Mongolian cuisine

Culinary traditions of Mongolia

Mongolian cuisine predominantly consists of dairy products, meat, and animal fats. The most common rural dish is cooked mutton. In the city, steamed dumplings filled with meat—"buuz"— are popular. The extreme continental climate of Mongolia and the lowest population density in the world of just inhabitants/km2 has influenced the traditional diet. Use of vegetables and spices are limited. Due to geographic proximity and deep historic ties with China and Russia, Mongolian cuisine is also influenced by Chinese and Russian cuisine.

Details of the historic cuisine of the Mongolian court were recorded by Hu Sihui in the Yinshan Zhengyao, known to us from the 1456 Ming Dynasty edition manuscript, also surviving in fragments from the Yuan dynasty. Presented to Tugh Temür in 1330, at the height of Mongol power and cultural influence, the Yinshan Zhengyao is a product of the cultural exchange (notably with the Islamic heartland in Mongol Iran) that enriched the Mongol Empire. Food scholars consider the Yinshan Zhengyao evidence for the cultural influence of the Middle East on Mongol food culture, comparable to the Columbian exchange.

Wang Yuanling gives an eyewitness report of a feast at Kubilai Khan's court where kumiss is served with scallions and onions, horse meat, roast mutton, venison, quail, pheasant, diced chicken (tianji) and bear meat, with red wine and congee. According to Marco Polo the Mongols hunted daily in December, January and February when the court was resident at the capital, with a portion of the lions, stags, bears and wild boars sent to the court of the Khan. The Khan was said to keep trained leopards, eagles, and wolves for hunting, and very fine lions that could hunt wild boars, cattle, stags and bears.

The Yinshan Zhengyao features recipes with Central Asian influence, mostly in north China. Some difference continues in the present day and dishes with lamb, fancy breads and fried dumplings are more typical of north Chinese cuisine, while fish, rice, pork and vegetables are more common in the south.

Some recipes in Yinshan Zhengyao are similar to recipes from medieval Arabic cookbooks. Scholars have proposed a possible West to East diffusion of the cookbook. Of the extant cookbooks, the Arab texts are the earliest and the similarity of Yinshan Zhengyao along with the timing of its compilation after the Mongol conquests may support a West to East diffusion or direct influence upon the Yinshan Zhengyao content, but there is no way to rule out the possibility of an independent Chinese origin. Lactic acid fermentation was used to preserve dairy products like the dried yogurt called kashk in Iran and qimaq in the Yinshan Zhengyao.

The nomads of Mongolia sustain their lives directly from the products of domesticated animals such as cattle, horses, camels, yaks, sheep, and goats, as well as game. The nomads in the countryside are self supporting on principle. Travelers will find gers marked as guanz in regular intervals near the roadside, which operate as simple restaurants. In the ger, which is a portable dwelling structure (yurt is a Turkic word for a similar shelter, but the name is ger in Mongolian), Mongolians usually cook in a cast iron or aluminum pot on a small stove, using wood or dry animal dung fuel (argal).

The most common rural dish is cooked mutton, usually without any other ingredients. To accompany the meats, vegetables and flour products may be used to create side dishes as well. In Ulaanbaatar, you can often see signs saying "buuz". Those are steamed dumplings filled with meat. Other types of dumplings are boiled in water (반시 (음식), manti), or deep fried in mutton fat (khuushuur). Other dishes combine the meat with rice or fresh noodles made into various stews (tsuivan, budaatai khuurga) or noodle soups (guriltai shöl). Sülen is a type of hot pot dish. Gambir (Mongolian: гамбир, pronounced [ɢæmʲbʲĭɾ]) is a flatbread that is commonly made from flour and ghee, served on its own or with sugar. The most surprising cooking method is only used on special occasions. In this case, the meat (often together with vegetables) gets cooked with the help of stones, which have been preheated in a fire. This either happens with chunks of mutton in a sealed milk can (khorkhog), or within the abdominal cavity of a deboned goat or marmot (boodog). Milk is boiled to separate the cream (öröm, clotted cream).