It’s All Greek to Me
Recently, however, even our small village grocers are now carrying Greek yogurt so it was clearly time for me to find out more about the stuff.
And, I was amazed and delighted to find that the plain Greek yogurt available in my own village contained exactly what yogurt should: Milk and bacterial culture, not a bunch of fillers and additives.
The first written records of yogurt date to around 2000 BCE. It is made by introducing a bacterial culture to milk which causes it to ferment, although it is likely the first yogurt cultured itself by accident in a goatskin bag.
These living bacteria in the yogurt are what makes it such a healthy food for humans. Our own guts are host to trillions of little critters, all busy living their lives out and doing their parts to help us digest and assimilate our food.
A balance must be maintained between the “good bacteria” and the “bad bacteria”. If the bad bacteria are able to take over, and stage an intestinal coup, as it were, our digestive system gets out of balance and our health suffers accordingly.
These days, intestinal problems are the number one cause of employee absenteeism in the workplace.
There are many insidious assaults on our health taking place. Our air, water and soil are poisoned in the name of corporate profits. Nearly all prepared foods contain genetically modified organisms that wreak further havoc on our systems.
Eating yogurt provides us with living organisms to help us regain our health. In fact, people live the longest in those cultures and societies around the world that regularly eat fermented foods.
Which brings me back to commercial yogurt. Yogurt should contain only milk and the bacterial cultures used to ferment it. Most of the commercial yogurt on our store shelves is made by corporate giants who are far more concerned about profits than providing good food.
If you check the ingredients of most popular brands of yogurt you will find that these products are beefed up with cheap fillers like modified food starch, modified corn starch, gelatine, agar, and guar gum.
Yogurt is made by heating milk to kill the undesirable bacteria, and then partially cooled. The yogurt culture is then added and the temperature maintained for 4-7 hours to allow the milk to ferment.
It is then strained to remove the liquid whey. It is strained twice for regular yogurt and three times for Greek yogurt….it turns out that Greek yogurt simply contains less whey so is a much firmer yogurt.
This makes it better to cook with as it generally will not curdle when heated, as regular yogurt can do.
Because of the reduced water content, it also has less lactose, or milk sugar.
Ancient Indian records say that the combination of yogurt and honey is called the Food of the Gods and Persian traditions say that “Abraham owed his fecundity and longevity to the regular ingestion of yogurt.”
Francis I was a Valois Monarch who ruled as King of France from 1515 until his death in 1547. During his reign, he became afflicted with a severe case of diarrhoea that no French doctor was able to remedy.
His ally Suleiman the Magnificent, Sultan of the Ottoman Empire, sent a doctor from his court who allegedly cured the patient with yogurt.
Grateful for relief from his affliction, Francis spread the word about the food which had cured him.
We north Americans seem to favour yogurt mixed with sweet fruit preserves, but in most other cultures yogurt is prepared with savoury ingredients to become the base of salads and sauces.
You have likely tried commercial tzatziki sauce at some point. Try making it from scratch with some firm Greek yogurt and fresh diced cucumbers. It is a fabulous salad and side dish. And, it won’t contain any additives, fillers or preservatives.
I recently picked up a tub of Greek yogurt at one of our local markets here in town that contained an amazing 9% milk fat! This 9% yogurt is very rich and creamy….it is almost like eating custard when I mix it with fresh fruit.
Actually, this is yet another of my beefs with popular taste. No fat or very low fat yogurt seems to be all the rage. It just really loses all its texture and mouth appeal to me when all the milk fat is removed.
Here is a basic recipe I found, but this makes far too much tzatziki for me to eat before it goes bad. I start out with the amount of yogurt I think I’ll need, then judge the rest of the ingredients as I go. Fresh tzatziki will only hold up for several days in the fridge so you don’t want to make too much at once. Once I got the hang of it, it’s a snap to whip up when needed!
Fresh Tzatziki Salad
- 1 English Cucumber, seeded & diced (I simply shred a piece in my food processor)
- 1/2 sweet onion, diced
- 2 cups of plain Greek yogurt
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 Tbsp olive oil (extra virgin, of course!)
- juice of 1 lemon
- 1/2 cup fresh dill, chopped
- 1/2 cup minced chives
- salt & pepper
In a sieve set over a bowl, toss the diced cucumber & onions with 1 tsp salt. Let it drain at least one hour at room temperature, or cover and refrigerate up to 8 hours.
Mash the garlic with 1/2 tsp salt to make a paste. Add this garlic paste to the yogurt with the olive oil, lemon juice and chives.
Pat the chopped cucumber & onion mix dry with paper towels and add to the yogurt. Enjoy right away or refrigerate until use.
Stephanie Kelley
