Indeed, some may argue that milk should be consumed only by the young of mammals: goat kids should drink the nanny’s milk, calves the cow’s and lambs the ewe’s. You get the idea. Many people are lactose intolerant to boot so not drinking milk makes sense to their sensitive digestive systems.
You may have heard of moloko mentioned in Stanley Kubrick’s movie from the seventies entitled “A Clockwork Orange.” The movie was based on a satirical book by Anthony Burgess, rather far fetched for my taste, that takes place in Britain. In the movie, milk with a twist is served at the Korova -- cow in Russian -- Milk Bar.
In actuality, milk bars were common in the middle of the twentieth century in England, Australia and the United States. They eventually evolved into delicatessens. Dairy bars still exist throughout the US and sell milk products directly to customers. I visit a local Pennsylvania dairy bar called Manning’s that sells homemade ice-cream and milk. As I look excitedly at the cows grazing in the fields with a sense of wonder, I‘m a child once again. It’s a good feeling knowing that the ice cream I’m eating came directly from them.
Truly milk and the array of products such as cheese, buttermilk, sour cream, cream and cottage cheese and yogurt are delicious and life would be rather dull without them.
Russians too would agree with me. Their favorite milk products and staples in their diet happen to be yogurt, cottage cheese or tvorog, and smetana --a heteronym of the Czech composer Bedrich Smetana -- or sour cream, products that are more digestible. Sour cream is added to everything from soups like borscht, to salads, sauces and desserts. Papa told me that smetana was also mixed in with chopped yarrow and fed to turkeys -- they loved it!
Yogurt was introduced to Russia by the invading Mongol horsemen: due to their nomadic way of life, they quite possibly subsisted on it.
What is yogurt? It’s the end product of milk from a variety of mammals including but not limited to cows, sheep, goats, yaks, that has been fermented by bacteria: possibly an elixir of long life with many medicinal properties, vitamins and minerals. Remember the Dannon yogurt commercials from the seventies featuring the elderly, but healthy Georgian -- Russian men dancing around, all thanks to the daily dose of yogurt? Supposedly, these were the first American commercials filmed in the Soviet Union!
The process of making yogurt involves bacteria such as the genus Lactobacillus. The bacteria feeds on the lactose in milk and during the fermentation process, lactic acid is produced. The acid breaks down the milk proteins, coagulating them, and imparting a tangy taste to the end product, yogurt. The origin of the word itself is said to be Turkish and means to thicken.
Yogurt is a truly international food enjoyed all over the world in the form of both food and drink. However, be aware and stick to the pure, unadulterated and organic versions of yogurt. Skip the extra sugar, real and fake, unnecessary additives that you can’t pronounce, colors you don’t need and before long, you’ll be used to the real thing. That’s what my goats recommend and besides, who knows what the benefits can be!
