It’s difficult to overstate the cultural importance of horses in Mongolia and throughout all of Central Asia, as this equine beast is far more than just a low-tech method of transportation; it is a major food source, herding assistant, and the highlight of many large-scale events.

Perhaps the most exceptional part of this national obsession with horses is the widespread consumption of fermented mare milk, airag or kumis, as it’s locally known in Mongolia and Central Asia, respectively.

Due to the milk’s relatively high content of lactose, it can be transformed into an alcoholic beverage through a fermentation process, in which yeasts make the milk alcoholic and fizzy, while lactobacillus bacteria increase its level of acidity.

Whereas modern processing is rather industrial and large-scale, customarily, after the mare is milked, the milk is filtered through a locally woven fabric, then poured into a small container hung at the entrance of a yurt or ger, where it’s fermented for a couple of days, occasionally shaken by people who go in or out, ensuring the milk is evenly fermented.

If you are curious about its flavor, it’s slightly sour and carbonated, with a much lighter texture compared to other dairy products, while its alcohol percentage ranges from 0.7% to 2.5%, a little less than an average beer. This unique beverage is widely regarded as the national drink in some countries. However, not everyone will find it palatable, particularly those who have never tried it before.

Nicknamed the ships of the desert, camels have served as a reliable method of desert commuting since their domestication around 5,000 years ago, thanks to their incredible ability to move in the scorching heat of the desert for days or even weeks without drinking water.

For centuries, camel milk has been used as a staple food source among pastoral and nomadic communities across the Sahara and the Middle East, as camels can generate extremely nutritious milk even in harsh conditions.

Nowadays, camel milk products have spread far beyond their original sphere, with countries as far as Australia and the United States now having numerous camel farms. This expansion is also boosted by the lower ecological footprint of camel farming compared to cow ranching. Interestingly, Somalia remains the world’s largest producer of camel milk, with roughly one million tons annually.

Due to the milk’s low lactose content, it is sometimes consumed as a substitute for cow’s milk by people with lactose intolerance. In fact, camel milk is also rich in many nutrients, vitamins, calcium, and iron. Bestowed with numerous claimed health benefits, the UN consequently branded camel milk as a superfood, prompting a global trend around this “white gold” and expanding its use for applications such as cosmetics and food supplements.

When it comes to the milk’s flavor, it varies depending on factors such as the type of pasture or the camel’s age, tasting anywhere from sweet and creamy to smoky and nutty. The most common forms of camel dairy products are raw milk, ice cream, and yogurt. Some countries, like Mauritania, also produce considerable amounts of cheese and butter.

In popular culture, lions are always crowned as the king of the animals. Yet, on the Tibetan Plateau and the Himalayas, the only true and undisputed ruler is the majestic beast of burden, the yak. Featuring dark and long fur that almost reaches the ground, this behemoth was, and still is to some extent, the most prominent livelihood source for local herder communities for thousands of years.

Almost every part of the animal is utilized, including its dung as fuel. However, by far the most widespread use is its milk, which serves as the prime ingredient in a wide array of dairy products, ranging from raw milk, ghee, yogurt, and cheeses to clarified butter, burned as a ritual light source in Buddhist temples. In recent years, with the help of Swiss manufacturers, local cattlemen have managed to produce a Gruyère-style cheese with delicate flavors, praised by every foreign tourist who has tasted it.

Among the more traditional delicacies are yak milk tea, made from boiled water and tea leaves mixed with milk, forming a fragrant flavor; a Tibetan staple dessert known as yak milk cake, prepared from a mixture of yak butter and brown sugar; and chhurpi, a ricotta-style cheese made from boiled milk, drained by being left hanging in a cloth. Curiously, when a calf is born, yak milk is usually pink-tinted as it is slightly mixed with blood, becoming whiter as the calves grow up.

In terms of taste, most people describe it as very rich, lightly sweet, and aromatic. Additionally, yak milk contains far more proteins and fats, including omega-3 fatty acids, making it an emerging superfood in many countries around the world, particularly in China.

Believe it or not, reindeer are real animals and not just the personal rickshaw pullers of Santa Claus. In fact, for millennia, they played a key role in the survival of Inuit tribes all over the Arctic Circle. Since the Stone Age, humans have followed the migrating paths of these Nordic beasts, hunting them for their precious meat or using their immense perseverance to cover lengthy journeys on a sled across the snowy terrain.

Probably the least-known aspect of this formidable animal is the widespread consumption of its milk among nomadic communities in the far reaches of our planet, providing a nutritious source of food in a harsh and treacherous climate.

Interestingly, the milk output of a single reindeer is relatively low, standing at roughly 100 ml a day and 50 liters a year, making it rather uneconomical for a large-scale industry. This is even more amplified when considering the aggressive and protective behavior of a reindeer mother whenever the milking process takes place. Therefore, reindeer milk never actually spread much beyond local use by tribal groups or boutique shops.

Due to the reindeer calves’ limited window of opportunity to get stronger during the short summer before the arrival of winter, the milk contains considerable amounts of fats and proteins, resulting in a much higher calorie intake than cow’s milk, reflected in an extremely creamy texture, reminiscent of condensed milk.

Traditionally, the milk is consumed as butter or curds, while occasionally being frozen for later use. Nowadays, however, it’s also processed as an ingredient in several cheeses, most notably Leipäjuusto, aka Finnish squeaky cheese.

Possibly the most eccentric example on our list, pig milk was never really mass-produced throughout human history due to a couple of factors. Whether it’s the milk’s unpalatable aroma or the difficulty of the milking process, all these factors made the prospect of supermarket shelves full of pig-milk mozzarella or swine yogurt practically unfeasible.

That said, an out-of-the-ordinary Dutch farmer named Erik Stegnik recently launched a project in which sow milk was processed into cheese and auctioned for charity at a staggering price of more than 1,500 Euros per kilo, making it by far the most expensive cheese ever sold worldwide.

Erik, who raises free-range pigs roaming freely on his farm in the small town of Bathmen, claimed that in order to make just a mere kilo of this precious cheese, it took 10 people intermittently milking sows for almost two days. This labor-intensive process is the result of the sow’s aggressive reluctance to cooperate and the limited availability of milk, as she can be milked for no more than thirty seconds every 2 hours, compared with 10 minutes in the case of cows. Moreover, a female pig has 14 teats, unsuitable for any existing farm machinery.

As for the flavor itself, pig milk is much fattier than cow’s and gamier than goat’s, whereas Erik’s exceptional cheese was described as chalky and salty by the few lucky people who had a chance to taste it.