Meat Dishes

Alena talks about traditional cuisine and what people ate during different seasons in the past. She also gives short recipes for traditional dishes and drinks.

Bulmg: Put butter and milk in a pan and boil on a low heat. Add flour. The flour separates from the butter and turns into small balls. The dish is called bulmg.

Khal’msh: Put butter in a pan and heat it up. Then add flour and mix until it becomes half-liquid.

Khursn tsya: Put butter and flour in a pan and heat until the flour becomes brown. Then add tea.

Makhta tsya: Boil meat and add it to tea.

Chidmg: Prepare chigyan (kumis) and leave it for a while. When the water separates, it is called chidmg.

Kimr: A beverage made of boiled water diluted with milk. When a person is ill or has a temperature, he/she should not be given Kalmyk tea but kimr.

Edmg: When milk goes off, boil it. This beverage is called edmg.

Milk vodka: It is distilled using two pots, big and small. In the big pot put chigyan (kumis). Then connect both pots with a pipe to let the vodka drip from one pot to the other. The big pot has to be sealed with mud so that it becomes airtight. The longer the chigyan boils, the stronger the vodka becomes. The first distillation of chigyan is called vodka. When the vodka is distilled further, it is called arz. In order to taste the vodka, a stick is used which has cotton wrapped around one end. Vodka is made from cow’s milk. Traditionally, men are not allowed to consume alcohol until they reach 40 or 45.

Boortslsn makhn: In the past, sheep were slaughtered in the summer. The meat was cut into long slices, dipped in salty water and then dried on a rope. When the meat dried, it was put into bags made of calf skin. The dried meat was consumed in the winter.

Shuurmg: Put fat into a hot pan and melt it. Then add it to budan which is a soup made of flour.

Sharsn makhn: It is meat fried on open fire.

Kyur: Break the carcass of a sheep into small pieces, then salt it and put the meat into the sheep’s skin and sew it up. Dig a small hole in the ground and start a fire. When the wood turns into coal, put the skin bag with the meat inside it into the hole and cover it with the coal. Then cover the coal with a layer of mud. The kyur has to be left in the hole for about 8 hours. During this time meat separates from bones. The dish can be made from both lamb and fully grown sheep.

Ishksn makhn: Cut cooked meat into small pieces, salt it and then add broth.

Anna talks about Kalmyk dishes. This is her story:

In Siberia our mother used to make us bulmg. The weather was cold there. When you ate bulmg, your heart pounded and you felt as if you had eaten a piece of hot, fatty meat. To make bulmg, you need to mix sour cream and produce butter. Then add flour and water to the hot butter and mix it again.

When we did not have milk, we drank tea with fried flour called khuursn tsya (fried tea). Other Kalmyk dishes include bortsg biscuits, boreg (dumplings boiled in water) and meat wrapped in dough.

Seksrdg is made as follows. Add flour to hot butter and mix. Then roll the dough into thin rectangles and boil them in water.

This video features recipes for biscuits (bortsg), dumplings, and Kalmyk tea.

Biscuits (bortsg): This recipe is modern. Ingredients include 400 grams of cream, 4 spoons of sugar, a spoon of salt, and an egg. All the ingredients are mixed with flour. The dough should be kneaded until it stops sticking to hands. Then the dough is left for 30 minutes in the fridge. The dough is made into biscuits and fried in sunflower oil until it turns brownish on both sides. The first plate of biscuits is put on the altar.

Bortsg is made in many shapes. For example, in the shape of the sun, birds, a ram’s head, a camel, a stick etc. All these have names.

Dumplings: Flour is mixed with 2 eggs, half a teaspoon of salt, sunflower oil, and a glass of water. The dough is mixed and kneaded until it is not sticky. Then the dough is cut and rolled into small circles. Mince is put on the dough circles and the circles are closed by wrapping and pinching the edges. The mince is made from mutton, 4 onions, salt, pepper, and fat from a sheep’s tail. The dumplings are boiled in water.

Tea: According to a legend, it was lama Tsongkapa who gave the recipe for Kalmyk tea to the Kalmyk people. One day when the lama fell ill, his teacher gave him this recipe. Ingredients include water, tea, milk, nutmeg, salt, and butter. Lama Tsongkapa drank this tea until he recovered.

Galina recalls about what she ate in her childhood in the 1960s. This is her story:

My father was a shepherd. He slaughtered sheep by cutting their throat. Whenever we slaughtered a sheep, we collected its blood in a bowl and then stirred it by hand. We added salt, milk, spices and cooked it. It was so delicious!

When people could not kill a sheep, they consumed dairy products, including chigyan (fermented milk drink), milk vodka, tea, and bulmg. Kalmyks did not have special dishes.

When we returned home from Siberia, we did not have much food. Only 5-6 years later, when we were settled, could we afford enough food. We also ate ground squirrels (tushkanchik). When it rained, my grandfather used to take a bucket with water and go squirrel hunting. We followed him. My grandfather poured water into barrows and waited until the squirrels jumped out. He caught them and broke their neck. During a trip he could catch up to 7 squirrels. We sat next to him and looked how he did it. At home my grandfather skinned them and salted the skin.

When he had enough skins, he sold them to some people. With the money he bought tobacco and small things like that. He fried or cooked ground squirrel meat by adding a lot of onions. That was in the 1960s. We also dried their meat. My grandfather ate dried meat himself. We also collected squirrel fat in bottles. My grandfather smeared fat on bread and ate it. Such fat is said to be good for tuberculosis. Many Kalmyks returned from Siberia with tuberculosis and they treated themselves with ground squirrel fat. Wolf’s meat, as my grandfather would say, is also good for respiratory diseases.

Konstantin talks about why the Kalmyks do not eat horse or goat meat. He recounts a story from his youth when he was working as a driver. One day, he and his friends butchered a horse that had its legs broken. When Konstantin brought a piece of horse’s meat home, his grandmother did not let him into the house. Since the horse is considered a nomad’s first and foremost assistant, Kalmyks do not eat its meat out of respect. The Kalmyks do not eat goat meat either because it is believed to be an animal that belongs to malevolent spirits. There is a legend. Once upon a time god created man and all other living beings. Nearby was sitting a malevolent spirit who also asked for an animal for himself. That animal was the goat.

When we lived in our homeland (before exile in 1943) my father worked as a shepherd. We always had good food. We ate meat, dairy products, we made milk vodka. After the distillation of milk vodka milk thicket remains, it is called aadmg. From aadmg we made dried cheese, which is called shuurmg. Shuurmg is made the following way: milk thicket, left from distilling milk vodka, is compressed by hand and left to dry. Another dish made from aadmg is called khyursn it is made as follows: sugar or salt is added to aadmg, to taste, then rolled into a flat cake, cut and dried. Khyursn can be sweet or salted.

Shuurmg is consumed mixed with milk or cream. Khyursn can be eaten as a dessert or sweet.

Another milk dish is khoormg. It is made in a special way from chigyan (fermented milk) mixed with fresh milk.

As there was no refrigerator meat was cut into thin strips and dried in the sun. It turned into special jerky meat called bortslsn makhn. By mixing shuurmg with bortslsn makhn and boiling these two ingredients in water, you get another dish called budan.

Another dish called bulmg is delicious. It is cooked as follows: heat the melted butter (shar tosn) in a pan, remove the liquid that comes from the melted butter, in the remaining thick butter add flour, milk, raisins, pieces of apples and prunes and mix everything together until cooked to taste.

This is what Kalmyks ate in the past. When the war began, food became worse, but still it wasn’t too bad, we had boiled potatoes, rice.

Maria talks about Kalmyk dishes, including meat and milk-based ones. This is her story:

In the past, we ate dried fish. A fish was boiled, cleaned of its bones and dried. It looked like mince.

Dried yoghurt was made from what was left from distilling milk vodka. The leftover was dried and mixed with butter.

Koortsg is a layer that forms on top of fresh milk.

Khursn is a pancake made from yoghurt.

Shuurmg is also made from yoghurt mixed with butter.

In the past, people kept butter in a paunch. A paunch was first salted, dried and filled with butter. It did not absorb the butter.

Bulmg is made as follows. First, heat butter, add flour and salty water. When a layer of butter emerges on top, this means that bulmg is ready.

Traditionally, different members of the family eat different parts of sheep meat. Children eat the ears; men eat the eyes.

When a cow was slaughtered, its meat was divided among neighbors. The meat was cut into long pieces and boiled in salty water. Some of it was dried for later consumption.

Eedmg is what is left from distilling milk vodka. Eedmg is mixed with milk.

Maria talks about meat dishes. She says that borts is dried meat which is cut into long pieces and drenched in salty water. When people cook a sheep’s head, the ears are given to children, the eyes and the tongue are eaten by men, and women eat the jaw. Cooked sheep’s heart and kidneys are given to children. People make sausages from sheep’s intestines. Thin intestines are also cleaned and dried to make strings for dombra instruments. People also drink tea with sheep’s fat.

Purvya talks about meat dishes that the Kalmyks ate when she was a child. This is her story:

Mutton was cut into thin, long pieces and dried in the sun. The dried meat then was softened in a cup of tea and eaten. It is a nutritious dish.

In 1932-33 there was a widespread hunger in the Volga region, which affected the Kalmyks as well. Many people died of hunger. The Kalmyks survived thanks to eating ground squirrels, whose skin they also sold. Those who had a cow had a better chance to survive. One of our relatives fried a cow’s pelt and then boiled it. We drank the soup and chewed the pelt.

In the past, poor herders used to make a dish called kur by stealing a sheep from their wealthy masters. They would kill a sheep, break the bones, put the meat into its stomach, and cook it inside a hole all night long. The meat becomes as soft as canned beef.

Sanal says that the Kalmyks cut a sheep in such a way as not to spill its blood on the ground. The blood, collected in a bowl, is mixed with an onion, fat, and poured into intestines to make sausages. During a wedding meal, cooked sheep’s kidneys are kept together on a plate to symbolize a union between the newly-wed. The cooked sheep’s head and shins are offered to gods. The jaw is given to the bride so that she becomes talkative.

Sofya talks about traditional cuisine, including meat dishes, bakery and milk vodka. This is her story:

The Kalmyks like mutton very much. It is possible to make any dish from it. Especially, a soup from mutton is held in high regard, because of its medicinal properties to heal a headache. The mutton should be cooked for a long time.

In the past, people who had a toothache ate beef.

Meat cooked with pasta is very delicious. Flour is mixed with an egg and salt, and the dough is rolled into a thin layer which then is cut into square pieces. Afterwards, these pieces are put into a boiling soup with meat.

Khursn makhn is fried meat.

In the past, pancakes were cooked by putting them inside a pile of hot ashes. When ready, a pancake was cut into slices and eaten with tea.

There were many varieties of bortsg biscuits, including tselvg, moshkmr, khorkha, etc.

What is left after distilling milk vodka is called bozo. It was mixed with milk. The final product is called khoormg. In the past, young men did not drink alcohol, it was only the elders who had the right to do so.

Zurgan reminisces about how the Kalmyks made sausages from intestines. This is her story:

Sheep’s or cow’s fat was thrown into a fire as an offering to the goddess Okn Tengri. The person who did this was meant to say a well wish as follows: ‘Let the food be like an elixir to us/ Let the number of livestock grow’. Pig’s fat cannot be offered to gods. In the past, people made sausages which had the following ingredients: blood, garlic, onion, milk and salt. Filled with these ingredients, the intestines were closed with a stick, and wrapped in sheep’s fat. When sausages were ready, the first cut was offered to gods. The stick was thrown into the fire.