The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction. Volume 17, No. 477, February 19, 1831Various
History
The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction. Volume 17, No. 477, February 19, 1831
Various
Popular literature -- Great Britain -- Periodicals
After describing the process of distillation, Pallas remarks, if
the brandy is made from cows' milk, what is obtained is equal to the
thirtieth, or at most to the twenty-fifth part of the mass; but when
from mares' milk, it equals the fifteenth part. The new fluid is pale
and watery, and does not inflame; but it keeps without spoiling, in
glass bottles, like weak corn-brandy. The rich Kalmucks render it
stronger by several distillations, and they have names for the products
of each rectification. The _arki_ is named _dang_ after its first
rectification; _arza_, after the second; _khortsa_, after the third.
They seldom go farther, although the rectifications are sometimes pushed to
six. The names given to the two last are _chingsta_ and _dingsta_. The
Kalmucks are generally, however, content with the products of the first
distillation.
The receiver has scarcely been filled, when they pour the brandy warm
from it into a large wooden vessel with a spout, from which they fill
leather bottles, or gourds.
It is customary for the host, with whom the company is then, to pour
brandy into a vessel, and afterwards to throw part of it into the fire,
and part towards the hole by which the smoke issues to render the
spirits of the air or his tutelary angel propitious. Lastly, the warm
brandy circulates among the company, composed of kinsfolk and friends,
in large cups, which often do not hold less than a bottle. If a little
is left, it is heated again before it is drunk. This milk-brandy, on
account of the aqueous parts which it contains, does not inebriate so
easily when a small quantity is taken, as brandy made from grain; but
it is found, by the example of the Russians and all the tribes of the
Steppes, that the drunkenness which it causes continues longer, and
entirely destroys the appetite. On the other hand, it does not produce
violent head-aches, like corn-brandy.
The rich Kalmucks and Mongols are in the habit, when they pass the
winter near towns, of distilling with or without milk brandy from
leavened bread. The product, it is said, is stronger, and has a keener
taste than milk-brandy. The residuum of the distillation of milk-brandy,
which is sharp, and has a smell like wine lees, is applied to various
uses. Sometimes it is mixed with fresh milk, and immediately eaten;
sometimes it is applied for preparing sheep and lamb skins; sometimes
the women boil it, either by itself, or, if it is too sharp, with a
mixture of sweet milk, until it thickens, and then pour the cheesy
substance into bags, which, when thoroughly dried, they throw into
heaps. They also, like the Tartar tribes, frequently form it into round
cakes, which they dry in the sun, and keep principally for journeys and
for winter use. The residuum of distillation is called _bosson_,
and by the Mongols _tsakha_.--The cheese formed in heaps is named
_chourmyk_, that in cakes, _thorossoun_.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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