ACK 3.3: Dahi

Dahi
Yogurt
With a little experience you'll learn how to make yogurt and get good results every time. Keep your equipment clean to guard against incubating unwanted strains of bacteria.
Preparation and cooking time: 15 min
Setting time: 4-8 hrs
10 cups (2.3 ltr) whole milk
1/4 cup (50 ml) plain yogurt

Bring the milk to a boil in a pot and remove from the heat. Now lower the temperature of the milk either by letting it cool by itself or by placing the pot in cold water.
The ideal temperature for the yogurt bacteria is 110-115°F (43-45°C). If you don't have a thermometer, there is a simple test: the milk should be just hot enough for you to hold your little finger in it, without burning it, for 10 seconds, just long enough to say, "Hare Krsna, Hare Krsna, Krsna Krsna, Hare Hare / Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare." Mix the yogurt into a cup of the warm milk and stir it back into the pot. On cold days you may need more yogurt to start a culture than on warm days.
The yogurt bacteria need several hours of warmth and quiet to grow. Keep the temperature of the milk constant by wrapping the covered pot in a thick cloth and placing it near a source of heat. Avoid leaving the pot near anything that may cause movement; if possible, make your yogurt at night, when there is the least chance of disturbance. It usually takes from four to eight hours for the yogurt to become firm. Once the yogurt sets, refrigerate it to retard the growth of the bacteria. Otherwise they'll continue to eat the milk sugars in the yogurt and turn it sour in two days.
Your yogurt should stay good for four-five days. Don't forget to save some as a culture to start your next batch of yogurt. If the starter culture grows weak, replace it with newly bought yogurt.
 
Yogurt, one of nature's best medicines
Because of yogurt's health-giving properties and its many uses in preparing foods, it has an important place in the Vedic diet. The Ayur-veda speaks in detail of the curative properties of yogurt.
Outside India, yogurt is most popular with the people of Russia and the Balkan countries, who are known for their longevity. The link between a yogurt-rich diet and increased longevity was revealed a hundred years ago by the Russian gerontologist Elie Metchnikoff. His major contribution to science was his auto-intoxication theory, which stated that it is possible for the contents of the colon to enter the bloodstream and thereby poison the entire body. Metchnikoff examined and interviewed many centenarians in Asia and Russia and noted that their diets contained large amounts of yogurt and fermented milk. He concluded that their longevity was due to the bacilli in these products, which replaced the bacteria of putrefaction in the bowel. In the wake of his theory came the first wave of interest in yogurt as a health food. As the consumption of yogurt in the West increases, modern science is discovering more of its remarkable qualities.
A few examples:
Yogurt produces lactic acid, which destroys the bacteria responsible for the putrefaction of food in the large intestine, one of the main causes of disease and premature aging.
• Because it is pre-digested by its lactobacillus bulgaris bacteria, yogurt is assimilated by the body faster than milk.
• Yogurt is rich in proteins, minerals, enzymes, and most known vitamins, including hard-to-get ones like D and B12.
• Yogurt gives the intestinal bacteria their favorite food: lactose. People whose intestinal bacteria have been destroyed by antibiotics are often advised by their doctors to eat yogurt to replenish the bacteria.
• Yogurt has natural antibiotic properties strong enough to kill certain amoebas and such virulent bacteria as staphylococcus, streptococcus, and typhus.

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