Dairy Foods · FFET10442
Naipizi (Mongolian milk skin)
Milk slowly heated into a skin and air-dried into sheets: one of the Mongolian dairy foods known as white foods.
Solid and semi-solid foods made from the milk of cattle, sheep, horses and other animals, such as butter and milk skin.
Naipizi is one of the Mongolian dairy foods collectively called chagan yide, or white foods. Milk is slowly heated until a skin forms, then the skin is air-dried into sheets; Galutu town in Wushen Banner, Ordos, Inner Mongolia, is one present-day production center.
What
Naipizi is the skin that forms as milk is heated and is air-dried into sheets. It belongs to the Mongolian dairy tradition called chagan yide, meaning dairy foods or white foods.1,4
When
A historical account describes Mongolian women boiling milk and selling the skin as niunai pizi. The available passage gives no year, so it cannot establish an earliest date.2
Where
Naipizi belongs to the Mongolian dairy tradition of Inner Mongolia. Galutu town in Wushen Banner, Ordos, is one present-day production center, with a development known as Milk Skin Town.1,4
How
Production involves slow heating, skin formation and air-drying. A historical account also describes lifting the skin from heated milk and later melting it with tea, sesame and walnut paste.1,2
Why
Its distinctive form comes from collecting the surface skin of heated milk and drying it into sheets, a form reflected in the name milk skin.1,2
Impact and influence
Galutu's Milk Skin Town was established in 2024, with production workshops upgraded and new products developed. An August 2026 report puts the town's output at more than 1.2 million sheets a year. Naipizi is also among the dairy foods covered by the nationally listed chagan yide dairy-making craft; the heritage listing covers the craft as a whole.1,3,4