Skip to main content
Support

Browse by category

All categories
Fermentation Atlas

Cheese from Mongolia

Aaruulааруул

Milk is soured into tarag (yoghurt), or left over after milk spirit is distilled, then heated until the curd separates. The curd is drained and pressed in a cloth bag, cut or moulded into small pieces, and dried in the sun and wind until hard. It is eaten as a long-keeping snack. Made in 5 steps over 4.2 days – 5.2 days. The longest step, dry in the sun and wind, takes 4–5 days (Jargalsaikhan A 2024) and runs at 44–55 °C (Jargalsaikhan A 2024). Lactic acid bacteria of Mongolian tarag and other dairy products (Lactobacillus delbrueckii subsp. bulgaricus, L. helveticus, L. fermentum, L. delbrueckii subsp. lactis, Lactococcus lactis), from 66 samples including 8 of aaruul does most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main step4–5 daysReported[jargal2024]Dry in the sun and wind
Temperature44–55 °CReported[jargal2024]Dry in the sun and wind
AciditypH 4.7–5Reported[jargal2024]Heat until the curd separates
Fully documentedCheese4.2 days – 5.2 daysMore other cheesesMore from Mongolia

Recipe

No fixed amounts recordedHerders use no fixed amounts. The numbers below come from a kitchen trial in a Swedish thesis and from a Mongolian drying study.
Whole milk (cow, yak, goat or camel) · Horse milk would not form a curd when fermented[daginder2015]
Tarag starter, or sour yoghurt and whey · A thermophilic yoghurt culture (Streptococcus thermophilus and Lactobacillus delbrueckii) in the thesis trials[daginder2015][jargal2024]
Sugar, or dried sea buckthorn or goji berries (optional) · Added to the curd before it is cut and dried[daginder2015]
Starter: back-slopped tarag (Mongolian yoghurt), or the sour residue left after distilling milk spirit

Total time across the recorded steps: 4.2 days – 5.2 days

Start
Drag the bar or press Play
Milk sugarLactic acid43 °Cshapes, not to countLactic acid bacteria

What changes: Warm milk with a starter sets and sours into tarag

Step 1 of 5
Sour the milk into tarag
Time
4 h
Reported
Temperature
43 °C
Reported
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Lactic acid bacteria

Output: tarag (yoghurt); some households first distil milk spirit from it.

Flavour
sour
Texture
set
Colour
Not documented

Microbes at work in this step

thermophilic lactic acid bacteria sour and set the milk

Method

Measured measured in a studySet fixed by a specification or tested recipeReported one source reports itTypical a general value, not sourced for this fermentUnconfirmed not yet checked against a source

What makes this one different

Aaruul is dried in the sun and wind, without salt. Hard chhurpi is smoked over a fire, and Central Asian qurt is salted and rolled into balls. Byaslag is the same kind of curd pressed but eaten fresh, not dried.

Related ferments

Variants

  • Pot-distilled curd aaruulMade from the curd left in the still after milk spirit (shimiin arkhi) is distilled.
  • Berry or sugar aaruulSea buckthorn, goji berries or sugar are worked into the curd before drying.

Safety

Boiling and drying kill most bacteria, and the dry pieces keep for a long time. Sun-drying in the open leaves the curd open to dust and insects. In one study, aaruul and other dried Mongolian foods (11 samples) had no detectable aflatoxin.

History and sources

Every number is labelled with how it is known. How this atlas is made

Chinese records of the Xiongnu period (about 200 BC to 100 AD) mention dried curds from ruminant milk among the dairy foods eaten on the steppe.

  1. [jargal2024] Jargalsaikhan A., Dorjsuren B. 2024, Results of optimization of technological parameters for aaruul drying equipment, Mongolian Journal of Agricultural Sciences 17(40):7–12paper
  2. [daginder2015] Daginder E. 2015, Aaruul – a Mongolian dried curdled milk, evaluation of the consumer acceptance and the health aspect, MSc thesis, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciencespaper
  3. [takeda2011] Takeda S. et al. 2011, The investigation of probiotic potential of lactic acid bacteria isolated from traditional Mongolian dairy products, Animal Science Journal 82:571–579 (abstract)paper
  4. [wilkin2020] Wilkin S. et al. 2020, Dairy pastoralism sustained eastern Eurasian steppe populations for 5,000 years, Nature Ecology & Evolution 4:346–355paper
  5. [popp2014] Popp W. et al. 2014, Aflatoxin exposure may not play a role in liver cancer development in Mongolia, Digestion 89:268–271 (abstract)paper