Yogurt

We add yogurt to everything, even water...

Years ago, while browsing in a library abroad, I saw an English book called Yogurt. I was both surprised and ashamed. The book was written in a country that thinks yoghurt is just fruit yogurt on the market shelves!

We, who put yogurt with every meal, treat burns with yoghurt, and make daily yogurt to the baby, have not published a single book. Later, Artun Unsal's book Silivrim Kaymak was published and I was a little relieved...

Yogurt is our long-distance companion. It is served as ayran on almost every table, alongside meals or in a separate bowl. In the villages, they say 

Rinse a glass of ayran 

for a guest who comes on a hot summer day. Goat's milk produces a frothy ayran with an indescribable taste. It cools the soul. We cannot imagine stuffing, fried purslane, spinach, dumpling without yogurt, and rice with tomatoes and cauliflower without tzatziki. We add it to our pastries, pastries and soups. Like butter, bulgur and flour, yogurt has a place of honor in our kitchen.

 

The people of Adıyaman have come a long way when it comes to making yogurt a crown jewel. During the marriage ceremony, baklava and yogurt were served during the ceremony.

Doesn't the fact that yogurt markets have been established in many of our regions, such as Diyarbakır, Mersin, Emirdağ, Boyabat and Yalvaç, show the value we attach to yogurt?

In the past, yogurt and ayran brought from the villages in containers were sold in these markets. The clean, not rancid yogurt was sold on the market.

Let's take a look at what people who wanted to buy ayran or yoghurt in Adıyaman experienced in the past: 

In the spring and summer months, when yoghurt and ayran were consumed in abundance, not everyone would have the chance to buy and take home 800 grams of yogurt. The person who wanted to buy yogurt had to go to the yogurt market. There, He takes a look at the yogurt containers lined up in rows inside the tall, thin display cases; if he is convinced when he gets the answers to a series of questions such as what yogurt, whose yogurt, whether it is fresh or not sour, and if he likes the yogurt itself and its price, he points to the yogurt owner, who is the yogurt seller in front. He would walk home behind him, empty the yogurt container and pay for it. Those who did not have the opportunity to buy yogurt had to stop by the place under the famous mulberry tree in the ayran market. Our villagers would sell their ayran, which they had brought to the city on the backs of animals, stuffed into tuluks (skins-tulum in Turkish- made of leather). If it tastes good and has a greasy face, may God help the owner of that ayran on that day... You will see that dozens of men are crowded around him, there is a fight to buy a few bowls of ayran, there is a struggle to buy a few bowls of ayran in the midst of fighting and fighting.

Of course, we are not the only ones who love yogurt so much. In India, it is included in everything from chicken dishes to bread and desserts to sauces. Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran, Syria, Israel, Lebanon, Palestine, the Caucasus, the Balkans, Armenia, Bulgaria, Greece and Bosnia are places that attach great importance to yogurt in their traditional cuisine.

There are also countries that have just started using yogurt because it is very healthy. You can find yogurt on supermarket shelves in France, Scandinavian countries, England, Germany and the USA. They use yogurt with fruit, fruit desserts or for breakfast rather than the first fruit yogurt they are familiar with. The French eat yogurt after the meal. They are aware and aware that it helps digestion. Yogurt is the favorite of those who want to eat healthy all over the world.

It is very healthy and helps our digestive system with its probiotic properties. In Anatolia, foods such as milk and yogurt are called ağartı. It is said that a man

He said he wouldn't get sick.

From why? they asked.

He said, I will eat ağartı and göğerti. (Göğerti are green vegetables)

We love our yogurt, we use it, but do we know its value? I think we don't. Everywhere in Karaburun is full of goats, statues of goats have been erected, but it is not possible to find goat buttermilk in the local tea gardens. They only sell canned ayran, tasteless, saltless, soulless...

Let's protect our yogurt and use it more. Let's try to reach creamy milk, good milk. Let's look not only for cow milk, but also for sheep, goat and buffalo milk. May our yogurt live and ferment everywhere.

Source; Arzu A. Uyumaz