above, never having been exposed to either rennet curdling or bacterial fermentation. But it is a wonderfully versatile foil to rich-flavored sauces and purées, and in the form of chhenna makes lovely patties and dumplings.
The idea for this not-exactly-cheese may have come from either the conquering Moghuls, who swept through India from north to south starting in about 1525, or the Portuguese, who were already carving out spheres of influence before the Moghuls arrived. There was a block to its acceptance: the widespread Hindu belief that “breaking,” or “cutting,” milk into “parts” (curd and whey) violated the holy substance’s integral nature. For some reason, the taboo was soon overcome by northern Hindus but frequently persists elsewhere. This is why chhenna and panir never became everyday foods in regions where Moghul or Portuguese influence was slight. Generally speaking, theyare less important the farther you get from the first Moghul strongholds in the north.
A more widely accepted northern contribution is unsouredmilk cooked down to different concentrations, usually with added sugar. Among the passionately loved specialties based on reduced milk are several forms of clotted cream ( malai ); various sweet, rich milk puddings thickened with rice; and a fudgelike concentrate known as khoa, which is the basis of an entire sweetmeat industry (especially in West Bengal State and neighboring Bangladesh). For non-Indians, the huge repertoire of reduced-milk confections and sweets tends to be at best an acquired taste. On their home territory, however, they are as defining a preference as whiskey in Scotland.
As in theDiverse Sources Belt, the practice of drinking milk fresh and unflavored has historically been infrequent, even in zones of widespread lactosetolerance. But today India has an aggressively progress-minded dairy industry (though it is somewhat constrained by attitudes toward cows), powerfully influenced by modern Western notions about milk drinking and eager to be a model for Western-style dairying enterprises in the less-developed Asian and African tropics. It is impossible not to wonder how the older milk-based traditions will be affected by the imposing of views originally shaped by radically different cultures and geographies.
THENORTHEASTERN COW BELT
It took many undocumented centuries for livestock husbandry, including milking, to spread from the Diverse Sources Belt not onlysouthward into India but northward beyond the Black Sea and the Caucasus into another east-west zone stretching from the westernRussian steppes through Ukraine and north of the Carpathian Mountains into Poland, parts of the future Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Baltic lands, and the fringes ofScandinavia (where there is also an admixture of other influences from the west). With this third great dairying zone we move a little closer to the preferences that most Americans understand and that are now being exported all around the world.
Cattle held an advantage over the other domestic animals introduced to northeastern Europe: They’d been there before. That is, they were returning to parts of the chilly latitudes where their aurochs forebears had been roaming when the last ice sheet decamped for the North Pole. (Aurochsen were still at large inNeolithic times; they became more elusive as human populations took over, but they didn’t absolutely disappear until one last female died in Poland in 1627.) Long, cold winters and brief, relatively cool summers with good amounts of rainfall to keep pastures green were exactly what cattle needed to thrive and produce milk. Wherever they were brought in these parts, they became the dominantmilch animals.
The number-one status of cows rested not only on their environmental suitability but on a preference for theirmilk, clearly evident by modern times.Goats had their niche as “the poor man’s cow” where grass was too meager for a real one.Sheep were mostly relegated to wool or
The idea for this not-exactly-cheese may have come from either the conquering Moghuls, who swept through India from north to south starting in about 1525, or the Portuguese, who were already carving out spheres of influence before the Moghuls arrived. There was a block to its acceptance: the widespread Hindu belief that “breaking,” or “cutting,” milk into “parts” (curd and whey) violated the holy substance’s integral nature. For some reason, the taboo was soon overcome by northern Hindus but frequently persists elsewhere. This is why chhenna and panir never became everyday foods in regions where Moghul or Portuguese influence was slight. Generally speaking, theyare less important the farther you get from the first Moghul strongholds in the north.
A more widely accepted northern contribution is unsouredmilk cooked down to different concentrations, usually with added sugar. Among the passionately loved specialties based on reduced milk are several forms of clotted cream ( malai ); various sweet, rich milk puddings thickened with rice; and a fudgelike concentrate known as khoa, which is the basis of an entire sweetmeat industry (especially in West Bengal State and neighboring Bangladesh). For non-Indians, the huge repertoire of reduced-milk confections and sweets tends to be at best an acquired taste. On their home territory, however, they are as defining a preference as whiskey in Scotland.
As in theDiverse Sources Belt, the practice of drinking milk fresh and unflavored has historically been infrequent, even in zones of widespread lactosetolerance. But today India has an aggressively progress-minded dairy industry (though it is somewhat constrained by attitudes toward cows), powerfully influenced by modern Western notions about milk drinking and eager to be a model for Western-style dairying enterprises in the less-developed Asian and African tropics. It is impossible not to wonder how the older milk-based traditions will be affected by the imposing of views originally shaped by radically different cultures and geographies.
THENORTHEASTERN COW BELT
It took many undocumented centuries for livestock husbandry, including milking, to spread from the Diverse Sources Belt not onlysouthward into India but northward beyond the Black Sea and the Caucasus into another east-west zone stretching from the westernRussian steppes through Ukraine and north of the Carpathian Mountains into Poland, parts of the future Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Baltic lands, and the fringes ofScandinavia (where there is also an admixture of other influences from the west). With this third great dairying zone we move a little closer to the preferences that most Americans understand and that are now being exported all around the world.
Cattle held an advantage over the other domestic animals introduced to northeastern Europe: They’d been there before. That is, they were returning to parts of the chilly latitudes where their aurochs forebears had been roaming when the last ice sheet decamped for the North Pole. (Aurochsen were still at large inNeolithic times; they became more elusive as human populations took over, but they didn’t absolutely disappear until one last female died in Poland in 1627.) Long, cold winters and brief, relatively cool summers with good amounts of rainfall to keep pastures green were exactly what cattle needed to thrive and produce milk. Wherever they were brought in these parts, they became the dominantmilch animals.
The number-one status of cows rested not only on their environmental suitability but on a preference for theirmilk, clearly evident by modern times.Goats had their niche as “the poor man’s cow” where grass was too meager for a real one.Sheep were mostly relegated to wool or
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