SC - yoghurt

[Christina van Tets]

Hello the list!

Allison wrote:

>Thanks for your thoughts, M. Adamantius.  Do you suppose that, following
>the evening milking--of whatever animal--if the milk were set in an
>earthenware pot at the back of the cooking fire area, that by morning it
>might have had the necessary cooking to make the yoghurt type, or
>thickened type?

That was roughly the speculation on the card in a museum I saw some years 
ago in England (Southampton, I think).  It went with a nifty little device 
(in the Roman section) which was a bowl with small rough pebbles set into it 
during the making;  the whole inside was unglazed.  From memory, the 
archaeologists had done tests and said that there cheese bacteria were 
lodged in all the 'pores', and that all a cook needed to do was pour milk in 
and it automatically got its rennet like that.

Cairistiona

P.S.  It was the same shape as an ordinary milk pan, FWIW

>Certainly, making yoghurt at home, we heat it to the right temperature
>and then hold it there for hours.  I try to think of the simple way that
>would be natural to do a thing, as very often that is what got done.
>Perhaps commercial production in a city might have used a different
>method, but if this is not solely a noble dish, then something not too
>elaborate in method or utensils is likely.  I'm thinking of the kitchens
>dug up by archeologists--generally minus their furnishings, of course.

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