Surprisingly creamy': as a fermentista, how could I resist making ant yoghurt?

"Whether it is kombucha, kefir, sauerkraut, kimchi, or sourdough, today's foodies are not short of fermented treats to tantalise their tastebuds. But for the adventurous, the menu may be about to get wilder. How about a spoonful of ant yoghurt? Making it does not involve milking any ants. Instead, the unfortunate insects are dropped into a jar of warm milk, which is tucked into an ant mound and left to ferment overnight."

"The fermenting tradition originating from Turkey and Bulgaria is now being resurrected in the name of science. Dr Veronica Sinotte and her colleagues at the University of Copenhagen became interested in the practice after being approached by research and development chefs at the city's two-Michelin-starred restaurant the Alchemist in the hope of learning more about how this fermentation process worked."

"But was it the ants' formic acid that turned the milk into yoghurt, or something else? To investigate, the researchers visited a village in southern Bulgaria, where a co-author of the research, Sevgi Sirakova, had family ties. Though the villagers no longer made ant yoghurt themselves, some remembered older generations' methods and helped reconstruct a makeshift recipe: milk a cow, warm the milk until it bites your finger, add four red wood ants, cover with cheesecloth and bury the pot in an ant mound overnight."

Ant yoghurt is a traditional fermented milk made by placing ants into warm milk and burying the jar in an ant mound overnight to ferment. The practice originates from Turkey and Bulgaria and has attracted scientific and culinary interest in Copenhagen's gastronomy scene. Chefs explored the ants' acidity as a potential acidifying agent for fermentation. Scientists investigated whether ants' formic acid or microbes from ant mounds drive the fermentation. A team visited a village in southern Bulgaria to reconstruct a recipe: milk a cow, warm the milk until it bites the finger, add four red wood ants, cover with cheesecloth and bury the pot in an ant mound overnight. The mound supplies warmth and possibly additional microbes.

Read at www.theguardian.com