About Yogurt: An Invaluable Aid to Health [2 ed.] 0722502087

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About Yogurt: An Invaluable Aid to Health - Front Cover
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By the same Author
Title Page
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Contents
1. Curds and Whey
2. The Problem of Longevity
3. Why Not Just Milk?
4. Yogurt
5. Yogurt for Health
6. How Yogurt Acts
7. Yogurt Recipes
Rear Cover - The About Series

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r

P E. Norris

ABOUT YOGURT an

invaluable aid to health

A1r _‘__ SERIES

ABOUT YOGURT An introduction to this ancient cultured milk food, and a reasoned examination of its value in the daily diet; with recipes included.

By the same author ABOUT DIET FOR DIABETICS ABOUT HONEY ABOUT MOLASSES ABOUT NUTS AND DRIED FRUIT ABOUT SLIMMING ABOUT VITAMINS ABOUT WHEAT GERM ABOUT YEAST

ABOUT YOGURT An Invaluable Aid to Health

by P. E. NORRIS

THORSONS PUBLISHERS LiMITED

Wellingborough, Northamptonshire

First published 1954 Ninth Impression 1970 Second Edition, revised and reset, 1972 Second Impression 1977

© P.E. NORRIS 1972

This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior consent in any form of binding or published and without

cover a

other than that in which it is

similar condition

including this

condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

ISBN 0 7225 0208 7 Made and Printed

?fl Great Britain by Weatherby Woolnough, Welhngborough NN8 4BX Northants, England,

CONThNTS

Page

Chapter 1.

Curds and

2.

The Problem of

3.

Why

4.

Yogurt

5.

Yogurt

6.

How

7.

Yogurt Recipes

Whey

Longevity

Not Just Milk?

7

16

25

32

for Health

44

Acts

52

Yogurt

58

CHAPTER

ONE

CURDS AND WHEY UNTIL the

RECENTLY YOGURT or

menu

of any

popular

yoghurt could not be found on

restaurant or cafe in Britain. It

by comparative few who had travelled in such outlandish places as Bulgaria, Yugoslavia and South Russia, and by a few peppery, retired Anglo-Indians. Yet, called by another name it was enjoyed by countryfolk in Britain in the distant past; but like many good things from the country, such as home-made jam, was a dish for connoisseurs and was concocted in secret

the

wholemeal bread and cottage cheese, fell into disfavour during the Industrial Era. No longer did Miss Muffet sit on

tuffet, eating her curds and whey. Curd is the thick substance, the basis of cheese, which separates from milk under the action of any acid, and is distinguished from whey, or the watery part of the milk. a

Curds

and

whey

was

a

delicacy enjoyed by

our

forefathers. In the Boke of Nurture, we are told: ‘beware at eve of crayme of cowe and also of the goote thaugh it be too late; Of Strawberries and the cold

For these

hurtilberyes [wortleberries],

with

loncate, may

marre

many

a

man

changyne

his

astate, But aniff he have aftur, hard cheese wafurs, with wyne

ypocrate.’ J oncate or junket was a favourite dish. The word is derived from ‘junci’,rushes on which curds were laid, so that the whey left on them might drain away readily. Having served as a drainer in the dairy, the rushes were used later

as

a

dish at table.

ABOUT YOGURT

one

festivity

abounded in Old

England whey, and junket. Junket became associated with conviviality, and fête days, which were usually holidays, were regarded as ‘junket days’. The good things eaten at wakes (North country, not Irish variety) were known as ‘junket fare’. We still call merrymaking of the more riotous kind junketting. In his Herbal, Gerard constantly alludes to junketting dishes, and Giles Rose, another old historian, says that ‘cream in jonchee, made with wild reeds’, was eaten at banquets. He means junket and curds. The old Cambridgeshire milk-cheeses, more recently served on straw instead of rushes, were a form ofjunket; so was Wensleydale cheese. England must be one of the most fertile countries in the world. It was once heavily wooded and soft fruit could be Wherever milk and

there would

find curds and

had in abundance. At every feast there were at least a one of the choicest fruit messes known

dozen sweets, and was rosee,

which,

says the Forme

of Cury,

was

made according

to this

recipe: ‘Take thyk mylke [curdsl as to fore welled. Cast thereto a gode porcion pynes [mulberriesi, dates mynced, and powder ginger, and seeth it, and alye it with fibers of white rosis and fiber of rys. Cole it and messe it forth. If thou wilt, instede of almonde mylke,

take swete

cremes

of

kyne.’

The ‘swete cremes of kyne’ were which

a

great deal

was eaten

undoubtedly junket,

of

in mediaeval times. The

countryman of old did not, as most people imagine, exist on roast beef. He thrived instead, as Sir Jack Drummond

tells us, on simple fare: bread made from the whole wheat, rich milk that had never been pasteurized or boiled; well

ripened cheeses made

on the farms on which he worked; pottages of vegetables in season, spiced with herbs from the countryside; produce that we never now eat, such as

CURDS AND WHEY

sorrel nettles, buttermilk and

and

dandelion;

curds,

junket,

high days and holidays, fresh meat roasted so that the juices were imprisoned. No wonder he was tough and strong; worked hard, played hard, drank hard and fought hard. As a result, more often than not he died early from over-eating and drinking. -

on

But here and there

one came

across

men

who lived

temperately, and they outlasted their fellows by thirty, forty and even fifty years. Sometimes more. In An Economic History of England C. M. Waters says, ‘Cattle were rarely fatted [in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries] and fresh meat was a luxury for lords and rich men. From the cows they got milk, butter and cheese, the last usually made from skim milk. Butter was sold or salted, the butter-milk drank. Ewes

were

milked

as

well

as

cows.,

Sugar had not then been brought to England and was not in general use until the latter part of the eighteenthcentury. The Englishman’s sense of taste had not been destroyed and he didn’t want everything he swallowed sweetened. Custard Ousts Curds With the arrival of the Industrial

Age and, inevitably, produced food, the art of home-baking died in towns. Cooking done on an open fire or in an oven heated with mass

brown coal, was difficult, and housewives the easy way. Who can blame them? They knew preferred wood

or

of calories, vitamins or mineral salts. Bread, cheese and ale were made only on farms remote from the town. Custards manufactured from devitalizing

nothing

starches and white sugar with all the stuffing knocked out replaced curds and whey and the junkets of old.

of it,

People who ate the old products were regarded

unrefined foods and as

uncouth

yokels.

sour

milk

ABOUT YOGURT

The custom of

curds and

eating

whey

with its

slightly

acid tang gave way to concoctions filled with white flour and refined sugar coloured with synthetic dyes; blancmanges and custards in packets that can be boiled gas flame in a matter of minutes.

quickly

over a

quickly. Eat quickly. Get heart-burn and get over quickly by taking a pill or two containing bicarbonate of soda, or a glass of milk of magnesia. Today speed seems all important. We will not give Cook

that

ourselves time

to

make wholesome bread

or

cheese,

or

whey. We have no time to set milk aside and wait till it curdles. Everything is cooked in a desperate hurry and swallowed as if the meal we are eating is to be our last.

curds and

And what do we do with the time saved? Gaze at the TV screen

till

our

eyes pop.

Fortunately, a few civilized people in Britain still appreciate real food. They have salvaged for us the recipes that our forefathers used; throughout Britain there is a growing body of men and women who now make their own wholemeal bread, set their own cheeses, make or buy their own curds and whey or yogurt, and even brew their own wines. So don’t run away with the idea that yogurt is

importation;

Once, it

worse.

a

foreign

not that that would make it one whit the was eaten

all

over

Britain.

Don’t believe, either, that it has some magical power that will prevent you from ageing. It hasn’t. Don’t believe that if you live exclusively on yogurt you will be healthy, happy and wise. You won’t. But you can, with perfect truth and safety, believe that yogurt is good for you, and that if you live a sane moderate life

a

little yogurt every

will tend

day

or at

fairly frequent

intervals

you fit and lengthen your span of existence. This book would not be worth the paper it was

written

to

on

keep

if I told you

anything

else.

CURDS AND WHEY

What is more, I believe in the medicinal and nutritive

about which I shall tell you in due course, but I would defeat my purpose if I boosted yogurt to be

value of yogurt

something

Yogurt

an

it

was not or

Acquired

made claims for it that

were

false.

Taste

I have eaten yogurt ever since I can remember. I ate it in India as a boy. In that country it is called dahi and is eaten in forms

never seen

here. At first I didn’tlike it. I

was

reared

emasculated foods and my natural tastes were deadened. Yogurt is, I think, an acquired taste, like coffee or good wine. I didn’tat first like coffee either. So, if when

on

you first taste yogurt you don’tlike it, don’tlet that put you off. Don’t be a martyr. It’s not worth it. Try one of the flavoured varieties. There

are a

number

on

the market

may be flavoured with

honey, maple syrup, very sugar (pieces or foot sugar), black treacle, molasses, stewed fruit, a mixture of uncooked red and black currants, strawberries, blackberries, loganberries, or

Yogurt rough brown

just plain jam There

are

or

treacle.

millions of

people

all

over

the world who

would not dream of sweetening their yogurt; they eat it as with salt, or salt and pepper. the Scots eat porridge Others eat it with rice, curries, fish or stews. One man’s meat is another’s

poison. eating is so to prepare your food that you enjoy it. The thoughts of a succulent dish and its appetizing odours bring the digestive juices flowing into the mouth, ready to work on the food that is shovelled into it. So don’t disappoint those juices. I’veheard yogurt spoken and seen it written of as a health food, whatever that means. In my experience there are no such things as health foods. Almost every food can bring you health if you eat it in the right proportions and com The art of

ABOUT YOGURT hine it

other food. Eat too much of any food health food and it will harm you. Beware of who push one food to the exclusion of all others.

correctly with

advertized

as a

people They’ve usually got

an

axe

to

grind.

Whatever you eat does you either good or harm. It depends on what the food is, the amount you eat, the other foods you mix it with, the conditions under which that food is made and prepared and how long it is stored; whether it is tinned, dried,

Strange

or

frozen.

Delicacies

Foods must be combined in

a special way to get the utmost benefit out of them. Also to get the utmost enjoyment from

them. A great deal depends on your palate, which be different from that of the man or woman who may advises you.

eating

The Burmese eat a savoury dish called vindaloo, made from fish that has been buried in the earth for three weeks. Eskimoes, too, eat rotten meat and fish and apparently thrive on it. Quite delicately nurtured people in Britain

won’t eat game unless it has been ‘hung’for days and crawls with maggots. In some parts of the world people eat worms and the

gourmets of China keep cheese till it crawls with worms, which devour each other, until one worm remains. This, of course, is pure cheese, and is sliced and devoured with gusto. Col. P. T. Etherton relates that he once sat down

of honour

at a

banquet

as

guest

in Turkestan where black cat

was

the pièce de rtcsistance and favoured guests were given sheep’s eyes to swallow as people swallow oysters. And all these people thrive on such food. Dr Seagrave, famous for his work in Burma, writes that in his hospital one old Burmese was dying and nothing he could do would make him better. The old

man was

moaning

for

CURDS AND WHEY sour pickle and rotten fish. ‘We might as well give the poor old fellow what he wants,’said Seagrave. ‘Hecan’tlive.’So he sent out for this Burmese delicacy and the old man filled

himself with it,

perked up astonishingly and recovered. perhaps, rotten fish is a health food! Incidentally, since then Herman J. Almquist of the University of California has found that chick bleeding can be cured by putrid fish meal, which contains vitamin K or the coagulation factor. In Burma,

Even the most learned dietitians don’t know the last word about food. The

subject of dietetics is not more than fifty years old. Vitamins were not discovered until 1911. Why some thrive on one food and others don’tstill baffles scientists. On the other hand, don’t believe all that chefs tell you. They don’t know much about food values. Their job is to

palate. So that when you read that this or that wine goes with this or that dish, don’t be impressed. Remember, chefs live on novelties on special dishes tickle your

named after famous people. The same things that you probably eat at home wrapped up in a fancy name. They’vegot to think of something new all the time or else someone will push ahead and steal their thunder. So if I see anything advertised as a health food, my instant reaction is: ‘Iwonder how much he’smaking out of it?’ I was born suspicious, and have stayed that way. Health depends on the use you make of any food.

Depends on You gifted with a sound heredity and a strong constitution, you can abuse your body for many years without paying the penalty. But if you live long enough, you will suffer cruelly for flouting nature. Nature always wins in Health

If you

are

the end. So it’sup to you to observe the effects of the foods

ABOUT YOGURT you eat and the

liquids

that health follows

as a

you swallow, and natural course.

so to use

them

You were born with intelligence, and in order to get the best out of life, you must make use of it. And one of the ways to get the best out of life is to master the art of eating. For it is

an

art.

The artist mixes the various

paints on his palette and places them on a canvas to produce a picture. The result depends upon his genius and experience. You mix your foods and put them into your stomach and whether that stomach develops ulcers or not, depends upon your experience and skill. This experience and skill will help to your body; make it fat or thin or just right; make skin like satin or cover it with blemishes; pump you your full of vitality or make you sluggish; enable you to live for

shape

70-100 years

or

kill you pretty

The fact that you have live in and a fat bank

a

soon.

Rolls-Royce car,

a mansion to

balance, won’t save you

Only your intelligence appetites can do that.

from death.

and the moderation of your many

And where, you may ask, does yogurt fit into this scheme of

things? Yogurt is one of those excellent foods which, eaten every day or fairly frequently, helps to keep the intestinal tract free from bacteria. It doesn’t mean, of course, that you can so abuse your inside that it becomes like a sewer and then an occasional bottle to remedy all your bad living. Don’tregard yogurt as a bottle of disinfectant to clean out a drain. The Ancients, who had an instinct about food, ate a good deal of yogurt, for many reasons, about which I shall

expect

on. In all the Arab countries, in the Middle East, the Far East, South-East Europe, Central Asia and China it formed and still forms a part of everyday diet.

dilate further

A gunner friend of mine, Captain Vitu, who

was

cap-

CURDS AND WHEY tured at

Crete, escaped into Yugoslavia and lived for

two

with the Partisans under Miahilovitch, told me that the first food he was offered when he ran into a patrol of our years

was yogurt or yahourt, which he described as thick, acid, curdled milk made in various ways; at times fairly alcoholic. It appeared at every meal, and everyone ate it, from the greybeards to the toddlers. Sometimes it was eaten in the form of cheese. But milk, yahourt, cheese, beans and lentils formed the main part of their protein intake, with flesh mainly goat or sheep on feast days.

allies

-

-

This simple life seems also such the

with

healthy one that before population of about eight a

Bulgaria, millions, boasted more centenarians than the United States. Yogurt alone did not achieve that; but yogurt was one of the many ingredients that helped. war

a

Is there any connection, then, between yogurt and longevity?

Perhaps there is, but I should not like to give it as my opinion that yogurt alone will enable you to live 100 years. It won’t. Yogurt is not the food of centenarians. It never was and never will he. There is no such food. It is merely one of if taken fairly regularly and in foods which many moderation will help you to outgrow the normal span by many years, provided you also live a rational existence Extravagant claims are always harmful. If an article, whether food, wearing apparel, scientific apparatus

or a

of household furniture, is sound, all one needs to know is the truth about it. Crack a food up to the skies and

piece

when readers find there is little foundation for your claims, they’ll suspect everything you say thereafter. Understatement is

an

English habit

-

and a very good one it is. So

merely claim that yogurt is a delicious, and if eaten sensibly will let

me

health and

digestion.

good food; it can he improve both your

CHAPTER

TWO

THE PROBLEM OF LONGEVITY THE PAST extravagant claims have been made for many foods and beverages. In South America it was claimed that

IN

maté,

a

kind of herbal tea, had the most wonderful

properties. It helped to defy fatigue, clear the blood (whatever that means, and make greybeards young again. The same

claim is made for the leaves of the

coca tree

from

which cocaine is made. Natives who chew the leaves

supposed

to be endowed with the

and go without food for days

pangs of hunger. The

at a

ability

to resist

fatigue

stretch, unassailed by the

may be said for

same

are

opium

or

tobacco. Similar claims have been made about tea. The Mercurius Politicus of

September

30th 1658 contained

an

article

about that China drink ‘called by the Chineans Tcha, by other nations Tay, alia Tee. The quality is moderately .

.

.

hot, proper for winter or summer. The drink is declared to be most wholesome, preserving in perfect health until extreme old age. The particular virtues are these. It maketh the body active and lusty. It helpeth the headache, giddiness and heaviness, thereof. It removeth the obstruction of the spleen. It is very good against the

stone and gravel. It taketh away the difficulty of breathing, opening obstructions. It is good against lippitude, distillations and cleareth the sight. It removeth lassitude and cleanseth and purifieth adust humours and a hot liver....’ There is

a

under the The A

great deal more; apparently every disease sun

Theories

claim

on

was

cured

or

relieved

by

tea.

of Metchnikoff

behalf

of yogurt

was

made

by

Elie

ThE PROBLEM OF LONGEVITY

Metchnikoff, Professor at the Pasteur Institute, and today almost a legendary figure. Metchnikoff made an intensive

study

of the

touched the

problem of old problem made

conclusion that birds and its

species,

age, and like many who have fair progress. He came to the

with the

which have

life span of about 35 than mammals. And he decided that

live longer years this was because mammals have -

blamed the

a

large

flora is

intestine. Metchnikoff

intestine for most of the serious

large

ailments that cut short man’s life. It

intestine, he As long as

of the ostrich

exception

a

was

in this

large

asserted, that harmful bacteria flourishes. the infant lives exclusively on milk the intestinal

composed

of

only

one

type of organism,

characteristic lactic acid rod known

by

a

the technical

name, bacillus bijidus, which bears a close resemblance to the lactobacillus bulgaricus of yogurt. When the child grows older and is introduced to a varied

diet, the flora assumes a different condition and consists of many types of organisms. If a healthy diet is given the child, then a great deal of the flora is either identical to or closely related to the flora produced by a milk diet. But if the diet is rich in animal protein without a proper balance of alkaline, fresh green foods; or if it is too heavy with carbohydrates, harmful bacteria are formed which tend to the system. Metchnikoff tells of

poison

physician named halfofkephir(kefIr) a day Rovighi, a similar to preparation yogurt, but containing about 3 cent. alcohol. per Rovighi found that in a few days the products of intestinal putrefaction in his urine had either disappeared completely or been greatly reduced. Metchnikoff felt that the body is slowly being poisoned and its resistance weakened by man’s normal diet; much more rapidly if he is a heavy meat eater who takes little exercise. He stated that this poisoning process could be who drank

-

a

an

Italian

litre and

a

ABOUT YOGURT

arrested and the intestinal tract

regular

use

of yogurt

kept healthy by the constant, variety of acidophilus

or some

milk. Metchnikoff was the alcohol

-

not

in favour of

and

little

kephir,

and said that

had a devitalizing 3 per cent. effect on the body. He claimed that a

even as

as

debilitating ate regularly of yogurt should live to be about 150; but though he was a very great scientist, his knowledge of dietetics and geriatrics (the study of old age) was faulty and limited. He did most of his useful work long man

who

before the discovery of vitamins, and he had comparatively little knowledge about the effect of mineral salts and other essential constituents of food in

Metchnikoff died

surprising,

for

though

1916,

he

wrote:

‘It is not

microbes into the

of microbes that

‘Obviously rigidly to

diet

we

the

was on

yogurt and intestinal poisoning

on

the

body.

71.

Which

right

lines

aged were

as

is not far

as

concerned, he also

enough merely to introduce useful body. We must also prevent the entrance are

harmful.

should eat

no raw

food that has been

food, but confine

thoroughly

our

cooked and

sterilised. The exclusion of harmful microbes and the introduction of beneficial microbes, such as those of lactic acid fermentation, must be of great service to health.’ His theory does not recognize that a really healthy body

is

so

strong that it is immune

fact that these microbes

can

to harmful

exist

only

in

microbes,

or

putrefying

the

matter.

His theory runs contrary to all modern concepts and ideas; that fresh, uncooked food, grown in natural humus, is the ideal nourishment, and that food should be cooked

only when necessary to break it down and make it digestible; or for psychological reasons when the weather is -

cold, or in order to render foods tasty and palatable. Metchnikoff knew nothing of the modern dental theory

THE PROBLEM OF LONGEVITY

that

hard,

raw

foods exercise the gums and that chewing digestive juices and the first stages of

aids the flow of

digestion.

He hadn’t the

researches done

Goldberger;

by

nor

men

advantage

of

reading

about the

like Sir Robert McCarrison and

did he know

anything Quetta

work of Sir Albert Howard in

of the wonderful and Pusa.

We can, therefore, travel with Metchnikoff only part of the way. But we owe him a tremendous debt for drawing our attention to the health-giving properties of yogurt.

Like most

he became obsessed with his

specialists,

theories, decided that the large intestine even

advocated

operation

an

was

own

harmful and

for its removal. All herbivorous

animals, he contended, have large intestines. But who has made himself into a carnivorous animal, man, also has a large intestine. The best thing, therefore, would

be for him to rid himself of this encumbrance. Since his time surgeons have also removed tonsils and appendices on a wholesale scale, under the impression that they were

superfluous. Metchnikoff made many important discoveries and the world is richer for his work and influence. If he did nothing more

than stimulate

worth

yogurt

an interest in yogurt, his life was He made the mistake, however, of labelling wonderful food, an elixir of life, a panacea for

living. as a

almost all ills; and

he ate

though

every day, he could

a

not live to be a

prove his theory. But his work started

something.

great deal of yogurt

centenarian, and

He

was a

pioneer

so

into

subject of longevity. His work interested many others, who took different paths Voronoff, Brown-Sequard, the

-

Alexis Carrel. Now we know

single factor, such and that of these,

precedence.

that as so

senility

intestinal

far

as we

does not

depend upon any putrefaction, hut on many;

know, glandular defects take

ABOUT YOGURT

20

Magic Elixir for Longevity Periodically, men who have lived beyond the normal span of life gain the limelight by claiming that this or that food was responsible for their sound health or advanced age. I knew a Greek doctor named Damouglou who felt that every disease under the sun could be cured by a diet of leeks No

and bananas baked in their skins. I’vetried leeks as well as bananas baked in their skins. They’re tasty, but I doubt whether

they’d make me live a hundred years;

it would not be due exclusively other

factors

And

a

as

and if I did,

to leeks and bananas hut to

well.

Mrs Ellen Evans of Bristol is reported

to have said

in 1953 that she attributed her

birthday long life to the fact that she ate at least one ice cream a day as long as she could remember! Such people are the despair of the dietitians. They seem to shatter every dietetic canon on her hundredth

and get away with it. But man will continue his search for In 1934

F.

and

some

magic

elixir.

G. C. Cantle

returned Major James Captain with of a number Angkor jars containing a secret preparation guaranteed to make one live for centuries. On analysis it was found to be a gland extract taken from just behind the poison fangs of the cobra. A doctor aged seventy-six applied some to his left arm. ‘I have tried injections of the extract,’ he stated, ‘and never felt so fit. I feel nothing can touch me.’ But as no one succeeded in solving the secret of the neutralizer of this poison, it could not, of course, be used. This salve it could be massaged into the skin as well as the secret of a sect of Cambodian monks on was injected the outskirts of Angkor. They are supposed to be centuries

from

-

-

old. Then there is the case of the Chinese, Li Chang Yung of Szechway, who if still living is about 270 years old. He was

alive after the

war

and attributed his age to the

juices

of

THE PROBLEM OF LONGEVITY

plants, but no one has been able to test theory. But for the ordinary man without access to secret foods and elixirs of life, the best plan is to follow the sound advice of Luigi Cornaro, an Italian, who lived to be 103. ‘Guard against extreme heat and great cold,’ he advised, ‘and extreme fatigue and excesses. Never interfere with your sleep. Avoid badly ventilated places.’ He regarded temperance as the secret of good health and a long life. By temperance he did not mean teetotalism, but a moderation in all things: food, drink, pleasure. At eighty he could read and hear perfectly, slept well and talked clearly and with intelligence. He also rode, and records that he took part ‘in some easy and pleasant hunting, such as is suited to my age.’ cypress and other

the truth of this

Simple Living Prolongs Life expectation of life is longer than it was, and each succeeding generation inherits a finer legacy than the one before it. More people are reverting to the simple life, because they realize that it is the best and most satisfying. Thomas Parr, who lived to be 152, and Henry Jenkins, who reached 169, were simple country folk, who lived by the produce they grew and worked hard in the open all The normal

their lives. Their food consisted of wholewheat bread, curds, buttermilk, farmhouse cheeses, strong homebrewed cider and honest ale, and on highdays and holidays little meat, wild fowl or a rabbit. The food they grew on rich soil fertilized with natural humus, for man had not then invented artificial fertilizers. They sweated

a

thrived

and drank

plenty

of water.

ABOUT YOGURT

22

There is little doubt that contentment

played a part in at eighty and

making them healthy. Parr married again

according to legend is supposed to have had an affair with a village girl when 120, which shows the stuff he was made of. Within recent years

who lived

we

have

seen

Zaro

Agha, a Turk, simple life

to be 162. He claimed to have lived a

and to have eaten

enormous quantities of yogurt all his life. Simple foods, eaten in their simplest form, are the best. Georges Hackenschmidt, the Russian Lion, once the finest wrestler in Europe, is still very active at 76 and goes to a police gymnasium off the Edgware Road once a week. Now he lives entirely on raw foods. But in his youth he ate a good deal of milk and milk products cheese, yogurt but he states that as he grows older he needs to eat much less to maintain his massive body in health.

Yogurt in Antiquity Yogurt has always been used as a food. Contrary to most of the eulogistic books I have read on the subject, because it was so common it was not prized by the ancients for its medicinal virtues. No matter how is

rare.

good a food is, we seldom prize it unless it garlic would be worth their weight in

Onions and

gold were they as scarce as truffles; so would potatoes. As it its skin is, most people discard the best part of the potato then boil it and pour the most valuable part of the remainder down the sink. -

The Ancients knew, however, that yogurt was a good food and many physicians recorded its virtues. In the seventh century A.D. the Arabs were the leading civilized nation in the world. Scholars from Paris and Oxford journeyed when The Great

to Cairo to study at the University. And Explanation of the Power of the Elements and

23

ThE PROBLEM OF LONGEVITY

published in Damascus in the year 633 it stir in the medical world, for it contained the opinions of the leading physicians in Arabia, Persia, Greece, Syria and India on known medicines and poisons. Medicine was

caused

a

Needless to say, yogurt in various forms and honourable mention.

of Laban (a form swellings of the stomach,

Maserdschavia recommended the

of

for

yogurt)

dysentery

and all

guises gained

use

liver, and intestine, and was of the opinion that it got rid of poisons by destroying them. This conclusion was based on

trial and

error.

Rahere,

The

guinea pigs

were

his

founder of St. Bartholomew’s

said that yogurt

was

refreshing

patients. Hospital,

London,

to those in whose

curdled, and in whose minds it caused heaviness and anxiety. Not very scientific, but here again,

stomachs milk

one

finds

a

substratum of truth.

Hunayn’s opinion was that laban strengthened the stomach, cured diarrhoea, gave one an appetite, regulated

purified the humours vague terms that may mean anything or nothing made the blood more fluid, and sent a rush of colour to the skin, lips

the heat of the blood and

-

and membranes In the light of modern science these conclusions

-

but each of these

are

unsatisfying something.

men was on to

Galen, one of the most famous of the Greek doctors, claimed that yogurt was beneficial for a bilious and burning stomach and that it changed its nature by purifying it, straight from heating burning quality but that fermented milk did not. He was right, though the scientific explanation is somewhat different. Yogurt is far more easily digested than milk, and further on you will learn why. Dioscorides was another famous physician who gave his opinion of yogurt. He commended its use as a medicament which is

partly

the

had

cow

a

true. He said that milk taken

and

-

ABOUT YOGURT

24

for the

liver, stomach, blood and tuberculosis as well

as

for

of the nose, ears and uterus. Tuberculosis was not known as such. In England about

suppuration

150 years ago victims were said and even more recently to be in a declint’ and doctors advised them to be kept in rooms

with the windows and doors closed. We know how

wrong that is.

So, while

we

may like yogurt

as a

in its

food and

even

believe

health-giving properties, don’tlet us place too much stress on even what Hippocrates, the Father of Medicine, said. He praised it, of course, but your question is, ‘What does yogurt do that milk doesn’t? Is it really superior to milk? If so, why?’ Still interested? Then, read

on.

CHAPTER

WHY NOT As

YOGURT IS

THREE

JUST

MILK?

made from milk and milk,

as we are

told, is

a

perfect food, why shouldn’t it be every bit as good to drink milk as to eat yogurt? In order to understand why yogurt is preferable to milk, we should know a little about milk, too. First, let me dispel the idea that milk is a perfect food. No food by itself is perfect. Men can, and have lived for months on milk alone but the same applies to other -

foods. Rose lived for three years on

admit, but he survived. I am convinced that man

was meant to

he eats and drinks, and that the psychological value.

That is are so

right

enjoy the things food has

a considerable

why, though the essential constituents of food proteins, carbohydrates, fats, mineral salts, nature has placed them in varying proportions

few:

vitamins

in

potatoes. A dull diet, I

-

thousand edible forms: sweet, acid, bitter, sour, scented and flavoured in countless subtle ways.

a

All this is not accidental, but part of nature’s plan. Otherwise human beings would not be equipped with taste buds

on

tongue and palate to enable them

to distinguish

the various flavours.

Constitution

of

Milk

protein, 3.44 per cent. fat, and 4.85 percent. carbohydrates. and a pound of milk contains about 315 calories or units of heat. The mineral Milk contains about 3.3 per cent.

content of milk is about 0.71 per cent. of the whole. Not much, but a most valuable fraction. To every thousand parts of water there are 1.73 parts of potassium, 3.16

ABOUT YOGURT

26

sodium, 5.80 calcium, 0.75 magnesium, 0.07 iron, 7.84 phosphorus, 0.33 sulphur, 0.07 silicon, and 6.38 chlorine. If you lived exclusively on milk you would have to take about ten

pints a day to obtain all the calories you needed. only things one needs. There would be many deficiencies, for milk is nearly all water. Milk was not originally a natural food for man, who But calories are not the

must have lived

on grasses, herbs, leaves and fruit. Professor Gordon Childe states in Man Makes Himsel/ that as long

ago

as

3,000 B.C. the Egyptians maintained herds of tame

antelopes and gazelles, and that wild fauna of all sorts have at

one

time

or

another been domesticated.

Man domesticated the cow, as he did the cat, dog and horse, mainly for company. And when he watched calves

followed their

example. It must have seemed an nourishment, for he did not have capital remained intact. Early Egyptian paintings show that milking was no easy matter. The hind legs were tied, and a man held one foreleg while the operation was in progress. Originally the cow did not make a surplus of milk in order to supply man. But, as in each succeeding generation the cow was robbed of greater quantities, it succeeded in producing more and more milk, till now certain species of prize cows produce gallons a day. The quality of milk varies greatly with the breed of the suckling,

excellent way of gaining to kill the cow and his

animal from which it is taken, the kind of pasture it is fed on, whether fresh food, straw, meal, etc., as well as a number of other factors. Milk contains small

quantities of certain vitamins: B-i America); B-2 or riboflavin, vitamin C, and a small quantity of vitamin D. Butter and cheese, which are concentrates of milk fats and proteins, or

aneurin

are

(thiamin

in

far richer in vitamin D than milk.

Dr. Casmir Funk,

one

of the first

investigators

into the

WHY NOT JUST MILK nature of

vitamins,

milk have been

that

are

‘The contents of vitamins in

greatly exaggerated.

There

are

other foods

far richer in vitamins than milk. We

dependent

means

warns:

27

upon milk alone for

our

by supply are

no

of

vitamins.’ In fact, the behaviour of vitamins in milk is somewhat erratic. According to the British Medical Journal, if exposed to sunlight, destroyed as

even

well

in bottles, much of the riboflavin is about fifty per cent. of the ascorbic

as

acid content. The flavour, too, is affected. Dr. Funk says: ‘The vitamin content of both mother’s milk and cow’s milk is essential for infants. But vitamins are not

magical possession

any

because the mother

or

the food she has eaten

importance A

woman

Healthy

right

cow

of either milk.

They

exist

has assembled them from

prior to the production of the milk.’

who intends

and eat the

sturdy

of

the

to

Cows be

a

mother should live

foods in order to endow her

properly baby with a

constitution.

Cows, unfortunately, have to live where they are housed and eat what they are given; but mothers who have a free are able to live the right way often do not and so children with malformed bones and weak frames.

choice and

produce Incidentally,

most

people

-

even

farmers

do not know

that colostrom, or the milk secreted by the cow immediately she has given birth to a calf, contains ten times as much vitamin

A, three times

and twice

as

as

much vitamin D and riboflavin, as normal milk. In

much ascorbutic acid

Sweden and parts of Scotland

a

pudding,

great delicacy, is made from it. And

so

considered

a

it is in parts of

Central Asia, Asia Minor and India. A good deal of the milk in Britain and America is pasteurized; that is, heated to a temperature of 161 degrees

ABOUT YOGURT

28

or more, held for fifteen

Fah

45-50

degrees, poured

seconds, cooled rapidly

to

into sterile bottles and sealed. This

kills the germs. But it also destroys practically all the vitamins in the milk, the calcium and other properties as well. Raw milk, however, is a wonderful vehicle for bacteria: the germs of typhoid, tuberculosis, diphtheria, scarlet fever, diarrhoea and other diseases thrive in it. the So. you can see how important it is for the cow of your milk to be healthy, and the food that it

source

-

eats to he

lives to be the

cow

good food, and the conditions under which it thoroughly hygienic. Moreover, those who milk

should do

so

with clean hands.

Dr.

Magnus Pyke says in his excellent book, Townsman’s Food(page 107), ‘InEngland only 10 percent. of the cattle known not to have tuberculosis, in Wales 25 per cent. have not got tuberculosis, and in Scotland it is known that 33 per cent. have not got it. This, though bad enough, does not mean that 90 per cent., 75 per cent. and 67 per cent. in

are

the three countries

just

are

infected.’ (Figures for 1949). We

don’t know about the remainder.

On page 56 he says, ‘Theestimate usually accepted for the annual number of deaths in Great Britain due to bovine

tuberculosis derived from milk and meat is 2,000. During 1945, example, over 30,000 beef carcases alone were entirely

for

condemned and

destroyed, and many more wasted because of localized infection.’

were

partly

Fortunately, the big dairy companies have a very high standard of cleanliness and look after their animals well. But because in and dirt in the

some

countries there is

breeding

of

yogurt is a much safer and plain milk.

so

much disease

selling of milk, more wholesome product than cows

and the

WHY NOT JUST MILK Rich

Soil

for

Dr Weston A.

Healthier

Milk

Price, whose researches into the foods eaten

by races all over the world are so thorough, analysed 20,000 samples of dairy products taken from all over the world and

came to

the conclusion that milk purest and richest in comes from areas where the soil was rich

vitamin content

in natural humus; and poorest where it had been tilled and worked without renewing its life with natural humus. Cows fed

on

not

healthier

grass and straw grown in humus give more milk than those fed on

necessarily

artificials.

Sykes, who owned some of They took prizes galore for the immense quantities of milk they produced. But when tested, he found that sixty per cent. of his stock was infected with the bacilli of tuberculosis! He realized that quality, not quantity, mattered, and thereafter has farmed exclusively on humus and natural manures, breeding not only cattle immune to disease, but crops immune to pests, just as Sir Albert Howard did on his experimental stations at Quetta and Pusa. This

was

proved by

Friend

the finest milkers in the land.

Cheese is made from milk, and if the milk is infected, the cheese cannot he of the finest quality, though the lactic acid kills most of the germs. It is interesting to know that

Dr Weston A.

Price, who

dental surgeon, found that high-vitamin butter containing vitamin A and ‘Activator X’ (some unknown

was a

quantity)

were

Because milk

most

effective in

reducing tooth decay. liquid form most people ‘It’s like water,’ they say. digest.

comes to us

think that it is easy to But it’s not as simple

down in the mouth

as

in

all that. Solid food is broken

by chewing and moistened with saliva. Part of the digestive process particularly in the case of carbohydrates begins in the mouth. Every day your stomach produces between two and three quarts of diges -

ABOUT YOGURT

30

tive or gastric juice, hydrochloric acid.

and from 0.2 to 0.4 per cent.

Milk Can Be

Indigestible Milk, as you have read earlier in this chapter, consists of a little carbohydrate, a little protein and a little fat, together with

a

great deal of

water.

digestion is much too complicated to explained thoroughly in this book, but it is sufficient The process of

he

to

know that the starch in the milk is broken down in the small intestine, and the proteins partly digested and divided into their final units. The fatty portion is emulsified and the dissolved in

glycerol

broken off

so

that it may he

water.

But if you

gulp down your milk quickly, what happens? digestive juices play on it. The rennin coagulates the milk into a lump (casein) and you start to feel a burning sensation in your chest. That is, if your digestion is weak. That’s why so many people with weak digestions say they can’t take milk. It curdles, gives them heartburn and makes them feel that life’s not worth living. ‘Ican’t stomach the fat in milk,’ they explain. Milk, as such, is not the ideal food for man once he is past The

infancy. But milk products

are

excellent foods: butter,

cheese, junkets, curds, yogurt. If you doubt what I’ve told you, throw curdled milk on a very hot fire and see what

cupful of happens. It

a

a stony lump. Like the lump in your chest when can’t you digest it. Scientists have known of this characteristic of milk for

turns into

some

years and

casein in milk

they’ve used that

their

knowledge

is, the protein part of it

to turn the

into

motor

tyres and plastic goods of every description. If you drink plain milk, see that it comes from the purest

car

sources.

Before you drink it, try to emulsify or break it up in

WHY NOT JUST MILK some way. Whisk it with honey, molasses, black treacle, cocoa, patent food, yeast or fruit juice, and as you sip eat something with it a wholemeal biscuit or a small slice of -

bread

so

that you

are

forced

to

chew the milk, too, and give a chance to work on it and

in the mouth

the

gastric juices perform the preliminary process of digestion. I hope that this simplified explanation will make it clear to those who suffer when they take milk why this is so. And now, having explained this, let’s go back to yogurt, which is really the subject of this book. NOTE: Many people think that goat’s milk is far superior to cow’s milk, and that whereas the germs formed in cow’s milk can bring about disease, those formed in goat’s milk never do. This is a fallacy. There is

a rare

disease, thought in the past to he confined

the Middle East, that is brought about by a germ in goat’s milk: chronic brucellosis, the symptoms of which are to

persistent

stomach

Goat’s milk is

a

pains. good food

But many find it too rich.

-

for those who

can

take it.

CHAPTER

FOUR

YOGURT YOGURT WAS SO little known in a

England before the war that published in the nineteen-thirties

number of reliable dictionaries bear

It is

reference to it.

no

lactic fermentation of milk, which in Britain bears the Bulgarian and Turkish name. a

But in Armenia it is known

as mazun or

Sardinia, gioddu; Iceland, skyr; the Balkans,

matsoon; in

Carpathians, huslanka; Sicily, mezzoradu; the Finland, plimae; South

the Eastern

tarho;

Scandinavian countries, taette; Russia and the Caucasus, kefir or

kuban; Siberia, parts of South Russia and Central Asia, koumiss; leben or laban in and most of Asia Minor; in Norway, kaelder-milk; regions of the Carpathians, urda; Chile, skuta or whey champagne; Turkestan, busa. In India it is called dahi, or when made in a slightly different way, lassi, chass or mattha. Europeans in India

Egypt some

and Burma know it

So, if you’ve eaten

as

tyre.

‘a lactic fermentation of milk’in one

or more of these countries and find that the

the

quite superior way and

to you in Britain is not nose

in

a

same

your the real stuff!’

yogurt served

thing, don’tturn

up

say, ‘Ofcourse, this isn’t

Each country has the ‘real stuff’, but in every one it differ slightly. And in a large country like India

seems to

dahi varies not As in the

the kind

only

in taste and

but in different

quality

in different

large cities. good deal depends on the source: of grazing, species of cattle, and the food they eat.

provinces,

case

of milk, a

areas

of the

same

33

YOGURT Varieties of

In

Yogurt

the milk from which yogurt is made may be taken from the cow, buffalo, sheep or goat. Yogurt in

Bulgaria

Bulgaria and Turkey is a thick, curdled milk, highly acidic, containing little or no alcohol, and the principal organisms that bring about the fermentation are lactobacillusyoghurt, buigaricus and strefttococcus thermophilus. But need to worry your head about that. Sometimes the milk is pasteurized or partially

lactobacillus there is

no

evaporated,

and with the second of these treatments

yogurt has

slightly higher protein

a

content.

Mazun, gioddu, huslanka, skyr, tarho, mezzoradu

are

also made from the milk of cows, goats and buffaloes, but not sheep, and the fermentation caused sometimes by the same

organisms

and sometimes

and oidia.

by yeasts

The taette of Scandinavia is made from and has what is sometimes described

as

raw

cow’s milk

‘a slimy consistency’.

unappetizing word; perhaps smooth or silky preferable. The same cultures are used for the plimae of Finland, though it is made from skim milk.

Slimy

is

an

would be

In the Far Eastern countries where

a

tremendous

amount of saya is consumed, the taste is very different. Saya is made from raw milk; the organisms used are S.

lactis and lactobacilli. It contains

(CO 2) carbon dioxide partial proteolysis, because

gas

-

making

is

slightly

-

a

considerable amount of

and the curd is

undergoing

the culture and method of

different.

The kefir and koumiss of South Russia, the Caucasus and Central Asia, and the pauira of Lapland, have a distinctive flavour, for they are made from mare’s milk! The tribes that roamed the tundras were nomads for centuries and horse

What then

more

breeding

was

the

principal occupation.

natural for them than to

mares? The cultures used

use

the milk of

produce highly acid and potent alcoholic brew that bubbles. The fermentation is carried a

34

ABOUT YOGURT

out in closed bottles so that the gas is retained and the

curdled milk is effervescent. bit like the yogurt you buy in Britain and only very strong head can stand a good deal of it. KefIr is an acquired taste; beverage and stimulant in one, and there is little doubt that it was brewed with the idea of keeping out

It is not

a

a

the cold.

Originally and even today the unclean surfaces of the skin bags in which the milk is kept during the process of fermentation provide the requisite milk-souring organisms. This might seem a trifle unpleasant to those reared amid hygienic surroundings, but it happens to be a plain scientific fact that bacteria that might cause some virulent disease when imbibed in milk are destroyed by the -

lactic acid in curdled milk. In Africa the

Npeseni, who eat meat only on ceremonial

occasions, live largely on a curdled milk ‘almostsolidified’. The Zulus and tribe of the Nvassa-Tanganyika plateau take their milk in the form of

a

wettish cheese flavoured

with pepper and salt; and many Africans in the Angola region live almost entirely on milk and curds. Among these are the Bantus, who subsist mainly on cow’smilk, curd and cheese, and the Kaffirs, who consume huge quantities of curd.

Curds, in one form or another, are eaten throughout Africa, and in the Sahara much of it is made from camel’s milk; just as in make taetioc. Vast

Lapland,

quantities

the milk of the reindeer is used to

of milk must have been thrown away

discovered, perhaps quite by accident, that curdled, fermented milk was not only edible but palatable, until

someone

and that in this form it could be

kept for a comparatively long period. Slowly tribes learned how to bring about fermentation by artificial means and the same processes have been used for centuries with little change.

35

YOGURT

portion of sour milk from a previous piece of decaying vegetable or animal

Sometimes a small

fermentation,

or a

matter is used to start fermentation. Or the milk may be held at

high temperatures

owing

to the action of some

the utensil

or

the

permit souring to take place organism derived from either atmosphere. to

Sometimes yeasts were used and are still used. The leben or laban of the Middle East, which is made from the milk of cows, goats and buffaloes, is fermented lactic acid bacteria, yeasts or mycoderma.

by

adding

appeared on the pharaohs during banquets. The Israelites must have eaten laban, for does not Job say, 1,520 years before the birth of Christ, ‘Hastthou not poured me out as milk, and curdled me like cheese?’ (Job 10:10.) The Kaelder-milk (cellar milk) of Norway contains far In olden times laban was a delicacy that

tables of the

more lactic acid (about 2.5 per cent.) and alcohol (about 0.5 to I per cent), and the culture is a ropey milk organism used nowhere else. It is prepared by inoculating boiled

milk with a special variety of ropey milk and keeping it cold, and this is often used as a substitute for fresh milk by peasants, especially in winter. In parts of the Carpathians, where they make a fermented milk called urda, sheep’s milk is used, and the

result is obtained with lactose acid bacteria. It

closely highly alcoholic, known

Chile,

fermenting yeasts and lactic sparkling whey, also skuta or whey champagne, of

resembles the as

potent beverage. Though urda and skuta a

are

alcoholic, they

are not

the

strongest of the alcoholic wheys. Busa, a drink extremely popular in Turkestan, contains 0.78 per cent. lactic acid and 7.1 per cent. alcohol! Strangers to strong alcoholic

drinks do course,

not at first care for them very

they have an

puts them off.

much, unless, of

irresistible desire for alcohol; the acid

ABOUT YOGURT

36

But within recent years fermented milks branded as

extremely popular in parts of and America. A word makes the world of

‘culturedmilks’have become

Western

Europe

difference. No

one

likes to think that he is

drinking something that has fermented; but to an article that is ‘cultured’sounds fine.

eating

or

consume

In Bulgaria, for instance, butter milk is prepared by souring skimmed milk or whole milk with a culture known as lactobacillus bulgaricus. This product is a thickish, highly sour milk. Another culture used is lactobacillus acidophil/us, which despite the name, makes a drink far less sour. In order to create a beverage more palatable to the person who is unaccustomed to sour

of streptococcus paracitrovorous

are

drinks, pure cultures

placed in the whey; and juices and essences to

these may be flavoured with fruit form a most pleasant drink.

The same process may be carried out with whole milk, dried milk, condensed milk and whey, and beverages are

developed to suit every palate. A good deal of work has been carried out in on fermented milks, mainly in America

the laboratory

and India, two countries where yogurts and sour milks are widely consumed, and where the science of nutrition has and is

being explored. America is

emigrants

a vast

mixed nation

from the south-eastern

comprising millions of of Europe, as well

corner

as many Asiatics, who have carried their customs and food habits across the Atlantic. It would be strange if they did

not take with them the centuries-old habit of

yogurt, together

with the secret of

from fermented milk and

brewing

sour

eating drinks

whey.

Americans seem to love the new and the novel. They are always discovering or seeming to discover some ancient idea and propagating it as a startling discovery. They have faith in the power of advertising in America;

YOGURT

company, for instance, between the years 1939-43, spent 22,000,000 dollars on magazine, newspaper and radio advertising

one

for cola and soft drinks! In America yogurt is regarded by many as a magic food and millions eat yogurt and drink fermented beverages till

they find that yogurt won’t grow hair, isn’t any good for in-growing toenails and won’t make people vote for you if you stand for President.

Then, thoroughly disillusioned,

they fall for

new

India,

some

other

Natural Research

bit of

ballyhoo.

Laboratory

In India, the other great land where yogurt is food, we see the reverse side of the picture.

Before the war, when the British attached to the services

men

were -

in

a

national

charge, medical

Indian Medical

or

Major-General Sir Robert McCarrison, Sir Leonard Rogers, D. McCay, Dr V. N. Patwardhan R.A.M.C.

and W. R.

-

like

Ackroyd, investigated, among other things, the

nature of curdled milk or dahi.

laboratory for his people lived in a country

McCarrison saw in India a vast

researches. Almost 400,000,000

stretching 2,000 miles from Assam in the cast the west; and another

north

to Karachi in

2,000 miles from Kashmir in the far

to the southern-most

tip

near

Ceylon.

Here existed

every kind of climate from intensely cold to extremely hot; from Bengal and Assam where the rainfall is 300-400

inches in about four months of each year, to

burning

desert. In this

ready-made laboratory were some of the finest physical specimens on earth in the shape of the Sikh and Pathan; as well as some of the puniest, skinniest and most undernourished. He found that the only food in common with all was milk and milk products, such as yogurt, whey, cheese. For centuries

-

long before the Vikings went to America

ABOUT YOGURT

38

or the

Children of Israel wandered in the wilderness

Indians have eaten dahi In very

warm

or

tyre. They

weather in the

plains,

ate it of

necessity.

if an animal is killed

daybreak, the flesh must be cooked by mid-day else putrefaction sets in. Because of this, curry was concocted. Various spices are ground on a stone, mixed into paste and cooked with meat and vegetables, act as a preservative. So that food not eaten at one meal may be kept to the next, or even the following day, if curried. And if you eat curry long enough and often enough you will wish to eat it hotter and hotter, and soon dishes not flavoured with spices will seem insipid. at

It was found, too, that milk fermented in the heat and that in this fermented condition it was not unpleasant. It was -

also discovered that

we now

some

property in the curdled milk

know that it is lactic acid

destroys

the harmful

germs. About 2,500 years ago the yogis laid down rules for eating and drinking and warned their followers against

eating sour foods the only exception was milk. Dah,, they said, was the food of the gods, especially when eaten with honey. Today many Indian dishes are cooked in yogurt or whey. One of the most delectable of all for meat eaters -

-

is

korma, which

cannot be made without

In India and Pakistan yogurt is

yogurt.

eaten with both meat

vegetable curries, with rice, fruit and fish. It is eaten plain, with pepper and salt, with sugar, honey, fruit, molasses, and with innumerable essences. it has a hundred uses and Indian culinary art would be the poorer without

and

The reader may well are some

of the

millions in India

are so

yogurt

nutritional

safety;

ask, ‘But why, if all Indians

races so

eat

undernourished?’ Because

poor that they live below the line of because about a third of the population

39

YOGURT

only on feast days and weddings or worthy gives a banquet to all in the village. In India until recently the average expectation of life was no more than twenty-three years! In many districts the diet is extremely poor, consisting mainly of cooked vegetables and a little polished rice, and if lucky, dahi. A great many were, and still are, too poor to buy a daily quota of milk or dahi. It is mainly from curdled milk that they obtain their Health vitamins, for according to Professor N. Gangulee and Nutrition in India ‘during the curdling process the have

when

enough

to eat

local

some

vitamin in milk is somehow stabilized. The food value of curd is

widely recognized, but it should hygienic conditions.’

now

prepared

be

carefully

under

In India the milk of cows, buffaloes, goats, sheep and is used. Ass’s milk, incidentally, produces very fine

asses

curds that

are more

easily digested by infants

denser curds of cow’s milk,

or

than the

the richer curds of buffalo’s

milk. In India dahi is usually made by boiling a ferment such as stale dahi, tamarind

adding juice.

milk, then juice (containing

tartaric acid, and very acid to the taste), or lime Then the milk is cooled to about body temperature,

transferred to earthenware pots and incubated in

a room

temperature of about 30-37 degrees centigrade. In about 16-20 hours it is ready for eating. In North India where the people have much finer physique they

lentils, both

excellent

of nourishment. Lentils

are

eat wholemeal bread and

foods

containing plenty protein; more so than lean meat. And this diet is supplemented by both milk and dahias well as sweets made from the products of milk and dahi. rich in

Medical

men

have

come to

the conclusion that the

physical resistance of millions in South India and parts of Bengal is so poor that they should all have succumbed to

ABOUT YOGURT

40

disease, and the fact that they have

not is due to the dahi

they eat whenever they can buy or make it. Millions in that country are vegetarians and obtain most of their protein from yogurt, which is richer in protein than milk. Since 1946

great campaign has been started

a

an interest in

nutrition; booklets

are

published

to awaken

in twelve

languages and many dialects, and talks are given by village headmen telling the people about the best foods and how In these talks the value of dahi is

to use them.

always

stressed. Gandhi, Diet Reformer It will astonish those who read this book to learn that of the keenest

on diet reform was the late Mahatma whose Gandhi, book, Diet Reform, published from collected notes and articles he wrote on the subject, is unique in that

one

it deals with many edibles not touched nutrition.

on

by

other books

on

When he

was a

student in London, Gandhi became experimented not only with

interested in dietetics and

various foods, but with ovens, vessels for cooking, the quantity of water to be used, steaming, boiling, baking, and the combination of foods. He learned to make bread, and jams with the skins of fruit, such as oranges, that might be thrown away; to prepare salads with green leaves not

usually eaten, such

as

leaf, Gandhi that, too?’ and off

the neem or margossa. If an animal ate a

would ask: ‘Can human beings live would go

on

letter to Dr W. R.

Ackroyd, Director of Nutrition Research at Coonoor; and when a report arrived he would study it, write an article on it, and advise his people. a

He did it all food

that the poor could benefit from the fresh all around them, but never eaten. alkali forming foods given in his book are

so

growing Among the

milk when uncooked, and dahi

whey.

YOGURT

Gandhi also conducted a considerable

correspondence

with Sir Robert McCarrison, who was head of the Nutritional Research Institute before Ackroyd. His book is the

only

one

I have

seen

that contains

a

chapter devoted to dahi, skimmed milk, butter milk and the sweets made from them. Indian In India

Yogurts a good deal of yogurt is made from skim milk;

that

is, milk from which most of the fat has been removed. This is not, as some think, a devitalized food, but is very nutritious

because of the

protein,

calcium and riboflavin in it.

And when it is converted into yogurt the whey, as well as the whey from whole milk, is made into various kinds of sherbet with fruits grown in the country, and these drinks

superior to any form of American cultured beverages. They are rich in milk sugar, albumin, a small amount of fat, mineral salts and calcium. If lemon juice is used to produce the whey, then vitamin C is added to it. Sometimes when the whey is drained from curds made from whole milk, the remaining casein is made into chhana; are

when this is done with skim milk, the residue is known as chhach; and both chhana and chhach are extremely rich in

protein.

Chhach is

non-fattening,

and both

are

made into

various kinds of sweetmeats, much favoured by wrestlers and strong men because they are easily digested and help

repair tissue. It is difficult to describe these delicacies nothing like them exists in Britain, but they are extremely sustaining. to

because

A whole range ofsweetmeats are made in India from the partial desiccation of milk by heating: khoa, rabree, ma11a,

and khurchan. Khoa is made from milk boiled

steadily

till it is reduced

pasty consistency, when it is cooled and sugar, honey

to

a

or

jaggery (molasses)

added.

ABOUT YOGURT

42

Rabree is a cross between khoa and clotted cream. Considerable skill is needed to make

great delicacy; khurchan is

a

it, and it is considered

similar

product,

a

with the

addition of arrowroot. Mat/al is

a

form of unsweetened, clotted cream. Milk is a thick layer of milk-fat and coagulated

simmered until

albumin forms

on

the surface. This is then skimmed. The

process is repeated, and the residue, which is smooth, white and tastes like clotted cream, is caramelized. Because cheese is made from rennet,

animal that has first to be slaughtered,

a

product

from

most Indians

-

an

who

vegetarian dislike it, and the main cheeses are confined to the East, where Dacca, Bandal and Surti cheeses are made from buffalo’smilk. These are cream cheeses, and

are

smoked Bandal in particular would be much appreciated by connoisseurs in this country. These facts are given merely as a matter of interest and not because the average Briton is in any danger of malnutrition. Even the poorest is wealthy compared with the very poor Indian peasant, to help whom Dr W. R. Ackroyd delivered a lecture at Bangalore in 1935 showing how it was

possible

to live on a well-balanced diet on as little as

month! One rupee is worth just over 5p (1972 rates). Ackroyd stated that ‘thedietary requirements of the adult man per day were 16 oz. of soya beans, 2 oz. of arhar dal (lentils), an ounce of jaggery (molasses), 4 oz. each of spinach and amaranth, an ounce each of potatoes and four rupees

a

colacacia, 1.5 oz. of coconut oil and 6 oz. of buttermilk (or all costing two annas a curds made from buttermilk) -

day.’ Millions in Asia (China, the Malay States, the Dutch East Indies, the French possessions) who live at well below normal subsistence level, have been forced to find the

cheapest and most nutritious foods that will keep body and

YOGURT soul

together, and

from whole milk

it is or

no

43

accident that yogurt made either one of these.

skim milk is

perhaps the reason why so many whose resistance to disease must be low survive even as long as they do.

It is also

CHAPTER

FIVE

YOGURT FOR HEALTH THOSE

WHO QUOTE Metchnikoff to prove that yogurt alone will ward off senility or hardening of the arteries, seem to

glean

their information from others who have said

written the

or

have

obviously not read The Nature ofMan, though it is translated into English and may be obtained for a reasonable price. If there is one thing that Metchnikoff proved it is that yogurt alone is not a means of prolonging life indefinitely. I am telling you all this because I don’twish you to be disillusioned after reading my book. If you find I’m not telling you the truth, you won’t believe anything else I same

thing. They

write. But if yogurt is

not the elixir that makes for old age it is

good for you, and if you suffer complaints yogurt may help to cure you very

from intestinal -

and in any case,

it won’t do you any harm. to an old tale, a French Emperor, Francis I, ill and found himself ageing rapidly. His physicians grew could do nothing. Then a healer from Constantinople,

According

with many extraordinary cures to his credit, arrived in Paris and was asked to attend Francis. He fed him on the soured milk of goats which he had brought with him; and this apparently wrought an astonishing cure. For a fat sum he divulged the secret of his medicine to the court physician,

and

since yogurt has been known as Lait de Ia Vie (the milk of long life) in France.

ever

Eternelle

Having debunked let

me

stake

some

some

minor

of the ones

more

extravagant claims

for yogurt.

YOGURT FOR HEALTh

Milk

Does

Not

45

Putrefy

When meat and milk

without any

kept

special care, Why? Listen to what Dr Kress, Neurologist of Washington Sanitorium and Hospital, Washington, U.S.A., has to say:

meat

putrefies;

‘All food

are

but milk does not.

primarily

comes

from the

vegetable kingdom.

While flesh may be used for food, it has associated with it organic wastes which constantly result from the

breaking down of tissue. through the

venous

In the body of an animal, circulation, these impurities are .

.

.

the skin and the

lungs, to be slaughtered, the circulation ceases and the impurities are retained. The individual cells die: hence a dead body may be compared to a cemetery with no provision to get rid of the

conveyed

to the

kidneys,

eliminated. When

an

animal is

added impurities. These products of decomposition become dangerous and are disease-producing. Flesh, because of the readiness with which it food within the human

decays, is alimentary canal.

a

dangerous alimentary canal of a carnivorous animal such as a dog, being short and smooth, is better adapted for such foods than is the alimentary canal of man. ‘Professor Metchnikoff recognized that there existed a disharmony between the human alimentary canal and the food that was placed within it. Instead of to trim and the modern shorten surgery up employing it unnatural thus to this alimentary canal, adapting food, as suggested by Metchnikoff, it is more consistent to make the needed dietetic reforms and adapt the food to the alimentary canal.’

The

.

Now you

can

understand

why

it is when

middle age his doctor advises him to cut His system cannot eliminate the wastes

.

.

a man

gets past

down on meat. as it once did.

ABOUT YOGURT

46

putrefy because, unlike meat, there is readily undergoes lactic fermentation. According to H. Laxminarayana and K. K. Iya, of the Indian Dairy Research Institute, Bangalore, who wrote Milk does not

sugar in it which

Studies

Dahi, ‘the high acidity produced by these

on

responsible putrefactive organisms in was

for

inhibiting

the

organisms

growth

of

the intestine.’

Yogurt for Intestinal Disorders N. Kopeloff wrote in the Journal of the American Medical Association in 1923, that patients fed on acidophilus milk containing viable (living) cultures were relieved from constipation. He added that apart from the lactic acid in the milk for the purpose of souring it, the acid of sour milk and its lactose content were important

organisms placed

curative factors. He also stated that yogurt brought relief to patients suffering from gastro-intestinal disorders, such

chronic constipation and diarrhoea, etc. Two other doctors, Lonergan and Beerman, fed yogurt to epileptics, and said they were able to control the number as

of convulsions, another medical on

careful

In

an

though man

this

named

was

not

Lynch

confirmed when

tried similar treatments

three years later. Which shows how be before making exaggerated claims.

patients

one

must

article in the British Medical

claimed that he

Journal 1924,

Smith

able to transform 80-90 per cent. of the intestinal flora of typhoid and paratyphoid carriers to L. was

acidophilus by feeding them on acidophilus milk;

and A. R.

T. Mattick (Lancet 1946) said that the tubercie bacillus destroyed in sour milk.

was

Yogurt has a little more food value than plain milk. The slightly reduced owing to its fermentation into acid, alcohol or gas, and the casein is precipitated in a condition readily digested. This increased digestibility is due to the finely divided state of the casein. sugar content is

YOGURT FOR HEALTH

Yogurt

can

in Orla

47

therefore be eaten when milk cannot, particularly of gastric irritation.

cases

Jensen

of

Copenhagen,

author of Lactic Acid

Bacteria, finds that yogurt and fermented beverages may frequently be used in cases of gastric irritation where other

by the stomach. The lactic acid, he to carbon dioxide and is metabolized says, completely water in man, and is not excreted in the urine; nor does it food cannot be retained

have any effect on the acid-base balance in the system; that is, it is an alkalinizing food. W. L. Davies, in Indian Indigenous Milk Products, maintains

phosphorus are precipitated in the give the body greater efficiency to large quantities of lactic acid entering the

that calcium and lower intestine, which cope with the

system. And a whole host of scientists

-

M. I.

Wagner

and his

associates in 1940; A. D. Welch and L. D. Wright in 1943; R. D. Chitre and V. N. Patwardan in 1945; S. K. Kon and as Professor Gangulee organisms present in fermented milks are able to synthesize the vitamins in milk and make

K. M.

Henry

found,

that

in 1949

some

-

maintain,

of the

them available to the system. Yogurt, for instance, contains

more

riboflavin than

plain milk from which it is made; there is no change in aneurin and the nicotinic acid increases slightly. E. Gasser investigated saya, a type of fermented milk made from raw milk, in 1931; claimed that it was rich in vitamins A, B, C and D, and superior to kefir, yogurt or fresh milk. So, reliable scientists conclude that yogurt is a nutritious,

possibly a curative agent in whey can be made into many types of refreshing beverages. It is one of the most satisfactory ways of using surplus milk, and in a country like India, 52.4 per cent. of the total milk production is converted into dahi. easily digested

a

food and

number ofdiseases, and the

48

ABOUT YOGURT

Other Claims for Now let yogurt; In

us

some

one

Yogurt

examine

some

not so

book I have

other claims made

on

behalf of

conservative. seen

the statement that ‘theaddition

of yogurt to the daily diet will increase the appetite and stimulate the power of the intestinal tract.’ With both

parts of the statement I disagree. If you don’t feel inclined to eat, the best course of action is not to eat. Have a fast. When you’ve done without food for long enough, your

appetite will return. Loss of appetite simply means that your body rebels against food, and the worst thing possible is to take some action contrary to the natural impulse. Even if you do eat yogurt, your appetite will not return. The implication in the second part of the sentence is that the acid in the yogurt will stimulate the intestinal tract and you back your appetite. I refuse to credit that. In any case, it wouldn’t do you much good.

give

Age is What You Make It, Boris Sokoloff states: ‘Constipationwill yield readily to a steady use of yogurt. It is most effective when in addition fruits and leafy vegetables are used in the daily diet. If eaten steadily yogurt is an excellent remedy for chronic constipation.’ The most important part of this statement is the second sentence. Yogurt will help to relieve constipation; but don’timagine that if you have chronic constipation yogurt alone will cure you. Yogurt is merely one of many agencies. Constipation is due to wrong food and lack of the right kind of exercize. Eat fruits, leafy vegetables, bran and yogurt, molasses, honey, yeast and agar-agar. In Middle

‘During the [Firstj World War in Europe yogurt was employed with great success as an enema in the treatment of intestinal ailments when all other remedies failed.’I

believe that; I

can

also believe

-

can

knowing something

of

49

YOGURT FOR HEALTH

army diet

chronic

that the troops must have suffered either from or diarrhoea.

-

constipation

Both diarrhoea and

dysentery because of the lack of regard to food are common -

in

health

regulations complaints all over the East, the Middle East and Africa. And people find that if they eat yogurt instead of plain milk they do not easily go down with these illnesses; and if they do, yogurt is about the only food they can stomach. It must be remembered that poverty plays a great part in the lives of these people, and other more costly foods, like honey for instance, are beyond their means.

Gaylord Hauser, tremendous

name

-

the American dietitian, has made a by advocating five special

for himself

health foods with almost miraculous

properties. Yogurt

is

of these. But many people who were immensely impressed by what he has had to say have tried all five lived in fact almost exclusively on them, and found

one

-

themselves in far worse health because they did not adhere to the fundamental rules of health! Hauser has, of course, as well, but has done a considerable

enumerated these

disservice to the

community by stressing

‘In supervising the diets of thousands of

Gaylord Hauser, keep the individual

five foods.

people,’ writes important to

‘Ihave learned that it is from

feeling hungry.

For that

reason

I

recommend yogurt, which is definitely not fattening; it tastes much better than milk, remains in the stomach a

long time, Eminent

and prevents “hunger” pains.’ a dietitian as Gaylord Hauser may be, I

am

compelled to disagree. Why is it necessary to keep a person from feeling hungry? It is one of the healthiest sensations known, and if you feel really hungry, you will enjoy your next meal. There is no scientific basis either for saying that yogurt is non-fattening. Yogurt, if hung overnight in a cheese cloth,

ABOUT YOGURT

may be turned into cream

cheese;

so

how

can

that square

with his statement? Dr Alexander A.

Academy

Bogomolets,

former President of the

of Sciences of the U.S.S.R., says: ‘The bowels

should be

emptied not less than once in every 24 hours. A glass regulates the emptying of the bowels and the harmful bacilli of putrefaction.’ suppresses in can’t the stomach a long time and help to Yogurt stay the bowels. Who is right; Hauser or Bogomolets? empty Work it out for yourself. There is no substitute for living a normal, healthy life: of sour milk

eating real food, taking moderate exercise and fresh air, and cleansing the body inside and out. The danger comes when

men

and

foods which

specific

women concentrate too

are

supposed

to

strengthen

organ. All the organs

are

mind and body affect each other, Alexander

Bogomolets

much or

on one or two

rejuvenate

one

inter-related; and the too.

knew all this and set it down in

his book, The Prolongation ofLife. Yet, it did not prevent him from dying at the comparatively early age of 65. It is said by some who should know better that the Rosell Bacteriological Institute of Trappe, Canada, directed by Dr Jose Maria Rosell, produces the finest yogurt culture in the world, brought by the Trappist monks from Spain. Nature’s Path, says, ‘The Genuine Yogurt Culture has been scientifically developed on this continent by the Rosell Bacteriological Institute, which is recommended by the

U.S. Government Authorities. These scientists have devoted years to the task of

scientifically

this reliable, Culture needed for this

developing

Yogurt preparation of real Yogurt.’ All this simply means that they correct

make yogurt, too. The fact that the U.S. Government recommends it means

nothing. And where did the

Trappist

monks learn their secrets

YOGURT FOR HEALTH

Probably from the Moors, when they invaded Spain; and they made laban or leben in much the same way as it was made for centuries. From all this the reader may even conclude that I am trying to decry yogurt. I’m not. Yogurt is a good food. Good for infants; good for children and adolescents; good for adults; and very good indeed for those past middle age

who find

they can’t digest their food as they used to; or hardening of the arteries or many of the ailments of old age, like rheumatism. They would do well to

suffer with eat

more

and

more

even

yogurt, and if they

sweeten

it,

to use

or sugar or black molasses black treacle. But never any of the paler varieties of

sweeteners like

honey, maple

sugar. One bottle of yogurt will do no good; nor will a dozen or a score. Like all good foods, the alkalinizing foods that tend

to reduce the acid content of the blood, a little yogurt must be taken at fairly regular intervals over a long period to

produce

results.

CHAPTER

SIX

HOW YOGURT ACTS IF

FOOD AGREES

energy, these

with you, is easiiy digested and provides excellent reasons for eating it. If in addition

are

you can adduce medical and dietetic reasons to buttress them the beneficial effects on mind and body will be

increased for the mind It would be

as

plays

an

important part

well, therefore,

in health.

to know what

happens

when you eat yogurt or drink acidophilus milk. Milk has, of course, been lauded for centuries. As there are references in the Bible to a Promised Land ‘flowing

with milk and

honey’ it

is often

food. But there

complete digest milk, only within

or are

are

allergic

to it.

recent years, for

regarded mistakenly

This has been recognized in the

though allergies existed

they were not understood and other given for indisposition caused by them. past

It has

now

as a

thousands who either cannot

reasons were

been established that many who were

allergic

yogurt with impunity, for the curds of and yogurt acidophilus milk are much finer than those of to milk can take

milk that has not been out show that whereas

is digested within within the same

an

split by acid. Experiments carried only 32 per cent. of milk consumed

hour, 91 per cent. of yogurt is digested

period.

Digestive Process digestion of food is a complicated process not yet entirely understood by scientists. Some say that allergic reactions are caused by the introduction of foreign proteins (in milk) into the bloodstream, which cannot be dealt with by the digestive organs, for though basically we are all alike,

The The

HOW YOGURT ACTS subtle differences caused by factors too numerous to explain here, exist between individuals. The yogurt organism destroys these proteins in milk, thus enabling all but very few digestions to cope with it. So, if milk reacts unfavourably on you, try yogurt. ‘Digestion,’says Dr Boris Sokoloff, ‘is a delicate biochemical process requiring about 30 hours to reach completion.’ When food leaves the stomach it enters that

part of the intestinal tract called the duodenum, then slowly into the small intestine and up, across and down through the large intestine, reaching the colon 24 hours after mastication. In the course of its journey it is acted on by ferments and enzymes and transformed in order that it may be utilized

by

the

body.

The Intestinal Bacteria It is in the colon, which is

that

poorly adjusted

to civilized

life,

most of the trouble starts, for the colon is affected

by

the wrong sort of food, stress, fatigue, etc., and it is here the intestinal bacteria flourish, among the friendly lactobacillus

acidophilus

contained in yogurt.

These baccilli which and cannot be matter in

friendly

a

seen

healthy

are

only

a

few microns in

length

the eye, form one third of the total intestine. Another third is occupied by

by

and harmful germs and the remainder

by

food

waste. These baccilli protect the colon and fight off and destroy harmful bacteria which poison the system. If for any reason

the

the numbers of beneficial bacteria fall

malignant

significantly

bacteria flourish and auto-intoxication sets

in. One of the dangers of taking laxatives frequently or regularly is that they wipe out the friendly bacteria, make constipation almost inevitable, and render the colon a fertile breeding ground for harmful bacteria.

ABOUT YOGURT

54

Lactose Content of and

Yogurt acidophilus milk contain

lactose or milk sugar which is broken down into lactic acid in the intestine and

Yogurt

vigorous war against harmful bacteria. Lactose has properties that no other sugars possess. (1) It is not digested till it reaches the intestines, (2) absorption of lactose takes place in the colon, (3) the minerals in yogurt assist the work of absorption, for it is the whey in yogurt that contains the minerals. That is why you should not discard the whey when eating yogurt. Some people do. (5) As the partly digested food moves through the small and large intestines a carbohydrate is formed which enables acid-forming bacteria to thrive and multiply and produce an atmosphere in which unfriendly bacteria cannot exist. The modern way of getting rid of intestinal infection is by way of antibiotic pills and injections such as penicillin and the tetracyclines; but these tend to destroy the normal

wages

and necessary microbial intestinal flora and and other nutritional disturbances.

cause

avitaminosis

When milk enters the stomach it does not continue

as a

Yogurt

is

Easily Digested

liquid but sets in a solid clot by the action of the renin on it. As gastric juice is an acid it may seem surprising that curdling does not take place instead of clotting. This, seem to think, is caused by the proteins in milk with the acids first secreted uniting by the stomach which the renin time to act before the mixture attains an acid give

chemists

reaction. This does not take

place when

does not form into

mass

It does not

a

seem

solid to

yogurt is eaten; it and is easily digested.

have occurred to the medical

authorities that ‘travel tummy’from which British tourists

suffer when

they

visit

Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Turkey

other Near Eastern countries, may be due to

a

and

lack of

HOW YOGURT ACTS

lactobacillus

acidophi/li,

55

for

Middle and Far East eat

peoples throughout the Near, plenty of yogurt and never suffer

from such trouble. The

digestive juices in the stomach are acid and we protein can be digested only in an acid medium. We also know that when people pass middle age their stomachs tend to lack hydrochloric acid and have difficulty in digesting meats, nuts and cheese. The eating of yogurt aids the process of digesting proteins. know that

To Make

Yogurt

at Home

Let us assume that you live outside the

delivery

radius of

the great dairies that make yogurt. What then? Must you he denied this pleasant, health-giving product that gives a

tang and variety

to your food?

There are many ways of

making yogurt. First,

there is

haphazard way like that used by Richard Sickert, the famous painter. If you went into his farmhouse kitchen at the

St. Peter’s-in-Thanet a number of

large

bowls filled with

milk in various stages of souring met your eye. They stood in a row and were moved up each day in sequence. The kitchen

by went

a

was warm,

and the last bowl

dessertspoon

was

always

inoculated

of clotted milk from the first. And

so

it

on.

But if the weather

changed suddenly

and with it

a

big

chance in temperature, bang went the whole system. He was left with a series of bowls containing milk that was not fit to drink, and would not clot. Many people make yogurt ‘By-Guess-Or-By-God’. What is more, in that type of yogurt one cannot be certain that other and harmful types of bacilli creep in, such as typhoid bacillus, or the germs of undulant fevers, like Malta

or

So the best a

pint

Rock fever.

thing to do is to buy a bottle of yogurt. Bring

of milk almost to the boil in

a

saucepan, then cool it

ABOUT YOGURT

56

blood heat

(approximately 100 degrees Fah.) and pop in dessertspoonful of yogurt. Place it in a warm near a warm kitchen fire, or in an airing spot for from 10-16 hours. If you have a hay box, cupboard use that; or line a large carton with felt or warm cloth and fit it with a 15-watt electric lamp. A thermos flask previously rinsed with warm water and raised to that to

one

temperature will do. When the milk clots,

using

more,

After nine

quality,

as

It is

spoonful days there

well

yogurt and now

remove

it, and then make

some

of the clot.

a

as

is

a

danger

contamination;

so

of deterioration in

get another bottle of

again. buy yogurt culture,

start the whole process

possible

to

sold to you whether you live in Britain

which will be

or

abroad.

This culture is sent by post for a small payment; with it you can make yogurt in the same way. Bring the milk almost to boiling point; cool itto 100 degrees Fah.; add the

gently, and place in a warm spot (not lower than 100 degrees Fah.) for from 10-16 hours.

culture, stir

Always

use

fresh culture after

a

week

or

10

days,

otherwise

there is risk of contamination.

Culture Powder

experimenting with culture powder. quick-frozen, which, they have found, does not destroy its nature as it would if frozen slowly. Then it is Scientists

are

also

The culture is sealed in

a

slim tube from which all the air has been

withdrawn. This tube is and mailed

All with

one

by

so

light that it can easily be packed

air. Thousands

are sent

has to do is to make a mark

abroad each week.

on one

side of the tube

small file; then snap it. With a stiff wire that has been sterilized, loosen the contents and empty them into a

milk that has been boiled and then cooled to 100

degrees

57

HOW YOGURT ACTS

Fah.; maintain the mixture

at that

temperature for from

10-16 hours. Unfortunately, the quick-freeze culture is

as

yet

not

absolutely reliable, and until it is, this culture will be used only for overseas service.

CHAPTER

SEVEN

YOGURT RECIPES PICKLE

OR SOAK a

clove

or

garlic

in

a

tablespoon

of olive

the oil to the boil and let the clove simmer

bring gently in it. Then drain off the oil and mix the garlic with a dessertspoon of tarragon or malt vinegar. When well mixed, slowly add a bottle of plain yogurt and stir vigorously. If too thick, add a dessertspoon of milk to bring to proper consistency. Dice enough cold potato to serve two people, pour on yogurt mayonnaise and mix so that every piece of potato is covered. Stand for half an hour in a cool place. Before serving sprinkle on some finely chopped chives, balm leaves and parsley and mix again. Serve with cold meat,

oil;

or

fish

or

hard boiled eggs. Makes

a

tasty supper with green

salad. Yogurt Egg Salad

Ingredients; Cheese made from two bottles of yogurt; green ends of spring onions, lb.; 2 hard boiled eggs; salt and pepper. Wash and cut up the green spring onions and place in a bowl. Slice hard boiled eggs and put in yogurt cheese, add seasoning and mix until all is well blended. Add a little soft

butter

or cream.

Yogurt Pancakes Ingredients; One bottle plain yogurt; salt; 1 egg; 2 heaped tablespoons flour. To the yogurt add one beaten egg, two tablespoons flour and a pinch of salt. Mix well and drop from dessertspoon

59

YOGURT RECIPES

into

smoking fat.

Turn when

other side. Serve with lemon

all, pour yogurt

golden-brown and brown the juice, jam or syrup. Or, best of

over, and serve.

Yogurt Honey Nut Delight Ingredients; 1 bottle plain or flavoured yogurt; 1 tablespoon honey; I oz. ground almonds; chopped nuts and glacé cherries for decoration.

Whip yogurt, ground almonds and honey together. Fill glasses with mixture. Decorate with chopped nuts, glacé cherries or bananas or any fruit in season sundae

Yogurt Scones Ingredients; 6 bread soda

Sift

S.F. flour; teaspoon salt; teaspoon bicarbonate of soda; 1 bottle plain yogurt.

oz.

or

dry ingredients

several times. Make

a

well in the

centre and pour in yogurt gradually, mixing in the flour from the sides. Don’thave the mixture too dry. Turn on to a

floured board, knead lightly, pat and press out with scones to size and shape required. Bake in a hot

hand. Cut oven

for 20 minutes.

Yogurt Rabbit Casserole Lightly fry one large onion and 2 lb. jointed rabbit in two tablespoons olive oil or melted cooking fat. Place in casserole, season well and cover with stock. Cook slowly for 1-4 hours. Thicken gravy with cornflour and add one bottle yogurt ten minutes before serving. The addition of yogurt to this dish gives it a piquant flavour so often missing in rabbit meals. Yogurt

Cheese Flan

Line

sandwich tin

a

or

flan tin with thin short pastry. Fill

with mixture of cheese well mixed with sugar,

one

tablespoon cornflour,

one

cover

egg, one ounce with criss-cross

ABOUT YOGURT

60

of pastry and sprinkle liberally with cinnamon and bake for about half an hour in moderate oven. The cheese

strips

is made

Yogurt Take

by straining plain yogurt through

a

muslin cloth.

Ice Cream

bottle yogurt and one block of ice cream (family Whip together with four tablespoons raspberry jam.

one

size). Arrange

in

glasses and place in refrigerator or cool place. serving with cherries, chopped walnuts,

Decorate before etc.

Yogurt Jelly Add to each bottle yogurt three tablespoons fruit juice, one tablespoon of sugar, beat well together and add one dessertspoon of granulated water.

Yogurt

Custard

Make

a

one

gelatine dissolved in a little warm a cool place to set.

Mix well and put in

pint

of custard

fairly

bottle of yogurt. Chill

cool; then beat in Delicious on its own or

thick

to serve.

served with fruit and biscuits.

Yogurt Vegetable Soup Ingredients: Carrots, onions, garlic (optional); 1 bottle plain yogurt. Take three small carrots and

finely. Put into

one or two

2

pints milk;

onions, chop

three-pint saucepan with two or three ounces of margarine, pepper and salt, and if you like a clove of chopped garlic. (This adds greatly to the flavour, and cooked garlic leaves no unpleasant odour on the breath.) Put on a low fire and fry gently till the onion is soft. Take care that the vegetables do not brown. Add two pints milk and simmer for three-quarters of an hour, being a

-

careful that the milk does minutes before account must

serving

the soup

not come to the boil. Five

add

bottle yogurt. On no the boil after adding the

one

come to

YOGURT RECIPES

yogurt. Any root-vegetables in addition of

one

concoction into

given

are

pound a

season may be added; the of soft tomatoes transforms this

delicious tomato soup. The

sufficient for four

quantities

people.

Yogurt Bortsch Ingredients; One large, uncooked beetroot; 2 small onions; garlic (optional); bottle red wine (optional); 2 bottles yogurt; enough for 3 people. After carefully washing and trimming the raw beet, place it in the smallest saucepan that will accommodate it and cover with water. Add salt, bring to the boil and simmer till tender. Then remove; but

keep

the

liquor

in

which it is boiled. Peel and mash beetroot, return it to the liquor, add 4 or 5 peppercorns, an onion chopped fine, a

bay leaf and a sprig of parsley, mint and rosemary. Simmer till the onion is tender; then add the red wine. Simmer further for 15 minutes, remove from the fire and before

serving

stir in

slowly

two bottles of

yogurt.

Yogurt and Smoked Haddock Ingredients: 1 large smoked haddock; 2 rashers bacon; 1

oz.

margarine; 2 bottles plain yogurt. Lay a thick smoked haddock in a well buttered baking tin. Crumble an ounce of margarine and sprinkle on top of the haddock. Add two rashers of chopped bacon. Sprinkle pepper and pour two bottles of yogurt over the haddock. Bake in the open tin for half an hour in a very slow oven. It

is

important that the yogurt should not boil. Remove from the oven, serve in a hot dish, pour over the sauce in which the haddock is cooked and sprinkle with parsley. Sufficient for two. Rabbit Stew

Ingredients: 2 lb. jointed rabbit; 1 large onion; stock; seasoning to taste; 1 bottle yogurt.

ABOUT YOGURT

62

Lightly fry rabbit and two

large onion and two pound jointed tablespoons olive oil or melted cooking fat.

one

Place in casserole, season well and cover with stock. Cook slowly for 1-4 hours. Thicken gravy with cornflour and one bottle of yogurt ten minutes before serving. The addition of yogurt gives the dish a piquant flavour so often missing in rabbit meals.

add

‘Left-Over’Yogurt Stew Ingredients: Left-over of cooked meat or poultry and a little bacon; 1 large carrot; I large onion; 1 clove; garlic (optional, but recommended); herbs; 1

pint milk;

I bottle

plain

oz.

flour; 1

oz.

margarine;

yogurt.

Chop up bacon, carrot, onion and garlic and brown them with a little margarine in a hot pan. Remove from the pan, add the rest of the margarine and flour; brown deeply without burning the flour. Very slowly add the milk and stir constantly until a thick brown sauce is made. In this sauce place the chopped up meat, etc., and the fried onion, carrot and bacon; add seasoning and herbs to taste. Transfer to fireproof casserole and cook for three-quarters of an hour in a moderate oven. Before serving, stir in the yogurt.

Yogurt

Sandwich

Fillings popular fillings is made by taking two hard-boiled eggs and mixing them to the right consistency with plain yogurt. Add to this mixture haifa dozen stoned, One of the most

black olives green or black olives four spring onions finely chopped

are

tastier

three

or

(including the green stalks); a clove of garlic (optional); a sprig of parsley and skinned and puiped tomato to add colour. Stir well. A sweet sandwich spread can be made in the same way with ground nuts, raisins, dates, a few glacé cherries and angelica.

63

YOGURT RECIPES

For Cucumber-Lovers

Chop half a small cucumber without peeling, add a little finely chopped garlic or onion, and a tablespoon of chopped parsley. Add enough plain yogurt to make a fairly liquid consistency and season with pepper, salt, a little lemon juice and a shake of sugar. Put the mixture in a sieve or a cheese cloth to drain off surplus liquid. Delicious when on water biscuits or freshly made toast, crispbread, spread served as a savoury, or as a dressing with vegetables or salads.

Yogurt Salad Dressing for Summers together a bottle of plain yogurt, quarter teaspoon of sugar, one-eighth teaspoon of salt, half teaspoon lemon juice, and the grated rind of a quarter lemon. Mix

Yogurt Cheese Two bottles of plain yogurt make cheese.

the contents in

a generous bowl of cheese cloth over a bowl

Hang overnight, or if you prefer a ‘runny’cheese, for just a few hours. Add salt, pepper, paprika, grated apple or any herbs you like, to flavour. Consistency of cheese depends on the time it hangs. a

Korma

Ingredients; 3 onions, 3-4 cloves of garlic, lb. fat or mustard oil but not lard, 1 lb. meat, teaspoon ginger, - teaspoon cummin seed, teaspoon pepper, 12 cloves, 6-7 cardamoms, 2-3 sticks cinnamon, 3-4 bay leaves, and 4-5 tomatoes, and 1 bottle plain yogurt. Slice the onions finely and cut the cloves of

large, ripe

lengthways,

and brown onions and

garlic

too brown. Cut up the meat into squares pork may be used) and place it in the pot. a

garlic

in the fat. Not

(beef, mutton or Let it simmer till nice, rich brown. Add haIfa cup of water, and put in the

ABOUT YOGURT

64

ginger,

pepper, cummin seed, cloves, cardamoms, cinnamon, bay leaf and the tomatoes, sliced in half or in

quarters. Bring to the boil; then simmer on a slow fire till the meat is soft. If you wish, when the meat is nearly done, cut in haifa number of small,

and add them

occasionally

to

dish is ready when the may be

bought

scrubbed, unpeeled potatoes

the mixture. Pour in the yogurt. Mix prevent the mixture from catching. The

to

meat is done. All the

in London

or

the

big

ingredients

towns and cities in

omitted, for not everyone it; cardomoms should be peeled and the little black seeds only used.

Britain. Cummin seed may be likes

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