Continuing on...
The yogurt was made the way we always make it. Heated 2 gallons of whole milk to 115*F and added about a cup of previously made yogurt. Mixed it all then poured it into 3 smaller containers, covered and wrapped all with a blanket. This is what they looked like the next day.
Kishk has a sharp, pungent, blue-cheesy, funky, not much unlike "Shankleesh" aroma and flavor, that you're not going to get by simply mixing yogurt and bulgar.
To get that profile, the recipe calls for leaving the yogurt at room temperature for a few days to develop a tangier (more sour) flavor. We took a sample and placed it in the fridge. The sample would later be used to compare with the stuff left at room temperature to gauge sourness.
Sure enough by the fifth day the yogurt was much tangier than the refrigerated sample. But we still didn't know how sour it was supposed to get. After all it is fall and cool here Mid Michigan. Sure our kitchen is at 72*F but it feels cold, and our folks used to and still make this stuff in August and September where daytime temps. easily reach 90*F.
Luckily, we didn't have to wonder much longer. On the sixth day one of the containers developed a tiny speck of what looked like mold on the surface of the yogurt:)
Mold removed, it was time to do some combining. For the 2 gallons of yogurt we used 1 kilo of Bulgar 1/2 coarse and 1/2 fine. No reason, that's what we had. The grains were spread on to a sheet pan and place in a 200*F oven a few minutes to rid them of any moisture.
While warm, the grains were combined with
half the yogurt and mixed well.
The container was covered with a blanket and left out.
The rest of the yogurt was strained in a strainer lined with paper towel as you would make Labneh. But we didn't strain it too long. It needed to be a little soft, because over the next two days it would have to be incorporated into the yogurt bulgar mixture.
The next day:
The Labneh (strained yogurt) was ready
And this is what our mixture looked like. It had grown in volume and became stiff, the result of grains absorbing liquid. It was warm, the sign of fermentation.
Now it was time to incorporate
half the Labneh into the mixture. That's done by grabbing a large handful of mixture in one hand, adding a smaller handful of Labneh with the other hand, mixing them together and placing that in a clean bowl until all was incorporated. A tedious job my wife chose to do on the floor to save her arms. During this procedure we added 4 tsp of table salt to taste. It needed more but I was afraid too much salt at this point would slow down or stop the fermentation.
The bowl was covered with a blanket. The next day the rest of the Labneh was incorporated and 2 more tsp of salt were added.
To be continued...
