In Search of Mongolian Barbecue Terminology

For Mongolia, first some In Search of Mongolian Barbecue terminology. Perhaps the most concise definition I got for Debra McCown Mongolian barbecue came from a Abingdon, Virginia (USA) translator Solongo: “In traditional barbecue, they use hot stones, and that’s how they cook it.The Asking about barbecue in Mongolia learned from his grandfather and trick of it is everything has to be can get you some strange looks. now cooks for tourists outside closed. The container is closed Barbecue is not interesting, they Ulaanbaatar. A translator and I tightly, and no air is coming out.” say. They’ll tell you food is not traveled with him to his family In fact, to most Mongols, barbecue interesting. And among foods, home, where I essentially threw means either horhog or boodog. dairy products are certainly more two big barbecue parties for his The first of these is what Solongo interesting than barbecue, a relatives and neighbors. Before I is describing: placing meat and subject that is “not taken go into what I learned about the hot rocks inside a sealed metal seriously,” as one Mongolian labor-intensive process of making container. In boodog the cooking professor told me. The ethno- real Mongolian barbecue, I should is done made by placing hot logists with whom I spoke at the provide some background on stones inside the sealed skin of the National University of Mongolia barbecue and its history in animal. Horhog and boodog are indicated that no one has ever Mongolia. cooked both from the inside by the done a study on barbecue or even hot rocks and pressurized steam on meat. At most the subject What is Barbecue? and from the outside by the heat receives passing mention. In Food is so taken for granted that of a fire. Mongolia, when people have a it rarely appears in histories; yet, What we are not talking about party, they cook an animal. In a there may be nothing more here is shorlog, an imported kind country that lives primarily from illustrative of the universality of of shishkebab involving cooking its animals, this is a given, an the human experience. The marinated chunks of meat, fat and obvious thing, like the color of the concept of cooking an animal and sometimes vegetables on skewers sky or the change of seasons. celebrating in a large group has on a grill. Why, they wonder aloud, would probably been around as long as anyone try to study such a thing? men have been hunting. It is A Few Words on Meat in But such pessimism about mentioned in stories of Chingis Mongolian Culture barbecue is not enough to stop a Khan and of events in the Middle I was told many times that in order North Carolina Tar Heel from East more than a millennium to be considered “real food” in studying a subject so near and before that, in the Bible. Mongolia, a meal must contain dear to her heart. Others have Not only in legend, but also in meat, even though historically been inspired by their love of modern-day culture, the concept other food products from the pulled pork to drive hours upon of barbecue spans the world. traditional herding culture have hours to experience the regional Natives in the Caribbean built also been significant. The variations of American barbecue frameworks of sticks on which to numerous petroglyphs in the — but I am the first, far as I know, slow-cook meat over a fire; the Mongolian Altai attest to the to go all the way to Mongolia in word barbecue arrived in Europe importance of hunting by those search of barbecue. I said I’d go via Spain from their term for such who inhabited the area thousands to the end of the earth for a good structures. While barbecue in the of years ago. An encyclopedic barbecue sandwich — and I wasn’t United States usually involves a description of the Mongolian Way joking. large metal grill, the North of Life summarizes how with most As it turns out, true Mongolian Carolina variant, “pig-picking,” of the meat from hunted animals, barbecue is nothing like the stuff originated from the practice of people would make horhog or marketed as “Mongolian bar- turning a pig on a spit over a fire boodog or fry it on a stick in the becue” in the United States. In and picking the meat off the fire. The meat from hunted fact, the two traditional Mongolian outside as it cooked. Hawaiians animals could also be boiled. Meat methods of making barbecue are bury a pig underground with piles was seasoned with wild onions and virtually unknown in the West. of hot stones; Mongolians put hot grasses and sometimes milk stones inside the animal or inside products in soups. It was common Ultimately, my search took me a container. True Mongolian to eat the head, legs and insides to Bayanhotag sum, Hentii aimag, barbecue is simply that country’s first before the meat because they where I learned firsthand how to variation of the global concept that go down easily. Each organ meat make horhog and boodog from might best be summed up as was traditionally divided evenly Purevtogtokh (Purev), a man who “cook a critter, have a party.” among everyone in the ger 36 (Mongolian Way 1987). Early to the summer’s meatless diet, cauldrons if they were covered historical sources, such as the helps to quench this meat hunger. with a metal lid and it was Secret History of the Mongols, weighted down with stones. while not providing details about My host Purev explained that how meat was prepared, since 1921, with urbanization, to In the absence of such lids emphasize the importance of the degree that Mongols have among archaeological finds, as serving meat in traditional become more settled and don’t Professor Byambadorj of the hospitality (Secret History 1998) have so many milk products in the National University of Mongolia summertime, they eat more meat explained to me, horhog likely Yet, as the Franciscan William of than they did before. He said it is evolved from the ancient boodog Rubruck astutely observed in the no longer true that meat is only cooking technique. Boodog is 13th century while discussing the eaten for special events in the difficult, he said, because it Mongols’ tastes in meat, “In summer, though horhog or boodog requires the animal to have a good summer, so long as lasts their is still a treat. skin for making it. Also, hunters kumis, that is to say mare’s milk, began making horhog, he said, they care not for any other food” A Concise History of Barbecue because they needed to use the [Fig. 1] (Rubruck 2004). Indeed, in Mongolia animal skin instead of burning it, The preparation of horhog and and so they needed something boodog reflects the conditions of other than the skin to cook the nomadic life where there might be meat in. They began using a part minimal cooking equipment. As of the stomach of a sheep or goat, Professor Lkhagvaa of the taking it with them, making Mongolian University of Science horhog in it, and then keeping the and Technology told me, the use skin to use for something else. As of hot stones is a very old practice. Purev told me, the use of modern “The easiest way of making food metal containers for making is…making fire, heating two horhog began probably in the stones…barbecue is maybe from 1920s. this, putting it on the meat and Surely one of the earliest explicit between it.” references to what we might Photo © 2005 Daniel C. Waugh There is no archaeological assume was the preparation of Fig. 1. Milking a mare, Tamir River boodog is in the late 14th century region, Arkhangai aimag. evidence regarding when boodog first was made, although it is safe Yüan shih, the official history of there is an amazing range of milk to assume that its preparation the Yüan (Mongol) Dynasty in products, not just kumis, which from hunted animals dates from China. The story relates how the form the core of the summer diet. ancient times, soon after humans young Temüjin, the future Chingis As a recent text explains, discovered fire. The idea of Khan, was fleeing for his life with making boodog with livestock (as a few companions, among them The main reason for the heavy is common now) is relatively new his brother Khasar (Qajar): focus on dairy products in but may date as far back as the summer is the need to Fig. 2. Burial goods in a Xiongnu grave, time when people began herding including bronze cauldron containing consume milk and its animals. Excavations of Xiongnu animal bones. Tamiryn Ulaan Khoshuu, derivatives before they get graves in Mon- Arkhangai aimag, Feature 97. spoiled very fast in the golia from two summer heat. Plus summer is millennia ago not the time to slaughter have yielded animals and therefore the bronze caul- meat supplies drastically drons containing reduce in those months. bones of animals Herders also refrain from presumably slaughtering their animals in from the ritual hot weather lest the meat preparation of become spoiled in a very food to accom- short time (Baabar and pany the de- Enkhbat 2002: 34). ceased [Fig. 2]. The Mongolian language actually It is possible has specific words describing the that horhog hunger for meat during the could have been summer. Barbecue, an exception prepared in such Photo © 2005 Daniel C. Waugh 37 When they reached the Pan- because they are not as busy with Barbecue and Health chu-ni (Baljuni) River their the herds.

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