It is an uncompromising exercise in using all parts of what the environment and climate give us.
It pays homage to one of the most sacred ingredients we get from nature: milk.
This is our quiet political statement.
Whey is the liquid reserve left after one strains yogurt.
It is a glorious, nutritious, and hard-earned liquid form of yogurt.
I made it my mission to change this.
…
There is no market for whey in America, and whey, still being dairy, eventually goes bad.
So we had to dispose of what we couldnt consume.
But throwing out all that wheywhich we had always thought of as perfectly good foodfelt wrong.
And we were part of a much bigger food waste problem.
Currently, most yogurt manufacturers pay to have their whey carted away.
Some pay farmers to take it as animal feed.
Pigs, cows, and chickens love it, but theres only so much they can consume.
The bacteria already present in the water devour the lactose in the whey, which depletes the oxygen.
With no oxygen, all the fish die.
A high and unnecessary price to pay for thick, creamy yogurt.
The bacteria already present in the water devour the lactose in the whey, which depletes the oxygen.
With no oxygen, all the fish die.
A high and unnecessary price to pay for thick, creamy yogurt.
These two yin-yang products are equally nutritious.
These two yin-yang products are equally nutritious.
When we made yogurt at home, my family just drank the whey left over after straining.
We considered whey to be hydrating, light, and an aid in digestion.
We thought thats how we would present it to consumers: Drink whey!
We put our whey in one-liter bottles and slapped on a label that said Whey!
We went to stores that carried The White Moustache and asked the buyers to drink it.
These bottles hit the shelves.
We priced them fairly as a byproduct.
And then we waited.
No one knew what to do with the whey or which section of the store to put it in.
Was it a juice?
They dazzled us with their creative applications.
Thats how it feels to cook with yogurt whey.
Excerpted from Yogurt & Whey: Recipes of an Iranian Immigrant Life by Homa Dashtaki.
Copyright 2023 by Homa Dashtaki.
Used with permission of the publisher, W. W. Norton & Company, Inc. All rights reserved.
…
Got it, you’ve been added to our email list.
