Milk

Milk has special status among Hindus and is treated with respect in most places in the Subcontinent, where it is an important food, especially in northern India, Pakistan, and Nepal. In Ayurveda it is viewed as cooling, sweet, and heavy; it should always be consumed warm. Milk products include yogurt, buttermilk, and the rich cream skimmed off milk that has been boiled and cooled. Because it doesn’t keep well without refrigeration, many techniques have evolved to preserve milk or make it less likely to spoil. One is, of course, to make cheese with it (see chhana and paneer), another to ferment it into yogurt (see yogurt). Ghee (see ghee), or clarified butter, is a way of preserving milk fats by eliminating the milk solids that can go rancid. If milk is cooked down, so that the milk sugars are very concentrated, it becomes thick with a concentrated sweetness that prevents spoilage (high concentrations of sugar discourage the growth of bacteria). Thick sweet milk products are used to make sweets of all kinds in the Subcontinent.