Dairy
Yoghurt
Also called yogurt, plain yoghurt
Milk fermented thick by lactic cultures. It is sour where cream is sweet, and already a gel where milk is a liquid.
Origin
Fermenting milk to keep it is an old habit of West, Central and South Asia.
Flavour
Tangy and lactic. Full-fat tastes round; low-fat tastes sharp and sometimes chalky from thickeners. A bitter or yeasty tub has gone too far.
How it is made
Milk is warmed, inoculated with Lactobacillus and Streptococcus strains, then held warm until it sets. Live tubs still contain working cultures.
How to use it
Full-fat yoghurt copes better with heat. For butter chicken or a biryani marinade, salt it, add spices and ginger-garlic, and give the meat hours; a two-day bath turns the surface mushy. To cook yoghurt into a sauce, bring it in off the boil, often with a little flour or gram flour, or it splits into curds. Sour cream is closer than milk if you need a cold dollop; cream lacks the tang and will not tenderise the same way.
Storage
Fridge, lid on. Do not freeze if you care about the texture.
Recipes using it
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