Distilling brandy from mare's milk
Editorial contextThe same people drank water, or black brick tea boiled with mare's milk and butter, and they distilled a clear spirit from mare's milk called arak. Ides records the method: boil fresh milk, sour it with old milk, stir it hourly, then distil it twice in sealed pots joined by a reed. He notes that Siberian cows gave no milk once the calf was weaned, which is why mare's milk was so important.
They also draw off a sort of Brandy from Mares-Milk, which they call Kunnen, or Arak, and is distilled in the following manner. The New-Milk is first boiled, then put into a Fat, to which is added some Stale-Milk, and this mixture is stirred every Hour … then it is fit to drink, being as clear, and strong, as Malt Spirits, and very soon intoxicates.
About Horse Tungus (Evenks) of 'great Tartary'
Continue in this sourceAn envoy's overland journey from Moscow to Peking1692 to 1695 · 18 passages