whatsoever to the original, only the name is the same.

In both kefir and koumiss, two cultures ferment simultaneously, a lactic acid-producing

bacteria and an alcohol-producing yeast that live in symbiotic relationship. The result is a sour,

tangy alcoholic beverage that Russians and some Eastern Europeans are very fond of. It fizzes

like beer and is mildly intoxicating. The alcohol content is fairly low, ranging from 1 to 2.5

percent, much lower than beer. The acid content is 0.7 to 1.8 percent, quite a bit more tart than

our yogurt. The difference between kefir and koumiss is what they begin with. They produce

kefir from cow, goat or sheep milk, and koumiss from mare’s milk (though originally, before

horses, the nomads used camel’s milk). Large herds of mares graze peacefully in Russia like

cows in Wisconsin, and farmers on these horse dairies get up as early as Wisconsin farmers do to

milk their herd of horses. Due to shortages of mare’s milk now, some Russian processors

switched to cow’s milk to make koumiss. Even if they use cow’s milk for both koumiss and

kefir, different live cultures produce the two, and they taste different. There’s nothing like a six-

pack of ice-cold koumiss on a hot summer day!

Natives in the Himalayas use another fermented milk drink similar to kefir called airan.

They make this from the milk of nak (the female companion of a yak). It is hard to find airan in

North America, but it is supposedly an unusual-flavored, somewhat fatty beverage that takes

acquired taste buds to love.

And of course, cheese

Cheese is one of the top favorite American foods and dieters find cheese the most

difficult item to trim back from their menus. In the late 1990s, Americans eat an average of 28

pounds (12.7 kg) of cheese per person annually, excluding cottage cheese, or 1¼ ounces (35 g)

every day, twice the amount they ate in 1972. That sounds like a lot, but a fair amount of this is

as mozzarella cheese on our favorite pizzas. Because of the number of pizzas we gobble up,

mozzarella is the second favorite cheese after cheddar.

All cheeses, except for unripened kinds, are fermented milk products. Unripened cheese

(also called green cheese) has little flavor because it is the fermentation that produces the flavor

compounds. Cottage cheese and ricotta, two familiar examples of unripened cheeses, are both

mild and pretty bland by themselves.

The fermentation of cheese is not the same process as yogurt, buttermilk and sour cream

fermentation, although it also starts out with lactic acid-producing bacteria. Lactic acid

fermentation is only the first step, and the original bacteria don’t define the final product’s flavor

or texture. They only coagulate the milk, a minor role. Cow’s milk is the usual starting material

for cheese, because it is the most widely available and cheapest. But where plentiful, they use

goat, sheep, mare, nak and buffalo milk.

Cheese production is truly ancient craft, dating back 8000 or 9000 years. It most likely

developed in several parts of the world at the same time, but it was the Romans who raised

cheese making to an art, and introduced it into countries they conquered. Today there are at least

450 recognized varieties of cheese. Some of these are essentially the same with different names

that designate towns they are made in, or they are given different names for different shapes.

How they make cheese

The basic chemistry of cheese making is extremely complex. Even cheese scientists don’t

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