Riding Through History

8 Tips to Keep Up with Equestrian Activities in the SCA

2009-02-03T20:05:14Z

8 Tips to Keep Up with Equestrian Activities in the SCA

With equestrian activities growing quickly in the SCA, it can be difficult to keep up with the latest news and activities. These tips can help you stay up-to-date.

by Mistress Kerij-e

SCA equestrian is growing fast all over the Knowne World. There are so many Web sites and so many lists. Where do you go to find out the most current equestrian event information? Here's a list of tips to help you get involved,and stay involved. As an example, I’ve included information about my own Kingdom, An Tir.

1.      Subscribe to the SCA-wide mailing list.
SCA_Equine is the most active list of SCA-wide equestrians. It is full of events, news, and random discussions.  The noise to information level is fairly high, and not all topics are of interest to everyone, but key information is always posted on this list.

To subscribe, send an e-mail to: Majordomo@midrealm.org   and include "Subscribe sca-equine" in the subject heading.

2. Subscribe to your Kingdom's equestrian e-mail list.
Most kingdoms have an equestrian list of some type. These lists usually announce upcoming events, news, and pronouncements from the Kingdom Officer. You can find the list on your Kingdom Web page.

In An Tir, AnTir_Horse on Yahoo! Groups is the most active list of equestrians. It is a moderately busy list with events, practices, notices, rule changes, and other fun conversation. You can receive individual messages, a daily digest, or no e-mail at all, and instead visit the Yahoo! Groups Web site.

To subscribe, send an e-mail to:AnTir-Horse-subscribe@yahoogroups.com.

3. Visit and bookmark your Kingdom's Web site.
Your Kingdom's Web site is your best resource for your kingdom's specific rules for participating, events information, and contacts. A list of Kingdom Web sites can be found on the SCA.com Web site.

The An Tir Equestrian Web Page on the An Tir Info scroll is the official Web page of the An Tir Kingdom officer: The site lists officers, practices, events, rules, and forms.

4. Join a guild or group.
A guild is an official group of equestrians. These groups can also be called a lance, guard, conroy, troop, or just a plain old group. Some groups, such as lances and companies, are actually a type of household or honor guard, and require an invitation or formal admittance to participate.

In An Tir, we have many guilds and groups to choose from:
Kingdom Equestrian Guild
Western/Central An Tir Announcement
Madrone Equestrian Guild
Aquaterra Cavalry
Dredgate Equestrian Guild
Summits Stables

5. Attend equestrian meetings.
There are usually both local meetings and larger regional meetings. These meetings are usually without horses, and include issues for the group and planning future events. Some groups have monthly meetings, but other groups only meet at events.

In An Tir, the Madrone Equestrian Guild meets monthly. The Kingdom Equestrian officer, as well as the Kingdom Equestrian Guild, calls meeting at most major Kingdom events. These meetings are announced on the e-mail lists.

6. Participate in practices.
Notice that I didn't say, “attend or go to practice”, just get in there and get involved! Get to know people. Groundcrew is always welcome, as are new horses and riders. This is the place to learn!

In An Tir, the list of practices can be found on the Kingdom Web site: http://antir.sca.org/Offices/Marshallate/Equestrian/eq-calendar.php

7. Read upcoming events calendar in your kingdom newsletter or Web site.
There is usually only one line in the event copy about horse activities, but the following terms are clues that horses will be there:
* EMIC or EqMIC
* Equestrian
* IKEQ
* Haul-in
Do not bring a horse until you are sure that horses are allowed.

8. Talk to an equestrian at an event.
We don't bite. Just be polite, show a little interest, and we'll talk your ear off!

For more equestrian articles like this, see the Madrone Equestrian Guild Web site.

(c) 2009 Crystal Smithwick

Mongolian Glossary

2009-02-03T19:54:56Z

Glossary of Words
Mongol to English
Disclaimer: I collected these words from multiple sources. Spellings and exact definitions may vary. This is only for quick reference. For more exact definitions, please consult a real dictionary. - kerij-e

aaruul = n. rock-hard milk curd

aduu = n. horse (also see mori)

aigiarn = shining moon (female name)

aikhan = adj. beautiful

aimag = state or province

airak = n. fermented mare's milk.

al = crimson

alima = apple

alagh = adj. dappled or mottled (also black and white, multi-colored)

ald = n. a length of measurement the distance between your outstretched arms.

altan = adj. black

aral = flat dried milk

arigh = adj. pure

argal = dried cow dung used for fuel

arkhi = vodka

arslan = n. lion (also a title in wrestling. Wins all fights)

avarga = n. titan (title in wrestling. Wins all fights for 2 years)

baatar = hero

baga = small

basba = n. An early Mongolian alphabet

batu = adj. loyal

bayan = n. rich

bayar = n. joy

berke = adj. difficult

boke = adj. strong

bora = adj. gray

booz or buuz = steamed lamb dumpling

botgo = camel yearling

bus = n. belt, also the tension bands around a ger

burilgi = n. destroyer

chagan = adj. white

charak = the rope that holds down the ger

chinua = n. wolf

checheg = n. flower

cheren = n. long life

dal = shoulder blade

darkhat = n. One of the Mongolian tribes. Men wear the hat with ear flaps.

dariimaa = modern woman camelherder

daruulga = n. the two pairs of metal ornaments that holds the cushion to the saddle frame

dash = n. good luck

del = n. robe (also spelled dehl)

delger = abundance

dewajao = modern woman

dorj = n. Lama prayer tool. an amulet.

d�r�� = n. stirrups

enq = n. peace

erdene = n. jewel

eriin gurvan naadam = n. "three games of men"

Eseg-in Kh�n�g = a bucket for fermented mare's milk

etsuji - hard chunks of dried cheese

gal = n. fire

gan = n. steel

genin = a person who is generous to his own determent. Refers to the story of the camel who loaned his antlers to the deer and never saw them again.

ger = n. round mongol tent with lattice sides. (also see yurt)

goyal = n. beauty

gutal = n. Mongolian boots

G�l�m = n. leather saddlecloth

aaruul = n. rock-hard milk curd

aduu = n. horse (also see mori)

aigiarn = shining moon (female name)

aikhan = adj. beautiful

aimag = state or province

airak = n. fermented mare's milk.

al = crimson

alima = apple

alagh = adj. dappled or mottled (also black and white, multi-colored)

ald = n. a length of measurement the distance between your outstretched arms.

altan = adj. black

aral = flat dried milk

arigh = adj. pure

argal = dried cow dung used for fuel

arkhi = vodka

arslan = n. lion (also a title in wrestling. Wins all fights)

avarga = n. titan (title in wrestling. Wins all fights for 2 years)

hadag = n. welcome cloth. Held in both hands with a wine bowl in the

right hand.

har boda = black rice, round like millet but black.

hohuur = camel milk

horgol = dried camel dung

hoshoor = fried lamb dumpling, favorite festival food

itgel = n. belief

ikh = great or big

Khajaar = n. halter

kerij-e = n. crow (Uigher)

khairkhan = holy peak

Khalka also spelled Khalakha = n. One of the Mongolian tribes. Women wear the Horn headdress.

khana = n. lattice walls of a ger (also spelled hana)

Khanhan = n. Khan of Khan's

Khantun = n. Wife of the Khanhan

khoni = n. sheep

Khor = the part of a quiver where the arrowheads are kept

Khoromsaga or "Khoromsoo = quiver

Khoton = n. One of the Mongolian tribe

khodag = well

koke = adj. blue

khuurshurr = flat meat pancake

Jangar = n. A heroic epic about good against evil.

Jiloo = n. rein

Jirem = n. the two left-side girths of a saddle

mori = n. horse (also see aduu)

morin khuur n. = horse headed fiddle.

Mingat = n. One of the Mongolian tribes. Women wear the Horn headdress.

moir uraldakh = n. horse racing

mongke or munkht = adj. eternal

mongo = adj. silver

moron = river

murindoo = mount

nachin = n. falcon (also title in wrestling- winner of 5 fights in
succession)

nairamdal = friendship

narmanda = sun rays

nasan = n. life

nokhoi = n. dog

nur = lake

oboo = n. pile of sacred rocks. sometimes with a stick with flags tied to them.

ordon - palace

orga = n. Mongolian lasso. A long stick with a loop on the end.

oorchlokhs = n. pile of sacred rocks. Walk 3 times around sunwise (clockwise?) and leave an offering. (also oloo, ovoo, oboo)

orom n. = pasty butter-cream

osol = v. increase

oygun = n. wisdom

Olong = n. the right-hand saddle girth

qacha = n. flank

qadan = n. cliff

qulan = n. roan and white

qara = adj. black

qutugh = n. dignity or holiness

qutlugh = adv. fortunate

qorchi = n. quiver bearer

saadag = a quiver with arrows

saikhan setgel = being hospitable

setseg = n. flower

shagai = sheep's knucklebones

shanaga = n. ladle or dipper

sharga = adj. yellowish

shria = adj. yellow

soolong = n. rainbow

sube = n. eye of needle or strategic point

suutei tsai = n. milky tea (tea with salt, milk, and butter)

suren = majestic

tarakh = yogurt

tarvagan takhal = marmot plague

Tchoo = The sound riders make to urge their horses on. Also spelled Choo.

tegus = adj. perfect

temee = n. camel

temur = n. iron

Tengeriin cholon = sky stone, a type of stone used by ancients to make tools

tohom = camel saddle blanket

toksh = seat of a camel saddle

tolui = n. mirror

toono = n. smoke hole of a ger "window of heaven"

Torgut = n. one of the Mongolian tribes

torum = newborn camel

tortsog = n. a Khalkan or Torgut hat

tovch = n. tale

Tsagaan Sar = "White Month" Mongolian New Year, held in Feb or Jan.

ukker = n. ox or cow

ulagan = adj. red

umsgul = n. costume (full get up)

unegen = n. fox

ureg = n. Mongolian lasso (see uurga)

uurga = n. Mongolian lasso (see ureg)

vachir = n. thunderbolt

xar chin = an ethnic group whose main occupation used to be milking black horses

yamaa = n. goat

yurt = n. Russian or Turkic name for the round mongol tent.

zaan = n. elephant (also a title in wrestling - winner of 7 fights)

zahk = n. market

zurag = painting

Sources
Mongolia, Lonely Planet Survival kit publishing 1997 0-86442-500-7

Woman of Mongolia by Martha Avery

The Eight White Ordon, the Offering Ceremonies of Genghis Khan and the Mausoleum of Genghis Khan

ger_grrl @ 2007-08-24T12:58:00

2007-08-24T20:04:35Z

Building A Ger
Note: As we were moving the site, we lost some of the pictures. I'm trying to find them. Sorry...

By Crystal Smithwick and Robert Odekirk aka Kerij-e and Rapheal the Rogue

2007 Note: THis yurt is still in active use. It hasn't really been repaired, except to replace the roof and we finally broke down and replaced the one rafter that the tip had snapped off. The khanna is in terrible shape ;-) But still works. - Kerij-e

Where these plans came from
Tools
Materials List
Khana (Lattice Walls)
Rafters
Door Frame
Toono (Ring)
Cloth Wall
Cloth Roof
Toono Cover
Putting Up the Ger
Sources

A ger, more familiarly known as a yurt, is the traditional dwelling of several nomadic tribes including the Mongols. It is made up of a folding lattice wall, pole rafters that plug into holes in a ring, all held together by the tension of a rope round the belly. Over it all a skin of felt, or in this anachronistic day, canvas. As a result, a wonderful, portable home.

The picture above is the back of my ger at the SCA's Thirtieth Year celebration in 1996. The ger was about 2 years old then. It's 16' in diameter. The walls are about 5' tall and the center height is about 8'. Because of the flexibility of the ger's design, the measurements change according to how it is put up.

Where these plans came from

These plans were initially based on Chuck and Laurel Cox's plans in The Portable Yurt by Frog Pond Press 1974. Of the 20-page book, we used 2 pages.

We used the wall plans modified for more portability by reducing the thickness of the slats. Although we did include the groove at the top of the slats, but almost immediately realized that we didn't need it since we declined to use the steel cable but using regular non stretchy rope instead. (Sometimes we even put the khana (lattice walls) "upside down."

We used the door without any modification initially, but in our later repairs we made some changes, including adding a wooden door.

After some research into the traditional gers, we decided not use the Cox ring or rafters at all, but opted for a more Mongolian solution, a bent wood toono (roof ring) and poles with squared ends to fit into square holes in the toono and ties at the other end to fasten to the khana.

We modified the canvas wall design by eliminating the bottom webbing and extending the walls a little so that they wrapped around the end of the khana before it went into the door frame. We also used their wedge patterned canvas roof (minus one adjustable flap), but had to add the 1' strip of red canvas (decorated with stenciled bats) all around the bottom about a year later after some shrinkage. We also added a drawstring to tighten the edge. We DO NOT recommend repeating that chore.

As a result of all this tinkering and "dumbing" down our design, our version of the ger is very flexible and can be put up in a number of less than perfect places. My father, who had only seen the ger put up once in the backyard, took the ger and put it up in a public camp ground. In the end he successfully put it up at 14' in diameter and on a definite slope. About 1/4 of the slats weren't even touching the ground! But it stayed up all weekend even during several rain and wind storms. (Ah, Memorial Day weekend in Seattle.)

I should mention, that we did not make our ger alone, while we were making our ger, some friends were making theirs. Many of the pieces were made simultaneously using the same jigs and set ups. The other ger used the Cox's rafters (using pins and notched ends), ring (made of pieced wood blocks), and steel cable. Not bad choices, just different ones. I know that it's owners are as pleased with it as we are with ours. We just had different priorities.

Kean and Lissa Stump are making a ger using these plans. Here's their web site chronicling that adventure!

Tools

When we made the ger (and it's brother), we used electric hand tools. We managed with the help of jigs and a lot of fiddling, but I'd rather not do that again. So I recommend:

Table saw (to cut the boards into slats)
Drill press (to drill the holes ;-)
Orbital sander (to sand the slats)
Jig saw (to cut the end of the rafter poles and the holes in the toono)
Hammer and anvil (to smash the rivets)
Utility knife (to cut the rope)
Rivet spacer (you'll need to either make this or find something that will work. It's just something to keep a space between the wood and the rivet.)
Wood glue (waterproof polyurethane)
Staple gun with 1/4" staples
Utility knife
As many clamps as you can get your hands on

Material List

Materials for toono and roof fabric are not included, because well, things are changing.

Lumber

4 - 2" x 8" x 7' fir boards
8 - 2" x 4" x 7" fir boards
4 - 3/4" x 2" x 57" boards (These have to be cut.)
2 - 3/4" x 1 1/2" x 39" boards (These have to be cut.)
1 sheet of 1/8" birch plywood (You'll have extra.)
2 - 52" x 1" thick sticks of flexible wood or use extra birch plywood cut into 2" strips.
Note: Always get the clearest wood possible. Knots will split.

Fabric (for walls only)

22+ yards 1 1/4" nylon or cotton webbing
20+ yards of 60" cotton canvas

Miscellaneous

325 rivets and washers - or - cotter pins and washers - or - screws and washers
84 feet static (non-stretching) cord or rope (one piece should be 60 feet long)
8 - 3 1/2" machine bolts
70+ 3/8" grommets
Heavy duty polyester thread
At least 50 yards of nonstretchy rope
1/4" staples for your staple gun

Khana (Lattice Walls)

Cut the 2" x 4 " x 8's to 68" long.
Mark 1" from each end and every 11" between.
Drill the holes using a drill press for best results.
Rip the shortened boards into 1/4" slats. (With a 1/8" kerf, each board should produce 24 slats for a total of 96 (You'll have two extra slats for later repairs.)
Cut 4 lathes to 57" (1" from the second hole). Discard waste.
Cut 4 lathes to 35" (1" from the fourth hole) Save waste.
Trim waste from 35" lathes to 13" (1" from each hole.)
Sand each slat and finish by waterproofing or painting. (You may need to clean out the drill holes.)

Khana Assembly

The wall is a lattice. It folds into a compact cylinder 6' long by 2' in diameter. When it is extended until the pieces are about 60 degrees, it is 46' long.

You'll need 4 - 13" slats, 4 " - 35" slats, 4 - 57" slats and 86 - 68" slats.

Lay lathes out according to diagram below. It is easier if you lay 6 or 7 lathes down, insert the rivet into the holes from underneath, and then lay the corresponding top lathes on top of them. Match the holes over the rivets, place a washer over the rivet and pound it. (DO NOT make a tight fit. We made a tool out of 1/8" thick piece of metal in the shape of a "U" that slid around the rivet (under the washer) and kept the space. After pounding over the rivet, we removed the tool and had a nice uniform space. The completed khana should open an close smoothly without being stuff. (If you're feeling stingy, you can skip putting the third and fifth row of holes after the first four four up to the last four runs of slats.) That cuts down on about 100 (?) rivets.

Rafters

In a medieval ger, the rafters were straight willow poles that were shaved to a point at one end. They were probably only about a thumb thickness and were replaced as needed.

My ger has 24 1" x 1 1/2" rafters. One for every other cross at the top of the khana and one over the door. It was a compromise for durability (they don't snap during transport or if you step on one), smaller bunch to carry and still have enough surface area to keep the roof up. Admittedly this does cause some dips in the roof.

NOTE: You could use twice as many rafters and make them smaller, maybe cut four per 2" x 4". and get a 1 1/2" by 3/4" or something like that. They don't have to be terribly strong to hold up a light ring like mine, it's the combined strength of the rafters that holds up the ring and the roof fabric. Just remember, increase the number and reduce the size appropriately in the toono (ring).

Rip each 2" x 4" into 3 pieces lengthwise (They come out to 1"x1 1/2").
Cut one pole about 4 - 6" shorter (this one goes over door)
Drill a hole 1" from one end.
Taper 2 sides of the other end about 6" to a 1" point.
Thread one foot of cord through the hole and tie.

Door Frame

Cut four 3/4" x 2" x 57" boards
Cut two 3/4" x 1 1/2" x 39" fir plank
On the 57" boards, drill holes 1" from each end and 18 1/2" from each other.
On the 39" boards, drill holes 1" from each end.
Assemble according to picture with machine bolts.
Add D-rings between the bolts (Not shown in this diagram).

You can make a solid plywood door for this (about 2" larger then the opening) and hang it by hinges or make a thick cloth door (decorated felt, of course) and tie it to the top of the frame. You open ger doors from the right. (I need to switch mine.)

Toono (Ring)

For my 16' ger, the toono is about 3' in diameter and 4" tall (not including the cross pieces). For our original toono (still in use) and the new ones Raph is making for our household, he laminated 1/8" thick wood, and built it up to about 1/2" thick. But you could use any of the plans out there for pieced rings or make your own out of bentwood, as long as in the end you have the right amount of holes for the poles to fit into and they can support the weight of the ring and fabric.

To construct one:

Cut strips of 1/8" birch plywood lengthwise into 4" strips.
They will be 8' long.
Cut two of these strips into pieces 56 1/2" long.
You can use the excess for cross pieces.
Soak these two pieces and an 8' long piece in hot water until they are pliable.
Lay the two 56" pieces flush end to end. Clamp and staple them from the inside surface. (Staple in sets of two along the outer edges. Staples will stick out. Later you will snip and hammer the ends in.)
You should have a circle the outside circumference of your future ring.
Lay your ring on a flat surface.
This is a messy project, protect your surface with plastic or something.
Take the soaked 8' long slat, spread a layer of glue on it's entire length on one side. (This is where things get messy.)
Place one end on the inside of the ring half way between the two stapled joints.
Press it firmly against the inside of the ring, matching this new piece to the inside of the ring so that the edges are flush.
Staple from the inside surface along the outside edges every 6" and clamp as you go.
Remove, and then replace, the clamps on the joints as you get to them.
Securely clamp the end.
Wipe off any excess glue.
Let these layers dry according to the glue's instructions, usually overnight.
Before adding the next layer, clip the ends of the staples off as close to the surface as possible and then hammer any excess over.
Continue to soak, glue, layer and staple strips one at a time. Always from the inside and allowing it to dry before adding the next layer. (You may have to clip the staples on the next layer too.)
When you have 4-5 layers, at least 1/2" thick, allow the whole thing to cure for two or three days before finishing the ring.
Use a sharp utility knife to remove any excess dried glue and sand the edges smooth.

To finish one of Raph's 36" rings for use with 24 (1"x 1 1/2") rafters.

Divide the ring into 24 parts (about 4.7" apart.) Mark these.
Scribe a 1 1/2" tall X 1" wide square, centered on each mark. (The holes are bigger than the end of the poles, but about the same size as the poles. The poles do not make a tight fit, rather they are wedged into the holes. This gives you the fudge factor needed during set up.)
Drill four pilot holes, one in each corner of the squares.
Cut them out using a jigsaw or a mortising bit.
Attach the two pieces of flexible wood to the ring in a cross pattern. (You can either tie them on, staple them on, or anything else. Raph suggests leather pockets to stick the ends of the poles into. It makes the toono flatten for travel and storage.

You can finish the toono by either staining, painting, or oiling. If you paint use a primer. Raph is using polyurethane waterproof glue, so you don't have to waterproof the toono if you'd rather just use oil.

Cloth Wall

Turn under the cut ends of the fabric and baste down.
Cut two pieces of webbing to width of fabric.
On wrong side, sew down webbing along both ends.
On wrong side, sew down webbing along top edge.
Install grommets on all four corners and every foot along top and sides.
Lace rope through holes, leave about 2" on each end. Cut off excess.
Cut eight 1' pieces of rope. Tie each of these into the grommets on the side. (These tie to the door.)

Cloth Roof

Originally, I sewed the roof according to the Cox plans. It consisted of these huge wedges which I tediously stitched together. The plans called for two laced sections for making adjustments. I reduced it to one laced section, but still had an overly engineered cover. I never used the lacings, they were just a place for the roof to leak and to collect mildew. So I am replacing my roof (after 7 years). This is the basic plan. I haven't figure out all of the details yet, but this is the plan based on conversations with other ger makers. IF you uses these plans, it has to be done after the rest of the ger is done. I'm taking measurements with mine so I'll have exact plans for you later.

Take four widths of 60" fabric and sew them together with flat fell seams.
Lay the huge piece out and cut a 20' circle.
Cut a 3' circle out of the center and finish edges (this is for the smoke hole.)
Okay, this is the scary part. Put the roof on.
Pull the roof taut and take up the excess and mark. It should be a wedge shape.
Remove the roof.
Sew up the wedge and cut off excess.
Cut a strip 1" wide that will go all around the bottom of the roof.
Sew this onto the edge of the roof.
Finish the edges and sew the ends together.

You should have a nicely fitted cap for your ger ;-)

Toono cover (smoke hole cover)

Cut a 5' x 5' square.
Finish the edges.
Install grommets in each corner.
Tie a piece of rope into each corner that will reach to the ground.

Putting up the ger

This whole procedure takes about 45 minutes from unpacking to moving in. After a few weekends of putting it up, we are able to do it in about 20 minutes with just the two of us. A word of advice, the more people that help, the longer it takes.

Extend the khana to a 16' diameter with space for the door.
Slide the ends of the khana into the sides of the door frame. Tighten the door frame bolts.
Tie one end of the rope to the door frame at the D ring, and run it around the outside of the wall. (This is the belt or "bus" that supports the whole structure. It needs to be taut.)
Have someone stand in the center of the ger and hold the toono over their head. (If they stand on something it's easier.) Here's the one-person trick.
Insert three poles into equidistant holes on the toono.
Loop the rafter ropes over the points of the khana.
Insert the rafters one to the left of each of the installed poles and continue around and around until they are all in. The short pole goes over the door and ties to the frame. (The ring should be fairly level.)
Hang the wall over the khana by the rope. Tie one end to the door frame. (That's what the d-rings are for.)
Have two people hold the roof by one edge and toss it over the rafters. Using of the poles push the roof up and over from the inside.
Tie the roof down with more rope by criss crossing rope across the top. (See pictures of gers to get the pattern.)
Get the Toono cover up on the roof. (This is the creative part ;-) Tie it down to the bus ropes that go around the ger. To open the cover, loosen one or more ropes and push it aside from the inside (I remove a rafter and then put it back later). To close it, pull on the loose rope.

The ger in parts ready to pack into the car (not the truck you see behind Raph and Stuart, but a 1995 Saturn station wagon.)

Thanks to Pat and Chris Hartley and Kean Stump for their help in making our first ger.

Sources

The Portable Yurt by Laurel and Chuck Cox, Frog Pond Press, 1974.

Tents: Architecture of the Nomads, Anchor Books, 1979. ISBN 0-385-11656-x

The one person trick

To start: Three poles inserted equidistant into the toono and attached to the khana. Standing inside the ger grasp one pole and detach it from the khana. (Now this is the unintuitive part.) Push the toono forward and up in a scooping motion. As the toono starts to rise, pull back while still lifting up. (Your arms make a large 3/4 circle. The toono should pop up over your head. Quickly reattach the end of the rafter into the khana. Ta dah. This takes practice, but makes the ger put up able by one person.

Please do not copy this page to another web site. It is a work in progress and will change as new information is incorporated. You are welcome to link to it.

Updated March, Year of the Dragon

Mongolian Cooking

2007-08-24T19:57:26Z

Medieval Mongolian Cooking

by Crystal L. Smithwick aka Ynesen Ongge Xong Kerji-e

Well, this could have been the shortest article in history. Boiled mutton. When I first started to research Mongolian cooking, that's all I knew about what Mongolians ate. In the end, I wasn't far wrong.

How do I know what the Mongols ate oh so long ago? In the mid 1200's two clergymen (Friar John of Pian de Carpini and Friar Wiliam of Rubruck) travelled from Europe to the steppes as envoys of the church. Their intent was to bring Christianity to the "infidels." They didn't succeed, but they did bring back vivid accounts of what they saw and ate. Not long behind them was the famous Marco Polo whose tales of the court of Kublai Khan form the most popular picture of Mongol life. In addition, an Arabic historian, Ibn Battua travelled to the court of the Golden Horde in the mid 1300's. I reconciled these four eye-witness accounts with tales from modern travellers and natives of Mongolia to formulate a picture of what Mongols of the mid 13th to mid 14th century might have eaten and how they would have prepared their food. I also looked to close neighbors, such as the Tibetans and the northern Chinese to find similar foods and recipes. Then, to further explore these ideas, I took the descriptions of medieval food and recipes of similar modern foods and reverse engineered the recipes back to what I imagined could be the original food. I did this by considering 1)ingredients 2) cooking methods 3)plausibility of technique. Then I created recipes based on my reading and on my experience with cooking Asian food. I also determined appropriate measurements and tested my recipes for consistency and a palatable end product for the modern palate, although it was not my intent to "modernize" the recipes.

Ingredients

To understand the limitations of Mongolian cooking, first consider the Mongolian lifestyle. Tradtionally a nomadic people,they herd horses, sheep, goats, camels, oxen, and some tribes reindeer. They live in the open steppes, desert-like with little edible vegetation beyond wild onions and leeks. But in lean times, there were other things to be gathered that were not normally a part of their diet. When a young Temujin (later Genghis Khan) and his young brothers were abandoned by their tribe, Hoelun, his mother, gathered whatever she could to feed her children.

"..she [Hoelun] gathered burnet and other plants that would make a kind of a salad...dug up the roots of sedges and rushes along the river, and wild onions...Later in the season she gathered wild apples and cherries, juniper berries, hazel nuts, and the edible fruit of the pine that flourishes in those regions." 34

They were so desperate, that they even ate fish, something dispised by Mongols even today. It is generally considered that Mongols only eat fish only when desperate for food or if they catch a fish of such a great size that it can feed them for a few days.

"..Tartars do not know how to catch them; neither do they care for fish, except it be so great that they may live upon it for a great while." Friar William 35

16 The Mongols live most of their lives in isolation with limited trade. When they did trade, they added flour, millet, and tea to their diet. The only seasoning was usually salt 18, 21 and wild garlic. What does this mean for their cuisine?

For herders in Mongolia, the most abundant food sources in summer are milk and milk products, what the Mongols call the "white foods." During that season they subsist almost completely on fresh milk, curds, sour milk, fermented milk, yogurt, and dried cheese from mares, cows, and camels. 24 But that's another article. By the way, mare's milk is high in Vitamin C. Four times higher than cows milk. This explains how Mongols could survive on a diet with minimal vegetables and fruit.8 They received iron and minerals from the underground wells where they retrieved their water.

In the winter, the main source of food is the Mongols' herdbeasts, and this is the part of their diet this article concerns. One advantage of meat during the winter, is that it can be stored outside, frozen solid, until needed. The only concern is to keep it safe from dogs and wolves. The Mongols use wooden cages to keep the meat safe outside. If it is not cold enought to freeze the meat, it was made into sausages or dried to be reconstitued later. This is part of the famous iron rations used by the invading Mongol army.

"...they dry the flesh thereof by cutting it into thin slices and hanging it up against the sun and the wind. Presently dried without salt, and also without any evil smell." Friar William (1253-1255) 23

Cooking Implements

Mongolian pots were probably made of iron (imported from China) and pottery. Clay pots were recovered from early Jurchen (pre-Mongolian) graves, these pots could be placed directly on the fire or hung from a tripod. Other cooking utencils were homemade and consisted of ladles, knives, and bowls.

"..and they borrowed for us a kettle [sometimes translated as saucepan] and a tripot to cook our meat." Friar William (1253-1255) 29
"..and they carry each a small pignate, that is an earthern pot, in which they cook their meat." Marco Polo 30
"Cooking equipment, property of the woman, consisted of wooden, homemade wood bowls, ladles, flasks, and leather sacks hung on the wall, along with a fine copper pitcher or two wrought by a professional smith.
"In the center of the yurt, beneath an adjustable vent in the tent top, was the hearth, and over the fire a great cooking pot stood on legs or hung from a tripod. This vessel served not only for cookingl when it was emptied of food and turned on its side, it's upper edge supported a pothook arrangement that held a tea kettle over the flames." Description of a modern nomadic household in the former Soviet Union.42

Another element to consider is the Mongol's limited fuel supply. Summer or winter, argal (dried cow dung) is the most available and abundent fuel. Even more so today, wood is scarce and rarely burned.

"...they cook their meat, with fires made of the dung of oxes and horses." Friar John 3
: "...there are many different kinds of dung, and each has a different name; argal is only used for cow droppings, not for others. Horse droppings are second best, sheep droppings are only used if necessary. Cow droppings are best, since they burn hotter and longer." Oyana (1997) 6

As a result of limited fuel, Mongols used the most effecient methods of cooking. Boiling, steaming, cutting their meat thin or mincing it to cook quickly. 27

Cooking Techniques and Recipes

Raw

In the absence of fuel, it wasn't unusual for the Mongols to eat their meat raw, finely minced.

"Sometimes we had to eat flesh half cooked, or almost raw, and all for want of fuel. This happened when we were in the fields, or came to our journey's end after dark. We could not then conveniently gather the dung of horses or oxen; for other fuel we found but seldom, except for except a few thorns in some places." Friar William (1253-1255) 20
: "They give to fifty or a hundred men with the flesh of one ram to eat, for they mince it in a bowl with salt and water, they have no other sauce, and then with the point of a knife, or a little fork which they make for this purpose, such as we use to take roasted pears or apples out of wine, they give to every one of the company a mouthful or two, according to the number of the guests." Friar William (1253-1255) 24
: "The poorer sort go to the shambles and take the raw liver as soon as it is drawn from the beasts; then they chop it up small, put in garlic sauce and eat it there and then. And they do likewise with every other kind of flesh. The gentry also eat their meat raw." 1
In fine French cooking, this preparation of finely minced raw meat still exists in Steak Tartar. Raw beef, in this case, is minced finely and mixed with herbs and spices. According to an introduction to a recipe of Steak Tartar at Cooking.com from the Heritage of French Cooking, "invading barbarians...who marched upon the East of France several thousand years ago, ate pieces of raw meat that they had tenderized by leaving them under the horse's saddle." 5 I started with a recipe for beef Steak Tartar, replaced the beef with lamb and reduced the spices to those available.

Lamb Tartar

1 1/2 lb of lamb
3/4 tsp fine sea salt
2 TBS finely chopped shallots
1 TBS water

Remove any bone, sinew, or membrane from the lamb. (Do not remove all of the fat.) Using sharp knife mince the meat until it is the texture of hamburger. Sprinkle with the water, shallots, and water. Using the knife continue to mince the meat until it is well mixed. Divide into 12 portions. Serve immediately, or keep chilled.

Note: This is a raw meat dish. Please take precautions to maintain a sanitary work area. - kerij-e

Boiling

Every traveller to Mongolia, today and in the past, mentions boiled chunks of meat and the resulting broth. Occasionally other things are added to make a soup, such as millet, wild leeks, and scallions. All these items could be stored throughout the winter.

"Our hearts sank as we watched her putting things into a large vat of water on the stove. There were ..erm..*bits* of sheep, such as heads, feet, internal organs, and that kind of thing...She took a fork and extracted the *bits*, dripping, one by one from the vat, and placed them in a steel bowl." Dan Bennet (1992) 9
: "Their food consists of boiled horsemeat and mutton." Ibn Battuta (1325-1353) 10
: "Then boiled, unsalted meat was brought along on a cart, and piece was given to every four or five persons. The people inside the tent were given meat, and instead of sauce, salted meat broth. This was the procedure whenever they held a banquet." Friar John (1246) describing the coronation feast of Goyun Khan. 11.
: "Boiled mutton, cooked whole, was the standard fare, and other rich and fatty foods supplemented the meat diet." Description of banquets in the court of Kublai Khan.13
: "The stops were only long enough for cooking a porrige of millet (it is boiled up only once) and for eating it. The local population carried dried meat which they add to the dish; they pour milk on top." Ibn Battuta (1325-1353) 12
: "In the evening, they bestowed upon us, a shoulder and a breast of ram's mutton, and every man a measured quantity of broth to drink. When we had suffient of the meat broth, we were marvellously well refreshed. And it seemed to me a most pleasant, and a most nourishing drink." Friar William (1253-1255) 19


Boiled Mutton
2 lbs mutton or lamb, bones and fat included
10 cups cold water
Cut the lamb into large pieces. Put the lamb and water in a large pot . Simmer the bones for several hours, adding water as needed. Skim fat off the top, remove the meat and bones, and serve. Strain the broth if desired, salt to taste and serve with the meat.
Millet Soup
Soak millet over night. Drain, add millet to the broth. Simmer until the millet breaks up and thickens the soup, about 2 hours. Salt to taste.

The following recipe for mutton noodle soup is based on a modern recipe. I used a recipe for noodles that I was more familiar with and quantified the ingredients for the soup. The Kirgiz and Khazaks have a similar dish (besh barmak) with less broth. The Kirgiz noodles are square and the Khazaks cut theirs into diamond shapes. 41

Guriltai - Mutton Noodle Soup Noodles 1 cup boiling water (You may not use all of it.) 1 TBS lard or shortening 1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour Melt the shortening in the water. In a bowl, pour about half of the water into the flour, mixing quickly. This partially cooks the flour. Turn the dough onto a board and knead until smooth, adding more water if needed. (You may not use all of the water. The fresher the flour, the less water you will use.) Cover the bowl with a damp cloth and let it rest for 20 minutes. Divide the dough in half (keep the unused half covered). Roll half out into a squarish shape about 1/8" thick. Cut into 1/8" strips. Do the same with the other half. Hang them over the side of a bowl to dry a bit. This keeps them from dissolving in the soup. Soup 1 lb lamb cut into cubes (or sliced thin if you are in a hurry) oil 6 cups of lamb broth 1 yellow onion sliced Noodles Fry the lamb cubes until brown, add onions and fry until translucent. Add broth. Simmer until the meat is tender. Add the noodles. Cook until tender and floating. Along with Mongolian BBQ, Mongolian hot pot is the most closely associated with Mongolia by most modern people. Thin slices of meat cook quickly in broth, and then the broth can be drunk separately. The fire pot, a table top fire chimeny with a well around it for the broth, is related to the samovar (a hotwater dispenser and teapot warmer combined). The Mongols delivered the samovar to the Russians 42 and the Hot pot to the Chinese 43. Themselves probably didn't have much use for it. Their simple brazer and pot eliminated the need for a specialized cooking utencil.
Descriptions of Mongolians dipping thin slices of meat into a broth and then fishing them out seem to be a direct source for this method of cooking. The meat also flavors the broth.

Hot Pot
4 cups of water
2 cloves of garlic, chopped
1/4 cup green onions, chopped
1 lb lamb, sliced thin
1 lb beef, sliced thin
Boil water with garlic and onions, move to the edge of the fire so it is at a simmer. Drop a few pieces of meat into the water at a time. After a few seconds, they will appear pinkish white. Fish them out with chopsticks or small metal strainers (available in Chinese food stores). In the end you'll have a tasty broth that can be salted and drunk.
Note: You can make this tastier by adding sliced chicken, fish, tofu, spinach, bok choy, gai lan, or any other vegetable. If you add dense vegetables like carrots, slice them very thin. The idea is that all ingredients cook quickly. Cook the same as the meat. Include chinese mustard, soy sauce, hoisen sauce, and plum sauce for dipping. At the end, add a package of bean threads that have been soaked in warm water for 20 minutes. Cook for another 10 minutes and serve the soup with noodles. - kerij-e

Steaming

The national food of Mongolia is Buuz or Booz, steamed minced lamb dumplings. These are nearly identical to the Chinese sui mai, the Tibetan Mo-mo, and the Japanese gyoza. Although I do not have any documentation that proves this was eaten by ancient Mongolians, it was probably added to the Mongol diet not long after they began to have regular contact with the Han Chinese and had access to wheat-flour. 26 Cooking minced meat seems to be a natural progression after eating minced raw meat.

Buuz

3 cups flour
2 cups boiling water

1 lbs minced lamb
1 large onion minced fine
2 cloves of garlic, chopped fine

In a bowl, mix the flour with 1/2 of the water. Turn out the dough onto a board and knead. Add more water as needed to make a smooth dough. Let it sit 20 minutes. Meanwhile, mix the lamb, onion and garlic. Roll the dough into a 2" tube. Cut into 2" chunks of the dough. Roll the dough into a circle about 1/8 inch thick. Spoon about 1 TSP of meat into the dough. Wet the edge of the dough, fold the top half over and make tiny pleats, pressing the two sides together to seal them. Set aside on a plate dusted with flour or cornstarch (or on wax paper). Continue with the rest of the meat and dough.

Arrange the buuz in a single layer on a steam rack or a Chinese bamboo steamer. They should not touch. Steam covered over boiling water for 10-15 minutes until buuz is translucent. Buzz can also be fried and then it is called huushkoor.

Serve immediately.

Note: The Mongols do not use dipping sauces, but this is very tasty with plum sauce, hoisen sauce, or a dip of 1/4 cup soy sauce, 1/4 cup rice wine vinegar, and chili oil (lu yin) to taste. All of which were available in the 13th century. 20 kerij-e

Pressure Cooking

Pressure cooking lowers the temperature required for water to boil. This reduces the amount of fuel used and speeds cooking. A primitive pressure cooker could be made by sealing the lid of a pot with clay. Modern Mongolians use milk canisters as described in the next section, "Cooking with Rocks." 13

"... Mongol herdsmen cooking what was, for them, a traditional version of Mongolian hot pot.

: They built a big bonfire, heating smooth riverbed rocks in it until they glowed. They added the rocks, and rather; minimally seasoned chunks of freshly killed, skinned, and butchered lamb or kid, to a large milk can, with a clamping; lid, and sealed it shut. They then played a version of soccer with the can for ten minutes or so. Maybe more like five.
: They then flipped the can upright again, and carefully opened it, spraying meat juice, ash, and superheated steam; everywhere (since the milk can, having become, effectively, a pressure cooker, lacked a safety valve) and ate their; barbecue like proper Mongols: squatting on their heels around a campfire, with semi-raw, semi-grilled leeks and

wheat-flour flatbread griddlecakes, and, of course, plenty of Russian vodka." Phillip and Susan Troy (199?) 15

In another connection of ancient method to modern method, in an early Yuan (14th century Mongolian dynasty) cook book, there is a recipe for mutton cooked in a sealed pot, which sounds similar to the modern description.

"Steamed Mutton mei-t'u. Take a whole sheep, scald and clean and remove head, feet, intestines etc., cut up into manageable pieces. Prepare small specimens of earth-pepper [Geum japonicum Thunb.,Chinese ti-chao, a northern seasoning), with wine and vinegar, pour over the meat and let soak for two hours or more. Put into empty metal pot, build a fire with fuel wood sticks and seal the lid with clay. Light the fire but let it not come too close. Wait until well cooked. To be served in bowls with original juice separately." Trans. Franke. 28

I've taken the recipe above and quantified it, adding pressure cooker instructions.

Khortsog (Steamed lamb)

2 lbs of lamb
1 cup rice wine vinegar
2 TBS ti-chao*
water

Chop lamb into 2" cubes. Add peppers and lamb to vinegar and toss. Marinate for two hours. Remove meat, and discard any liquid.

Pressure cooker method: Place into pressure cooker of water. Cook at 15 lbs for 8 minutes. Let pressure return to normal.

Alternative method: Place with water into pot with a tight fitting lid. Mix 1 cup flour with 1/3 cup of water. Make into a stiff dough. Roll into a roll long enough to go around the pot lid. Use it to seal the lid onto the pot. Cook over medium heat for 1 hour. Remove pot from heat. Let sit for 10 minutes. Remove the seal and discard. DO NOT OPEN THE LID YET! Lay a towel over the pot and open lid away from you. There may be a rush of steam.

To serve, remove the meat and place on a platter. Pour broth into bowls and serve hot.

*Chinese ti-chao, or Szchwan pepper is not a actually a pepper, but the bud of a flower. You can get this in Chinese food stores.

Grilling

Another way to quickly cook meat is to slice it thin and grill it on small skewers or over a grill.

"The stir-fry method, by which wafer thin fragments of vegetables or meat, fragile pancakes of millet meal or wheat flour, are cooked in no more than a few moments." 33

Lamb Skewers

1 lb frozen lean boneless lamb
2 tsp salt
Metal or bamboo skewers

If using bamboo skewers, soak them in water for about 20 minutes. Thaw the lamb slightly. It should still be mostly frozen. Slice it thinly. Thread the mutton slices on the skewers. Sprinkle them lightly with salt. Roast over a medium fire until cooked through. Serve on scallion bread.

"The food served at these affairs [court banquets] was Mongol fare...A typical meal might include ..raw vegetables seasoned with saffron and wrapped in pancakes." Ibn Battuta (1325-1353) 13

Grilling is also an efficent way to cook bread. Flatbreads, similar to Indian Nan and Mexican tortillas cook quickly on a hot grill. "Our food thus consisted of millet and butter, a dough cooked in water [tsampa?] and unleavened bread baked on a fire of cattle or horse dung." Friar William in Tibet 36

This recipe is based on similar modern Chinese breads. A similar bread is decribed in a modern recipe for grilled meat and pancakes. 39

Scallion Pancakes

This is a flat bread similar to Indian nan or Mexican tortillas.

2 cups whole wheat flour or barley flour
1 cup boiling water
1/2 cup chopped scallions or green onions
a bit of lamb fat (or oil dipped cloth)

Mix the flour and water until you get a smooth dough. Let it rest for 20 minutes. Roll the dough out into a 1/4" thick circle. Sprinkle the scallions over the dough. Roll the dough into a tight roll. Slice the dough into 2" pieces. Flatten the circles into 1" thick disks.

Heat the grill until very hot. Oil lightly with a bit of fat. Drop the dough onto the grill. When the edges look dry and it has begun to puff, turn it over quickly.

Note: Green onions make them prettier. These are good with butter with toasted. They also make a convenient plate for buuz. To steam the bread, don't flatten the disks. Steam them for 15-10 minutes. If you don't like them so flat, you can also use a simple bread dough for more of a pita bread consistency. - kerij-e

Several medieval and contemporary references to leeks made this seem like a likely accompanyment.

Grilled Leeks

2 large leeks
salt to season
oil for brushing

Carefully cut off just the root end of the leek. If you do this right, the leek will stay together while cooking. Split the leeks lengthwise. Rinse thoroughly. (Leeks hold a lot of dirt in between its layers.) Dry them well. Brush with oil and salt lightly. Grill until tender.

Note: If they fall apart while cutting, use skewers to hold the layers together for cooking. - kerij-e

Along with Hot Pot, this is the other dish that is immediately identified with Mongolia. The Mongolian grill restaurants perpetuate the story that Mongol warrior would gather around a fire at the end of the day of battle and cook their food on an overturned shield or helmet. Although it is documented that Mongolian solders were organized in small groups that shared a cooking pot, the food was probably boiled mutton and reconstituted milk.

But we do know that the Mongols cooked thin slices of meat, and we do know that they had flat hot surfaces to cook things like bread on, so this precursor to "chowing" or stir-frying would be likely.

Mongolian Grill
1 lb lamb, sliced thin
2 lb sliced beef, sliced thin
1 large yellow onion or 2 leeks sliced
2 TBS oil
Heat a griddle until water sprinkled on it dances. Dribble the oil over the griddle. Fry the onions until they begin to soften, keep the onions moving on the grill. Add the lamb. Continue to push the meat around the grill. (Juice will start draining off into the fire. Just be careful.) Add the beef. Continue to fry until done.
Note: For a tastier dish, marinate the lamb and beef in 1/2 cup vinegar, 1/2 cup soy sauce, 1 TBS brown sugar, grated 1" knob of ginger, 1 clove garlic crushed. 25 You can also add shredded cabbage, sliced bok choy, or other vegetables. - kerij-e

Rock Cooking

River rocks can hold their heat for long periods of time. By placing them inside an animal carcass or inside a cooking pot, you can minimize the cooking time required.

In modern Mongolia, hot rocks are placed inside sealed pots with meat, onion, and rice to create a pressure cooker effect.15 When pots were not available, the animal itself could be used as a cooking vessel. Rocks were heated to red hot and then placed inside the animal.

"But if they had not this [earthern pot], when they find some animal they kill it and take out the belly and empty it and then fill it with water, and they put it over the fire and let it cook; and when it is cooked they eat the flesh, cauldron and all." Marco Polo 22

Another popular meat was marmot, still eaten today.: "They have also certain little beasts called by them sogur [marmots], which lie in a cave twenty or thirty of them together, all the whole winter sleeping there for the space of six months. These they take in great numbers." Friar William 4
: "First, of course, you have to shoot the marmot through the head. Otherwise you put holes in the skin and it doesn't work. Once you've got him, you open the mouth and take out all the innards. Yes, with your hand through his mouth. If you use some kind of tool, you might break the skin inside and that would spoil him...; "And then you get some river rocks and heat them in the fire...They have to be river rocks because mountain rocks will split in the heat. Choose ones that are the size of an egg, but flat rather than round."; "Heat the rocks for around two hours, until they are red hot. Once they are inside, put the marmot on the coals of a very hot fire...that has cooked down to hot coals. Leave the head on and the feet and fur and all...Turn him occasionally.; "Gradually, you will see your marmot get bigger and bigger. He puffs up with heating, and finally you'll feel that he's about ready...The first thing you can eat is the soup...The soup has collected inside." Inkhe (1996) 7

Since all of the marmots I know of are in a National Park and are protected, and considering my modern squimishness about sticking my hand down an animals mouth, I came up with an alternative. Chicken was not eaten by the Mongols. You might try this with a whole dressed rabbit for a more authentic feel. But to try the cooking method, this works pretty well.

Chicken cooked like marmot 1 whole chicken salt kitchen twine and needle six egg sized flat river rocks. Washed and disinfected with a bit of clorine water. aluminum foil, enough to double wrap the chicken. Heat the rocks on a fire until they are red hot. Meanwhile, remove the innards of the chicken. Rinse the inside well and dry. Salt lightly inside and out. Lay a double layer of aluminum under the chicken. When the rocks are hot enough, use tongs to pick them up and put inside the chicken. Quickly sew the chicken shut. Wrap the chicken in the tinfoil sealing it tightly. Return the whole chicken to the fire. Cook for 2 hours, turning occasionally. To serve, open the tinfoil. Cut the thread and pour or ladle out the broth. Remove the stones. (Sure use them to keep your feet warm.) Then eat the meat. Note: The Mongols did not eat poultry, but I was more interested in the cooking method, than trying marmot. - kerij-e

Table Manners

The only table settings Mongols had were shared platters, a bowl, and a dagger. The meat is served on a platter and the broth ladled into a bowl. There were several parts of the sheep that were considered especially tasty, the fatty tail, the tender shoulder, and the head. If you were offered this, you had no choice but to accept it and eat it all yourself.

"..before the flesh of the sheep is served, the master takes what pleases him; and furthermore if he gives to anyone a special piece, it is custom that he who receive it shall eat it himself, and he may not give it to another; but if he cannot eat it all he carries it off with him, or gives it to a servant if he be present, who keeps it; other wise he puts it away in his captargac, which is a square bag which they carry to put such things in, in which they store bones when they have not time to gnaw them well, so that they can gnaw on them later and nothing of the food is lost." 32

You pick up the meat with your fingers take a bite of meat, and slice the meat off between your lips and the bone, but don't use the dagger for other things.

"It is, for instance, a sin to poke one's dagger into the fire, or to touch the fire in any way with it. Do not take meat from the kettle with the dagger...to break one bone with the help of another, to pour milk or other drinks on the ground" Friar William Rubrick 31

Like modern Mongols, they are enthusiastic eaters, slurping and gnawing. When they are finished, they had a habit of wiping their greasy hands on their pants or robes rather than wash them with scarce water. If they did wash their hands, they did so only sparingly.

"When they desire to wash their hands or their heads, they fill their mouth full with water and spout it into their hands a little at a time; and in this way they wet their hair and wash their hands." Friar William 37

Travellers mentioned how they stained their silk and brocade robes without concern. As a result, most western travellers were less than impressed with Mongol manners and resultant hygene.

And when you finished with your meal, your bowl was not washed, but rinsed only with the broth, which is poured back into the pot. 38

Conclusion

It is still arguable that Mongol cuisine is just a collection of cooking methods for the same ingredients, but it is what they like. Even when they had access to a greater variety of ingredients and cooking methods, the Mongol is still a herder at heart and prefers his boiled mutton. 13 The great Kublai Khan ruling from his capitol Dadu, which is now Beijing, preferred the simplier Mongol foods, so what's good for the Khan, is good enough for me.
Updated March 2000, Year of the Iron Dragon

Please do not copy this page to another web site. It is a work in progress and will change as new information is incorporated. You are welcome to link to it.

Medieval Mongolian Cooking - Bibliography

Back to article

1. Reay Tannahill. Food in History. New York. 1973. pg. 150

2. Brothwell, Don and Patricia. Food in Antiquity. A Survey of the Diet of Early Peoples. London. 1969 pg. 72.

3. Komroff Contemporaries of Marco Polo pg. 5

4. Komroff Contemporaries of Marco Polo pg. 67

5. http://web.archive.org/web/20050223032505/http://www.cooking.com/recipes/rerecite_print.asp?No=150&Image=False

6. Martha Avery. Asian Woman of Mongolia Art and Archeology p94

7. Martha Avery. Asian Woman of Mongolia Art and Archeology p12

8.N. Oyunbayar. Meat, Milk and Mongolia http://web.archive.org/web/20050223032505/http://www.un-mongolia.mn/ger-mag/issue2/food.htm

9. http://www.feynman.com/tuva/txt/travel/potato.html

10. Bertold Spuler. History of the Mongols pg. 194

11. Bertold Spuler. History of the Mongols pg. 88

12. Bertold Spuler. History of the Mongols pg. 199

13. Kublai Khan His life and Times by Morris Rossabi, pg 227

14. Bertold Spuler. History of the Mongols pg. 199

15. Philip & Susan Troy <troy@asan.com> on Stefan's Florilegium http://web.archive.org/web/20050223032505/http://www.pbm.com/~lindahl/rialto/fd-Mongols-msg.html

16. Secret History of the Mongols translated and edited by Francis Cleaves. 1985, pg 21 Wild onions and leeks are also mentioned in Genghis Khan by R.P. Lister, 1969. page 36 and on page 54. "Things were worse than they had been in the old days [during Temujin's first exile] because there were no wild onions or apples or cherries, though there were juniper berries and the pine fruit." "..and their dessert the fruit of the tree shaped like the pine."

17. "Every day they gave us a bowl of millet a d quart of millet mead, and a saucepan and a tripod to cook the meat. We boiled the millet in the bouillion of that meat." Friar William, Contemporaries of Marco Polo, ed. Manuel Komkroft, 1989, pg. 140. Friar William travelled with a Mongol servant who also served as translator and most likely cook.

18. "Certain base fellows were placed there to revieve tribute from those who took salts out of the salt pits." Friar William, Contemporaries of Marco Polo, ed. Manuel Komkroft, 1989, pg. 80

19. Friar William, Contemporaries of Marco Polo, ed. Manuel Komkroft, 1989, pg. 106

20. Friar William, Contemporaries of Marco Polo, ed. Manuel Komkroft, 1989, pg. 107

21. "...a small platter of gold or silver is brought, in which there is salt dissolved in water." History of the Mongols by Bertold Spuler pg. 195

22. History of the Mongols by Bertold Spuler, 1968, pg 176

23. Friar William, Contemporaries of Marco Polo, ed. Manuel Komkroft, 1989, pg 64
There is a modern description of drying meat by N. Oyunbayar at http://web.archive.org/web/20050223032505/http://un-mongolia.mn/ger-mag/issue2/food.htm Basically, the meat is seperated from the fat, cut into thin strips and then hung to air-dry. It will last for a long time. When reconstituted in water, it expands up to two a half times its dried size.

24. "However, in the summer, so long as their cosmos lasts, they care not for any other food...The rest of the flesh they reserve until winter." History of the Mongols by Bertold Spuler, 1968, pg 64

25. These ingredients were available in Hangchow in the 13th century. "..But since there is nothing more tenacious than culinary traditions, some of the recipes still must be in use at the present day., and to judge from the ingredients most often mentioned, from the seasoning used (pepper, ginger, pimento, soya sauce, oil, salt, and vinegar) and from the principal methods of preparation, Hangchow cuisine in the 13th century does not seem to have been very different from the Chinese cuisine of today."

Daily Life in China on the eve of the Mongol Invasion 1250-1276, pg 133 Note that Hangchow was captured by the Mongolians in 1276 during the reign of Kubali Khan and it is described in the journals of Marco Polo.

27. Roasting was not mentioned by most of the journals except during great feasts. This was probably not a day to day cooking method as it uses a great deal of fuel. I would also imagine that since you are using dung as fuel, it would impart a particularly unpleasant flavour to the meat.

28 Franke, Herbert (1975) pg 175 Chinese Texts on the Jurchen. http://www.pma.edmonton.ab.ca/vexhibit/dragon/recipe.htm

A Translation of the Jurchen Monograph in the San-cha'o Pei-Meng Hui-pien. Zentralasiatische Studien 9:119-186." This recipe is actually a Jurchen recipe. The Jurchen's were a pre-Manchurian tribe from Northeastern China. They were overrun by Mongolian tribes at one time or another. This cookbook was written in the Yuan dynasty (Kublai Khan's reign.) The modern description of the herders and the milk can also use the pressure cooker method.

29. Bertold Spuler. History of the Mongols pg. 104

30. Bertold Spuler. History of the Mongols pg. 177 - From Marco Polo, The Description of the World, ed. A. Ch. Moule and P. Peliot, Vol. 1

31. Bertold Spuler. History of the Mongols pg. 74

32. Bertold Spuler. History of the Mongols pg. 93

"When they first rose to power they made a yasa [law] that no one should slaughter animals by cutting their throats, but should slit open their breasts after the Mongol Fashion." Bertold Spuler. History of the Mongols pg. 60

33. Tannahill The History of Food, pg 143

34. Genghis Khan by RP Lister, pg. 35

35 Contemporaries of Marco Polo, pg 84 (Friar William)

36. Contemporries of Marco Polo, pg 153 (Friar William) Over the next few pages, he mentions more meals of cooked dough. Tsampa is a dough made of roasted barley flour, milk and butter, that is mixed and eaten without benefit of further cooking.

37 Contemporaries of Marco Polo, pg 84 (Friar William), pg 71

38 "They never wash their dishes or bowls, but when their meat is cooked they wash the bowls with scalding hot broth out of the pot, and then pour the broth into the pot again." Friar William. Contemporaries of Marco Polo, pg 71

39 (Insert link to Mongolian BBQ, Millet soup and scallion bread)

40 LA Times Article by Scott Martell, March 15, 1998

http://web.archive.org/web/20050223032505/http://www.latimes.com/travel/destinations/19980315/t000025207.html

"The day trip was capped by a dinner of boodog, a Mongolian dish of onions and other vegetables cooked with sheep or goat meat. Traditional boodog is cooked in a goat-skin bag filled with the vegetables, meat chunks and rocks heated in a fire. The bag is then hung over the fire until the meat is done.

For our meal, the cooking crew used something that looked like a cross between a milk can and a pressure cooker. The mutton came out tough and gristly, not exactly a gourmet dish likely to be served at one of those Mongolian Barbecue chain restaurants. "

41 pg. 185 Foods of the World: Russian Cooking by Time Life Books

42 pg. 180 Foods of the World: Russian Cooking by Time Life Books

43 pg. ?? Foods of the World: Chinese Cooking by Time Life Books

44 "After the invading Mongols conquered China and set up a dynasty that ruled from 1279 to 1368, a number of their dishes were adapted by the Chinese to suit their tastes. Lamb was introduced to northern cooks at that time, and it remains a favorite in that region ever since; in other parts of China it s not, although the Cantonese do enjoy baby lamb. Mutton or lamb is the basis of the Mongolian Fire Pot...There is also Mongolian grill, an indoor barbeque...Long, thin strips of mutton are roasted on a red-hot grill over an open charcoal fire." " pg. 16 Foods of the World: Chinese Cooking by Time Life Books

45 "This dish is called Peking Mongolian, as it originated in Mongolia and later achieved fame and recognition in Peking...was first introduced to Peking in 1855, in the reign of Emperor Shanfeng." pg. 191 The Encyclopedia of Chinese Cooking by Kenneth Lo

46 Basalmic vinegar is closer to Chinese black vinegar. Interview with a Mongolian Chinese chef

http://www.globalgourmet.com/food/egg/egg0297/foointer.html

Orginal Recipes:

The modern recipes and their Sources that inspired and instructed me for my recreations.

Other Sources:

Contemporaries of Marco Polo, ed by

Back to the Ger

2007-08-24T19:42:31Z

From 2001 to 2005 I maintained a site called Kerij-e's Ger. In it I posted all of my research into Mongolian domestic stuff. The server was lost and so was the site...but I am attempting here to ressurect and share some of the tidbits.