
Take of grape-sugar half an ounce, and dissolve in four ounces of water ; then in about two ounces of milk dissolve 20 grains of compressed yeast (nearly all grocers keep it) or two ounces of fresh brewer’s yeast. Mix the two solutions in a large quart champagne bottle, and fill with good cow’s milk to within two inches of the top. Cork and wire; put in a cool place not over 50F, shaking three times a day. At the end of three or four days the koumiss is ready, and will keep for a week.
Koumiss, made at home, as follows, costs about fifteen cents a quart: Fill a quart champagne bottle up the the neck with pure milk; add two tablespoonfuls of white sugar, after dissolving the same in a little water over a hot fire; add also a quarter of a two cent cake of compressed yeast; then tie the cork on the bottle securely, and shake the mixture well. Place in a room of the temperature of 50 to 95 F. For six hours, and finally in the ice box over night. Drink in such quantities as the stomach may require. It will be well to sieve several important injunctions in preparing the koumiss, and they are:
1, to be sure that the milk is pure; 2, that the bottle is sound; 3, that the yeast is fresh; 4, to open the mixture in the morning with the great care, on account of its effervescence properties; 5, not to drink it all if there is any cradle of thickening part resembling cheese, as this indicates that the fermentation was been prolonged beyond the proper time.
Make it as you need to use it. The virtue of koumiss is that it refreshes and stimulates, with no after reaction from its effects. Medical Summary
