Homemade Yogurt
Making yogurt should not be that difficult in these modern days. A little patience and basic understanding of the process – that is all one needs. For a fraction of the price at supermarket, anyone can make tasty curds at home. Most of the commercial varieties of yogurt include additives: Pectin, gum (I wish they just use plant based gum Arabic, derived from acacia trees), non-fat milk solids, vanilla, peach, etc. All unnecessary junk. Good high quality yogurt has it own delicious taste, it needs no augmentation from other flavors or additives.
In my village, we used to buy freshly made yogurt from a mason’s family. The lady would bring out solid yogurt in an aluminum container with a delicate flavor. She used a big rice or paddy barrel as a storage place, a nice stable location for forming curd. I have always enjoyed delicious curds in my sister’s house.
Due to the word’s etymology (yogurt), one may assume that this milk based dish came from Turkey. But the Hindi word ‘dahi’ – derived from Sanskrit ‘dadhi’ implies perhaps even thousand(s) of years back, there was curd in the Indian subcontinent. In Telugu, we say ‘perugu’(పెరుగు); it has the same connotation as ‘curd’.
The main ingredients for making good curd are: Fresh milk, starter (in Telugu ‘todu’తోడు), and proper temperature. Yogurt preparation just requires a little care, a bit of cleanliness, and some patience. I use stainless spoon for mixing. Never touched the milk with bare finger - for mixing with starter.
We can use all types of vessels (pots) for preparing curd. But all pots should be absolutely clean – otherwise slight lingering smell (some may tolerate it) will remain with the finished curd. Children may not like smelling yogurt or too much sour tasting curd. Sour curd is not bad; it can be used for other dishes like menti majjiga (మెంతిమజ్జిగ) , majjiga pulusu (మజ్జిగ పులుసు), dhokla, pan cakes, kadhi, and rayita. Slightly soured curd is ok with rice, it gives a delicious taste with steamed rice and mango pickle. It all depends on peoples’ tastes. I have made yogurt in stainless steel pots, Pyrex glass bowls, stoneware, porcelain, and of course clay (terracotta) pots. The most important thing to remember is to pick a clean pot. Ceramic and clay pots tend to retain smell of the previous dish (food). But if they are thoroughly cleaned and dried fully– then the same pot can be used repeatedly. If needed, the pot can be left in sun light for drying. This helps to get rid of any residual disagreeable smell. Or, one can change the pot frequently to get over this problem of residual smell. Sri Chaganti once made an interesting observation: All the milkmaids (gollabhamalu) were extremely clean, well dressed, and fastidious while churning butter. They knew in their hearts that all the yummy curds and butter were meant for little Krishna. Perhaps, there is some truth to that. I mean, one has to observe proper care while preparing milk and dairy products. In deed, the earlier generations were steeped in absolute cleanliness (madi) during cooking.
I prefer boiling milk on stove for making curd. Some use microwave oven for warming the milk. For some reason, I find warming milk on stove imparts better taste. To digress a bit here – I recall a childhood event. Our neighbor had a herd of cows. Whenever I went to their house, they used to give me a glass of warm milk. I never got such a tasty milk anywhere else, either in India or US. Now, I know the real secret to that taste. No wonder, little Krishna went after milk, butter and milkmaids. My friend’s mother would heat milk in a clay pot gently over cow dung cakes – very slowly. That slow heating in a clay pot induced excellent taste. If today’s kids dislike milk (say milk from super market, grocery store, dairy farm, or Mother Dairy), it is not their fault. Mostly this is due to poor quality or careless processing. Some taste is also lost in pasteurization (or homogenization).
After a bit of bubbling, I remove the milk from stove top and let it cool. Usually we see a thin layer of cream on the top. Let the milk cool down to room temperature. Or we can use slightly lukewarm milk. Particularly in cold winters it is preferable to use lukewarm milk. Normally I transfer the warm milk to a different pot for making curd. It is not needed, one can use the same pot for making yogurt. Milk has its own character; most of the time while boiling, milk tends to overflow and spoil stove top. (Being a colloid, milk always tends to bubble up on the hot stove.) Then, the usual chore of cleaning; everything is messy with good tasty cooking! One learns these minor irritations slowly. A glass pot watcher, a large clean ladle, or a watchful eye on the burning stove will do the trick. Sprinkling cold water will soothe boiling milk quickly. Or you can turn the stove knob to low. There were times when I forgot the milk totally on the stove – it led to thick creamy brownish milk. Such accidents happen to all and anyone.
So, now we have either room temperature or lukewarm milk in a clean pot. After mixing with a tablespoonful of starter, we have to leave the milk in a warm (just a little safe stable location) place for about 6-8 hours. How much starter? It depends on the quantity of milk. Roughly it is like this – for a liter of milk, at the most one and half tablespoon of starter. Or at most two tablespoons of starter. But the proportion stays same. That means, if you want to make a gallon (roughly 4 liters) of yogurt, then you need considerable amount of starter. After mixing the starter (about three swirls of spoon in the pot), (a hilarious scene from Bright Star comes to mind) I place the pot in the oven. I leave the pilot lamp (40 Watts lamp, I suppose) on. After six or eight hours, I gently remove the lid and take a peep. If the curd is set, often there will be a layer of pale white (colorless) liquid on top (sort of whey). We can also gently tilt the pot to see if it is set. But do not shake or disturb the curd while it is forming. If it is fully formed, then it is ready for eating. Of course, such a freshly made yogurt will be a bit warm. Or if you prefer you can remove the pot from oven and let it cool naturally. After an hour or so, I transfer the curd to refrigerator. Putting it in fridge will give the curd good solid texture. A good home made yogurt will have: Thin supernatant liquid layer. Tastes good without any sourness. We should be able to cut crisply with a spoon. There should not be any sticky thread hanging while lifting a piece with spoon. Good consistency from top to bottom.
Basically there are three or four parameters in this process. 1. Quality of starter. 2. Amount of starter. 3. Temperature. 4. Duration. One can vary the parameters to get either a soft mild tasting curd or a bit sour tasting one. I never used any thermometer for checking temperature. Somewhere, it is said the ideal temperature for yogurt making is: 30° – 37° centigrade (86° - 98.6° F ). On a hot Indian summer day, one has to take care to keep the (starter added) milk cool. Simple tricks are: Wrap a wet cloth around the pot (steel vessel), prepare curd in a clay pot, or make yogurt during nights. That even in hot Rajasthan one can find delicious curd during simmering summers – is a testament to the great culinary skills of local people.
Buttermilk (in Telugu challa) is another simple dish. It really refreshes and gives energy during hot summers. Its flavors also differ in India. In south India, we have the simple salty version – some times with the extra flavor of either curry leaf or citron (dabbakayi). In the north, the sweetened version (lassi) is preferred by some. Good curd is the main ingredient for making lassi or buttermilk. A slight detour here – in high school our Telugu teacher narrated an interesting anecdote. In his final Telugu examination, he was asked to explain the origin of the word “majjiga” – its roots and explanation. I think that single word ‘majjiga’ can flunk any Telugu scholar easily even today. Strange is life, this writer came to appreciate the origin and real meaning behind this word ‘majjiga’ only very recently – after a lapse of decades! Probably I could have learnt its etymology sooner had I consulted a good multilingual pundit (ubhaya bhasha pravina) way back then. For buttermilk, you have to just churn yogurt (with a bit of water). Depending on your preference, you can add a pinch of salt, lime juice, curry leaves, sugar, etc. In villages, during hot summer days generous philanthropists used to, perhaps they still do in some places, serve buttermilk to people. Unlike sweetened juices (or coke), raw salted buttermilk has very few calories. Yet it is a good hydrating drink for hot summers.
Lastly, the most important item – starter (culture). Where do you get it? Once I overheard somewhere, that the early Indian immigrants brought starter from their families in India. I cannot blame them! One gets attached to certain tastes. In most supermarkets, you can find plain yogurt. It is better to choose a variety that has as few additives as possible. Or, you can ask your friend for a spoonful of starter. Some use red pepper for making yogurt. I’ve never tried red pepper. There may be few more tricks – they are the privileged information of expert cooks. But anyone can learn such things with time, with practice. Or from a doting mother-in-law.
(Dedicated to the memory of S.N., who made exceptional original dishes)
Copyright 2010