Mongolian Food: No Vegetarians To Be Seen

The Mongols are a mix of semi-nomadic herding tribes native to the steppes of Central Asia. Because of their climate and herding lifestyle, their food choices are limited. They do not grow food at all, so outside of herding, their only food source is gathered, and again because of their climate, very limited.

Depending on where the tribe lived, they herded different animals. The northern Siberian forest tribes herded reindeer (even today, the Dukha still do, though they are dying out), the southern Gobi Desert tribes herded camels, and in the middle grasslands they herded goats and sheep. The goats and sheep overlapped a bit in both northern and southern tribes. Everyone had horses.

The two main components of traditional Mongolian cuisine (that is, what they would have eaten before Genghis Khan conquered Asia) are the meat and milk of whatever animal they herd. They also hunt extensively where possible, and gather, mainly roots, seeds, and berries. In the middle ages they were a major portion of the Silk Road, so they traded for rice, tea, and grain for noodles. Tea was used as a form of currency, and so was dried into blocks for transport.

 They cook these two major components in a number of ways to make meals more interesting.

Milk:

1. Drink it.
2. Put it in a bag and ferment it: Airag. Traditionally made with mare's milk, every time you walk through a door, you stir the airag, and then drink it whenever you want. It's only really good for a week unless you distill it into Arkhi.
3. Let it sit: Urum (clotted cream), Tarag (yogurt), Isgelen Tarag (kefir). What it is depends on what was added to it before it sat.
4. Drain it to make cheese: Byaslag
5. Dry the cheese: Aaruul
6. Cook the cheese: Eezgii

The dried or cooked versions of the cheese only work in a really dry climate, like Mongolia. Cheese cannot be made with mare's milk, due to the lack of casein, but it can be made iwth all other kinds of milk, dependin on what is available. William of Rubruck said,

"it is a fact that the milk of no animal will curdle in the stomach of whose fetus is not found curdled milk. In the stomach of mare's colts it is not found, so the milk of mares curdles not."

 This is not the whole cause, but it is accurate as far as it goes.

Meat:

1. Roast it
2. Boil it
3. Cook it with hot stones
4. Dry it
5. Make a pastry pocket and steam: Buuz, boil: Bansh; or fry it in beef tallow: Khuushuur/Huushuur.
6. Make a stew or soup: sulen. This contains the spirit of the stewed animal

Probably due to the regular food shortage issues common to nomadic life, it became a custom and then a law that one must use all parts of the animal except the dung (which was also used, for making fire). Westerners commented in horror that the Mongols would even eat animals that had died of natural causes, though this would have been in cases of great need.
If the Khan gave you a piece of meat, which was a sign of his favor, you were expected to eat it all yourself, not give it away. Horse meat was saved for special occasions, but was eaten, as it is high in calories.

While bread products are now a component of Mongolian cooking, this wasn't always the case. 
In the 1230s, P'eng Ta-ya, a Chinese explorer, notes that Mongols do not eat any grains at all.
In the 1240s, John of Plano Carpini mentions that they ate millet in water in the morning, and that they gave their Chinese prisoners a rice congee or millet, but considered it a concession to the weak.
In the 1250s, William of Rubruck records that they ate tsampa, bread, and steamed buns regularly.
So within the space of 2 decades, the Mongols had gone from a grain-free society, to regular bread-eaters, which is still true today.

 Pastries

1. Ul Boov: Shoe cookies, made for Tsagaan Sar, the White Month, which is the Mongolian New Year Celebration. Each family has a special carved wooden stamp for the center (when I make them, I just make an indentation in the middle). 
2. Gambir: Sweet Pancakes
3. Boortsog: Fried Cookies 

While the Mongols did eat vegetables when necessary, it was mainly wild garlic and onions unless they lived in the wooded areas where there was fruit. They did consider it a weakness, and something only done if you were starving.
The Secret History of the Mongols records a long section of how Genghis Khan's mother, Hoelun, kept her children alive after they were cast out of the tribe, and lists a number of things they ate: wild apples, bird cherries, garden burnet  and cinquefoil roots, wild garlic and onions, and scarlet lily root. It also says that her sons decided to keep their mother alive by fishing for "miserable fish".

Recipes

 Suutei Tsai (Milk Tea)

Mongols use block tea, either green or black.

Put tea leaves into a pan of water, and boil. Add the same amount of milk, and boil. Lift some of the liquid out of the pan with a ladle and splash it back in from about shoulder height to mix. Season with salt, and strain into a teapot. Serve in a bowl.

Huushuur/Buuz/Bansh (Meat Dumplings)

9 oz flour

2/3 c water

10 oz minced meat, typically mutton, but beef is okay. More fat is better, according to the Mongols.

Onion, garlic

3-5 T water

Salt, pepper, caraway

Cook up the filling, and add water until it is smooth enough to work with.

Mix flour and water to make a dough. Let rest 15 minutes. Cut the dough into slices, and roll into flat circles. Put the meat in the center, and fold the circle over. Twist the top closed (should be decorative, but doesn’t have to be).

Cook: Huushuur are fried in beef tallow or cooking oil, Buuz are steamed, Bansh are boiled.

Ul Boov (Shoe Cookies)

This recipe makes a LOT. We usually cut it in half.

Heat up 4 c water until lukewarm. Add 14T butter (preferably clarified—Shar Tos), and let melt. Add 3/4 cups sugar, and a half-teaspoon of salt. Add enough flour until it makes a firm dough, and knead. Knead some more, and knead some more, until if you cut a slice there are no bubbles.

Make a small log, 20cmx 10 cm. Flatten it and stamp it, leaving a rim about 2cm wide. Make a shallow cut along the length of the two longer crusts from the back side, about halfway through, to let pressure escape.

Fry in beef tallow (to be super-traditional), or cooking oil. Should not brown, but should be tan/orange.

Build a tower: 3-7 layers tall, depending on how old you are:
married couples build 3 layers, parents build 5, and grandparents build 7. 
All of the boov must be perfect, so warped or cracked ones can be disposed of. Each layer is made of 2 or 3 boov.
Fill the center with white candy: sugar cubes, aaruul, hard cheese, or wrapped candy.   

  

Resources

Most of my recipe information came from
http://www.mongolfood.info/en/
And no, it’s not a peer reviewed or referenced website. However, it does appear to be accurate, based on the scholarly bits below, and documentaries on Mongolia.

Social information and fact-checking:
A Soup for the Qan: Chinese Dietary Medicine of the Mongol Era as Seen in the Hu Szu-hui’s Yin-Shan Cheng-Yao,edited by Paul E. Buel and Eugene N. Anderson.

They reference William of Rubruck, and John Pian de Carpine (seen below), as well as the Secret History of the Mongols.

TheJourney of William of Rubruck to the Eastern Parts of the World, 1253-55, asNarrated by Himself, with Two Accounts of the Earlier Journeys of John Pian deCarpine, translated from the Latin, and edited, with an introductory notice by William Woodville Rockhill, 1900, London: Hakluyt Society.
This is available for free online.
He references quite a few other historical works, such as:

Voyages du Professeur Pallas, dans plusieurs provinces de l’empire de Russie, et dans l’Asie septentrionale, 1794; Strabo, and Ammianus Marcellinus

You may also find good recipes in Imperial Mongolian Cooking, Marc Cramer
This is a great cookbook, but largely inappropriate for traditional Mongolian food, since it focuses on all of the cuisines of all of the areas of medieval Mongolia.

Documentary style films by Byambasuren Davaa (interesting in that the style involves the camera watching the family at their daily chores before cutting into a story, and cooking happens):

“The Cave of the Yellow Dog” and “The Story of the Weeping Camel”