Introduction

The thrust of the book is international in scope, including more than 200 recipes from some 60 nationalities. Basically, yogurt is a curdled, cultured, semisolid food product, made from milk fermented by a bacterium. Commercial dairies typically make yogurt by inoculating sterilized milk with the bacteria Streptococcus thermophilus or Lactobacillus acidophilus, then incubating the mixture several hours at 43° C (110–112° F), or until curd forms. Yogurt dates back to pre-Biblical times, and Moses reputedly partook of it on his way to the Promised Land. It has been estimated that man must have first learned about its properties during the Neolithic Era, once milk that was left to curdle had been sampled and found to be digestible. Yogurt is popular around the world with people from all demographic niches. It has been a staple in the diets of most Middle Eastern countries, notably Lebanon and Syria, as well as in Bulgaria, the former Yugoslavia, and India.