[Sca-cooks] Medieval yogurt

[rtanhil]

Ah, a subject that combines two of my favorite foods. Yogurt
and beer (but definitely not in the same bowl!)

Here follows a bit of speculation without the benefit of
facts (which I could look up, but will not because I have 15
people descending on my house in 6 hours).

Ale, fermented with wild cultures, sometimes gets bacterial
fermentation from lactobaccillus, among other things.
Lambics get their flavor components from this phenomenon.
I'm prepared to wager my reputation that medieval people
would drink mildly soured beer. I'm not sure about
widespread lambic consumption during our period of interest.
I'd like to learn more about it, but not today.

As any brewer knows, once you get wild yeast or
microorganisms you might not want in your beer inside your
house, it gets harder to prevent them from innoculating
future batches of beer.

If the microorganisms are floating around making beer sour,
they're getting in the milk pails, too. It takes
surprisingly little time for milk to turn into yogurt in the
presence of the right bacteria.

Would people have eaten the thickened, soured milk? As "new
cheese," probably.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

Berelinde