Khorkhog

Mongolian mutton cooked with fire-heated river stones sealed inside a milk churn, with potato and carrot, and the stones passed round afterwards

Origin: The Mongolian Plateau

From the journey of Potato.

Khorkhog is cooked in a sealed metal vessel with stones, and the stones are the whole method. Smooth river stones are heated in a fire until they are almost glowing, then layered inside a milk churn or pressure vessel alternately with pieces of mutton on the bone, potato, carrot, onion, salt, and a little water. The lid is clamped down and the container is set on the fire, or sometimes simply left, and what happens inside is that the stones cook the meat from the middle outwards whilst the trapped steam does the rest. An hour or so later the lid comes off in a cloud. The stones are then handed round, and this is not a party trick. They come out of the churn coated in fat and searingly hot, and they are passed from hand to hand before the meal, which is said to be good for circulation and the joints. Whatever the merit of that, the practice is universal and it is the first thing a guest is offered. The method belongs to a herding society with no ovens and a great deal of fuel scarcity. A closed vessel with hot stones needs no sustained fire and wastes almost no heat, and it will cook a whole sheep's worth of mutton in the open. Its close relative boodog goes further and cooks the animal inside its own skin, with the stones packed into the cavity, which is the version usually made with a marmot or a goat. The vegetables are recent and worth saying so. Traditional khorkhog was mutton, water, salt, and stones. Potato and carrot entered Mongolian cooking through Soviet-era agriculture in the twentieth century, in a country where almost nothing else will grow, and they were absorbed so quickly that they are now taken for granted in a dish that predates them by centuries. The potato in particular does what the meat cannot: it takes up the mutton fat, and it is frequently the part a Mongolian reaches for first.

Ingredients

Meat

  • 2 kg mutton or lamb on the bone, in large pieces with fat left on

Vegetables

  • 1.2 kg waxy potatoes, peeled and halved
  • 500 g carrots, in thick chunks
  • 3 onions, quartered
  • 1 small cabbage, in wedges (optional)
  • 8 garlic cloves

Seasoning

  • 1 tbsp salt
  • 2 tsp coarsely ground black pepper

To cook

  • 400 ml water

Equipment

  • 12 smooth river stones, fist-sized, heated in a fire

Method

  1. Heat the stones in a wood fire for at least an hour, until they are grey-white and radiating heat. Use dense smooth river stones, never porous ones that have been sitting in water, since those can fracture violently.
  2. If you have no fire, heat the stones in an oven at its maximum for an hour and a half. It is less dramatic and it works.
  3. Cut the mutton into large pieces on the bone. Leave the fat on: it is what bastes everything else.
  4. Season the meat and vegetables with the salt and pepper.
  5. Now layer the vessel, and layer it hot. Put a splash of water in the base, then a layer of meat, then two or three hot stones lifted in with tongs, then vegetables, then more meat and more stones, working quickly.
  6. The stones must be distributed through the load rather than sitting at the bottom, because they are the heat source and not merely a bed.
  7. Add the rest of the water, clamp or weight the lid down firmly, and set the vessel over a low fire or a medium hob ring.
  8. Cook for an hour and a quarter to an hour and a half. It will hiss and vent steam, which is correct; if it does nothing at all, the seal is too tight or the stones were not hot enough.
  9. Do not open it during cooking. The whole method depends on the trapped steam.
  10. Take it off the heat and let it stand for ten minutes before opening, standing back as you lift the lid.
  11. Fish out the stones with tongs, wipe the worst of the fat off them, and pass them round the table from hand to hand before eating. They will be very hot.
  12. Serve everything straight from the vessel with the broth at the bottom ladled over, and flatbread or tea alongside.

Notes

The stones are the recipe and their choice matters: dense smooth river stones or basalt, never porous or waterlogged ones, which can crack apart under that heat. Distribute them through the layers rather than piling them at the base. A milk churn is the traditional vessel; a pressure cooker with the weight left off, or any heavy pot with a clampable lid, will do, and the point is a seal that holds steam without being airtight. Waxy potatoes hold their shape in an hour and a half; floury ones dissolve into the fat. Mutton is correct and lamb is milder. The passed stones are part of the meal rather than a novelty, and everyone takes one.

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