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Ah, so yogurt REALLY is a Bulgarian thing! In France, we've always had a slew of "Bulgarian taste" yogurts, which are usually slightly acidic in taste (and whic

Ah, so yogurt REALLY is a Bulgarian thing! In France, we've always had a slew of "Bulgarian taste" yogurts, which are usually slightly acidic in taste (and which I enjoy a lot) and I've always wondered if it was just a marketing thing or grounded in reality.

nikolay 9y ago
Yogurt's homeland is Bulgaria, and if it doesn't have Streptococcus Thermophilus and Lactobacillus Bulgaricus, it's not yogurt, but just a form of fermented milk. It has to be tangy and, in fact, in Bulgarian, its name is literally "sour milk". After joining the EU, our traditional manufacturers started to westernize yogurt, and now we have all kinds of fruit-sweetened forms, and the country's taste is shifting via the young, which is unfortunate. Now you can find all kinds of low-fat alternatives, and in the past, there was just one single variety, sold in a glass jar, and it was pure medicine: http://e-vestnik.bg/imgs/home_page/Kiselo_Mlyak-sots.jpg http://e-vestnik.bg/imgs/home_page/Kiselo_Mlyak-sots.jpg It used to be a healthful breakfast given its balanced nutritional profile per one cup: 150 calories, 8 g of fat (5 g of which saturated), 5 g of carbs, and 13 g of protein while supplying 1/3rd of your daily calcium need.
- bkovacev 9y ago
  People look at me weird sometimes when I tell them we usually drink our yogurt. In Serbia we have different types of yogurt some more thick (the westernized with flavor), yet some runny/less thick. But sour milk (kiselo mleko for us) is always of same texture and we eat it with a spoon. So, my question is - do Bulgarians drink their yogurt or do they eat it with a spoon?
  - nikolay 9y ago
    We eat yogurt ("кисело мляко") only with a spoon - it's not liquid. We drink ayran ("айрян"), which is yogurt diluted with water yogurt with added salt. There's also kefir ("кефир"), which is liquid, but it is not Bulgarian at all.
    - bkovacev 9y ago
      Gotcha. Ayran is something I will definitely try if I visit! Yes, I'm familiar with Kefir and it's sort of the same as our version of yogurt, but Kefir has a bit stronger/more "recognizable" taste!
      - VeejayRampay 9y ago
        I've found that pretty much all Turkish places (be it a kebap shop or a restaurant, snack shop, etc.) usually sells Ayran, it's what I usually get with kebap / iskender / adana, it helps with some of the spicy sauces.
- option_greek 9y ago
  Isn't Yogurt a common thingy in various countries. At least, in India it is known to have been used for a long time (specifically the clarified butter derived from the yugurt[1]). [1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghee https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghee
  - nikolay 9y ago
    Ghee is clarified butter and has nothing to do with yogurt. Now, when the native to Bulgaria bacteria has been spread around the globe, yogurt is available worldwide, but not until recently.
    - deleted 9y ago
      [deleted]
    - jogjayr 9y ago
      Beg to differ. Here's how my mother makes ghee at home: 1. Heat milk and milk cream (mostly milk cream), let cool, add yogurt culture 2. After yogurt is set, add water and churn 3. Extract the butter that you get from churning, drink the leftover buttermilk :-) 4. Heat the butter till it's ghee
      - nikolay 9y ago
        Thanks for this! I'll try to reproduce it! But what I meant is that ghee is not made with yogurt and not solely from fermented milk - and ghee doesn't have to be cultured either (most brands available in US stores are not). Again, my point was, that for fermented milk to be called "yogurt," it needs to have a particular Lactobacillus profile, which is not traditionally available in India. Nowadays, maybe you use the imported starter cultures just like Japan, USA, and EU does.
        jogjayr 9y ago
        > Thanks for this! I'll try to reproduce it! Please do :-)! The butter by itself is quite tasty; more tangy than store-bought butter and delicious when whipped with powdered sugar then spread on bread. > it needs to have a particular Lactobacillus profile, which is not traditionally available in India Sorry, do you have a source for this? I was unable to find anything. I don't think it would've been too difficult for yogurt cultures to diffuse gradually from Bulgaria to India in ancient times. There were plenty of traders and conquering armies going back and forth. Yogurt has been in India for thousands of years. With regard to yogurt cultures used in India, I only found the following: "In India, a combination of "Lactobacillus bulgaricus" and "Streptococcus thermophilus" is used for commercial production." [1] [1] http://www.indiacurry.com/faqmilk/mfaqdahichemistery.htm http://www.indiacurry.com/faqmilk/mfaqdahichemistery.htm
- aaight 9y ago
  wikipedia does not agree with you about Bulgaria being the origin, says origin of yogurt is unknown but could be Mesopotamia in 5000 BC. The bacteria strain seems to be called "bulgaricus" because it was discovered by a Bulgarian student studying his yogurt in Geneva a little over 100 years ago. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yogurt#History https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yogurt#History
upvotinglurker 9y ago
>In France, we've always had a slew of "Bulgarian taste" yogurts, which are usually slightly acidic in taste In the US, I think this is being marketed as "Greek yogurt." (I don't like yogurt so no first hand experience, but in the last few years I've noticed many brands being advertised as "Greek", and as being more tangy and possibly more healthy/"natural")
- dragonwriter 9y ago
  “Greek yogurt” is the same thing as “yogurt cheese”—it's yogurt strained to remove/reduce whey. Well, except that US rules allow thickeners to be used instead of straining, so many US versions are thickened, rather than strained. I don't think either process affects acidity.
- VeejayRampay 9y ago
  Not sure about that, we have both, Greek and Bulgarian, they're noticeably different in texture and taste, though it might be different on the American market, I don't know.

nikolay 9y ago

Yogurt's homeland is Bulgaria, and if it doesn't have Streptococcus Thermophilus and Lactobacillus Bulgaricus, it's not yogurt, but just a form of fermented milk. It has to be tangy and, in fact, in Bulgarian, its name is literally "sour milk". After joining the EU, our traditional manufacturers started to westernize yogurt, and now we have all kinds of fruit-sweetened forms, and the country's taste is shifting via the young, which is unfortunate. Now you can find all kinds of low-fat alternatives, and in the past, there was just one single variety, sold in a glass jar, and it was pure medicine: http://e-vestnik.bg/imgs/home_page/Kiselo_Mlyak-sots.jpg http://e-vestnik.bg/imgs/home_page/Kiselo_Mlyak-sots.jpg It used to be a healthful breakfast given its balanced nutritional profile per one cup: 150 calories, 8 g of fat (5 g of which saturated), 5 g of carbs, and 13 g of protein while supplying 1/3rd of your daily calcium need.

bkovacev 9y ago
People look at me weird sometimes when I tell them we usually drink our yogurt. In Serbia we have different types of yogurt some more thick (the westernized with flavor), yet some runny/less thick. But sour milk (kiselo mleko for us) is always of same texture and we eat it with a spoon. So, my question is - do Bulgarians drink their yogurt or do they eat it with a spoon?
- nikolay 9y ago
  We eat yogurt ("кисело мляко") only with a spoon - it's not liquid. We drink ayran ("айрян"), which is yogurt diluted with water yogurt with added salt. There's also kefir ("кефир"), which is liquid, but it is not Bulgarian at all.
  - bkovacev 9y ago
    Gotcha. Ayran is something I will definitely try if I visit! Yes, I'm familiar with Kefir and it's sort of the same as our version of yogurt, but Kefir has a bit stronger/more "recognizable" taste!
    - VeejayRampay 9y ago
      I've found that pretty much all Turkish places (be it a kebap shop or a restaurant, snack shop, etc.) usually sells Ayran, it's what I usually get with kebap / iskender / adana, it helps with some of the spicy sauces.
option_greek 9y ago
Isn't Yogurt a common thingy in various countries. At least, in India it is known to have been used for a long time (specifically the clarified butter derived from the yugurt[1]). [1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghee https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghee
- nikolay 9y ago
  Ghee is clarified butter and has nothing to do with yogurt. Now, when the native to Bulgaria bacteria has been spread around the globe, yogurt is available worldwide, but not until recently.
  - deleted 9y ago
    [deleted]
  - jogjayr 9y ago
    Beg to differ. Here's how my mother makes ghee at home: 1. Heat milk and milk cream (mostly milk cream), let cool, add yogurt culture 2. After yogurt is set, add water and churn 3. Extract the butter that you get from churning, drink the leftover buttermilk :-) 4. Heat the butter till it's ghee
    - nikolay 9y ago
      Thanks for this! I'll try to reproduce it! But what I meant is that ghee is not made with yogurt and not solely from fermented milk - and ghee doesn't have to be cultured either (most brands available in US stores are not). Again, my point was, that for fermented milk to be called "yogurt," it needs to have a particular Lactobacillus profile, which is not traditionally available in India. Nowadays, maybe you use the imported starter cultures just like Japan, USA, and EU does.
      - jogjayr 9y ago
        > Thanks for this! I'll try to reproduce it! Please do :-)! The butter by itself is quite tasty; more tangy than store-bought butter and delicious when whipped with powdered sugar then spread on bread. > it needs to have a particular Lactobacillus profile, which is not traditionally available in India Sorry, do you have a source for this? I was unable to find anything. I don't think it would've been too difficult for yogurt cultures to diffuse gradually from Bulgaria to India in ancient times. There were plenty of traders and conquering armies going back and forth. Yogurt has been in India for thousands of years. With regard to yogurt cultures used in India, I only found the following: "In India, a combination of "Lactobacillus bulgaricus" and "Streptococcus thermophilus" is used for commercial production." [1] [1] http://www.indiacurry.com/faqmilk/mfaqdahichemistery.htm http://www.indiacurry.com/faqmilk/mfaqdahichemistery.htm
aaight 9y ago
wikipedia does not agree with you about Bulgaria being the origin, says origin of yogurt is unknown but could be Mesopotamia in 5000 BC. The bacteria strain seems to be called "bulgaricus" because it was discovered by a Bulgarian student studying his yogurt in Geneva a little over 100 years ago. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yogurt#History https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yogurt#History

upvotinglurker 9y ago

>In France, we've always had a slew of "Bulgarian taste" yogurts, which are usually slightly acidic in taste In the US, I think this is being marketed as "Greek yogurt." (I don't like yogurt so no first hand experience, but in the last few years I've noticed many brands being advertised as "Greek", and as being more tangy and possibly more healthy/"natural")

dragonwriter 9y ago
“Greek yogurt” is the same thing as “yogurt cheese”—it's yogurt strained to remove/reduce whey. Well, except that US rules allow thickeners to be used instead of straining, so many US versions are thickened, rather than strained. I don't think either process affects acidity.
VeejayRampay 9y ago
Not sure about that, we have both, Greek and Bulgarian, they're noticeably different in texture and taste, though it might be different on the American market, I don't know.