Goe-Pa and Nomad Yogurt Making
www.bramcookware.com
Lots of feedback on the entry on making your
own yogurt (‘Anusha’ – see post below). The best conversation came when a Buddhist friend of mine in Old Saybrook called to urge me to return the pricey
yogurt maker I’d bought and instead invest in a simple, large, lead-free clay bean
pot.
Making yogurt in the Tibetan style requires
nothing more than that. The fancy job I bought ferments for 8-12 hours, changes
gear, then cools the yogurt, and it’s great. I’ve used it 3 times. It makes a
woefully small amount (only 4 cups), but the yogurt always turned out just
right.
Here’s how my friend makes her perfect, fresh
yogurt. She heats milk to boiling. Takes it off the fire, and cools it to just
above body temperature (when you stick your clean finger in it, it will feel
warm, but not hot). Adds a tablespoon or so of fresh yogurt from her last
batch, stirs it up, and places it in a large, unglazed clay pot. Wraps it in
kitchen towels, and leaves it on the stove overnight. In the morning, she has
fresh yogurt.
She uses no thermometer, no freeze-dried
culture, no electric anything. Perfect yogurt every time.
This is the original, nomad way of yogurt
and kefir making.
I confess, I was drawn into and became
attached to this technological age too easily, and spent our scant money on
something I could have done without. I have to think on that for a while, and
not do it again.
The Tibetan word for ‘want’ - goe-pa – also refers to attachments, and the negative
effect attachments have on us. Buddhists pray to be freed from attachments,
which includes anything in the world that one can become attached to: addictive
mental habits, food, drink, smoking, shopping, gambling, drama, emotion, flesh.
Things.
When I decided to go back to
yogurt and kefir making, I intended to simplify, ground, nourish,
and purify myself. I missed the mark big time.
So the expensive electric yogurt maker is on
its way back to the seller (I feel kind of weird about that). And next payday,
which is only 2 days away, I’ll invest many fewer dollars in this:
It’s beautiful, and there are no plugs,
timers, blinking lights, humming motors, beeping, plastic, or wires. It simply
and quietly does its work.
I like this. I like it a lot.
Keep it simple, keep it sane.
Namaste.
xoxoxo
xoxoxo
