liquid form.
Fresh Fermented Milks
and Creams
One of the remarkable qualities of milk is that
it invites its own preservation. It can
spontaneously foster a particular group of
microbes that convert its sugar into acid, and
thereby preserve it for some time from
spoiling or harboring disease. At the same
time, the microbes also change the milk’s
texture and flavor in desirable ways. This
benign transformation, or fermentation,
doesn’t happen all the time, but it happened
often enough that milks fermented by bacteria
became important among all dairying peoples.
Yogurt and soured creams remain widely
popular to this day.
Why this fortunate fermentation? It’s a
combination of milk’s unique chemistry, and
a group of microbes that were ready to exploit