🧪 Bad Science 1922

Koumiss

Raw milk fermented with baker's yeast, bottled, corked tight and tied down.

From: Mrs. Fryer's Loose Leaf Cook Book
Published: 1922
Also printed in: 4 other books
Yikes Scale: Yikes

Exactly as printed, 1922

2 quarts new milk 2 tablespoons sugar 2 tablespoons water 1/3 cake compressed yeast Let the yeast dissolve in the water; add it to the sugar and milk and let the mixture stand in a warm place for about ten hours or until it has thickened. Pour from one vessel to another until thoroughly smooth; bottle and keep in a warm place for twentyfour hours, or longer in winter. Cork the bottles tightly and tie the corks down. Shake for a few moments before using.

Mrs. Fryer's Loose Leaf Cook Book, 1922. Public domain; transcription unaltered.

So what happens if I make it?

The milk is held warm for well over a day with no thermometer anywhere, which is a long stay in the range where pathogens multiply, on milk that was never pasteurised.

Then it is sealed. Live yeast in a sugared liquid, corked in glass and kept warm, generates real pressure — the instruction to tie the corks down is an admission that the bottles want to explode.

Notes from the 21st century

Real koumiss is fermented mare's milk. A genuine Central Asian food with its own microbial culture. This is a Western approximation using cow's milk and baker's yeast.
Four books in our set print a version. It was a fashionable health drink, prescribed for consumption and dyspepsia across the period.
Use pasteurised milk and a proper culture. Kefir grains give a comparable drink safely, and plastic bottles let you feel the pressure before it becomes a problem.

Also in this book

Albumenized Water — Raw egg white shaken into cold water, for infants, the elderly and fever patients.
Pickle for Corning Beef — An ounce of pearlash in the corning brine, alongside nearly seven pounds of salt.
Prune Whip — Raw beaten egg white folded through stewed prunes and chilled, for children and convalescents.

Don't take our word for it. The complete book is online, free and searchable.

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