The Origins Of Yogurt Date Back To Ancient Times
Yogurt is, indeed, a popular breakfast food. It perfectly adds protein to a dish and pairs beautifully with sweet and savory foods. For example, you could make a savory cucumber parfait or coat a bowl of it in granola, fruit, and honey. Some egg recipes like the Turkish çilbir, which uses a creamy combination of poached eggs and yogurt with herbs, start the day off right. The point is that the world loves yogurt, and it is one of the healthiest dairy products you could eat since it's chocked full of protein, whey, and fatty acids, and full-fat yogurt has nearly every nutrient you could possibly need to survive, via Healthline. These factors have kept yogurt a prominent aspect of our diets since its discovery.
Yogurt, at its heart, is fermented milk, but Mobile Cuisine says there is a lot more going on than that. Yogurt is created when the lactose in milk comes into contact with specific bacteria, which makes lactic acid and transforms the milk, giving it the consistency and sour note we are familiar with. This sounds like a complicated experience, something humans couldn't have discovered until recent history; however, yogurt was found thousands of years ago!
Old food is good food
According to Longley Farm, yogurt originated in modern-day Turkey, and the word yogurt is rooted in the Turkish language: "Yog," which translates to "condense." BC Dairy says that yogurt is over 7,000 years old and that the food was created much like butter was, in that it was done by accident; most likely, a bacteria snuck into milk that was left out in the heat, and boom! The first yogurt was born. Turkish records dating back to the 11th century discuss this information, spread by nomads through Asia and Europe.
Today, we make our yogurt in a safer and more controlled manner than letting wild bacteria work their magic. The product is enjoyed globally, but even more so in the Middle East, where it was discovered. Saudi Arabia currently produces the most yogurt in the world. Selina Wamucii says that the country produced 193,542 tonnes in 2019 alone and continues to produce massive amounts of yogurts annually.