Ayran is one of the sour-milk drinks with a long history. It refers to Asian cuisine, and its name in translation from the Karachay-Balkarian language means “chosen”, “preferred”. Appreciate it for the ability to quench thirst and saturate well, for its unique taste and beneficial properties. The product helps to cleanse the intestines from putrefactive bacteria, strengthen the immune system, restore the water-salt balance. You can find it on the shelves of many stores, as it has almost as many admirers among our compatriots as more than the usual yogurt and kefir. If you cook Ayran at home, it will be even more useful and tasty than the purchase. You just need to know the manufacturing technology of this traditional oriental sour-milk drink.
Cooking Features
To prepare ayran, you do not need to have sophisticated household appliances and have great culinary skills. For 15 centuries, it was safely prepared by the inhabitants of Central Asia, who did not have a chef education, with their own hands, even in marching conditions. Knowledge of several principles of making this sour-milk drink will allow each housewife to make it in his kitchen.
- Traditionally, ayran is made from milk with the addition of a special starter. Milk can be any - goat, mare, cow. For our compatriots, the last option will be the most familiar. Special starter for ayran can be purchased at some supermarkets and pharmacies, it is even easier to order it online. It remains only to add it to the milk in the amount indicated on the package and wait 6-12 hours. However, there are other ways to ferment milk. Our compatriots successfully use for this yogurt, kefir or sour cream.
- Milk purchased from a store may not be suitable for making ayran. The same applies to yogurt, sour cream. If the manufacturer has made a product of powder and added antibiotics to it to prevent premature souring, you will hardly be able to ferment milk with its help. Preference is better to give products of farm production. When shopping in a store, pay attention to products marked “bio”.
- A feature of ayran is a slightly salty taste. You can add it to a drink with brine, pickled cucumbers or regular table salt. Too much salt product is not worth it - it will negatively affect its taste and reduce the benefits.
- Boiled water is often used to impart a more liquid consistency to airan. It can be replaced with curd whey or mineral water. The use of mineral water with a high content of sodium salts makes it possible not to salt the fermented milk drink.
- Ayran will be even tastier if you chop dill or mint into it, add salted or fresh cucumbers, garlic, ground on a grater or in a blender.
Ayran is leavened at home for 6-12 hours. It is advisable to use it freshly prepared, since the shelf life of home-made fermented milk drinks is small.
Ayran on milk and sour cream
Composition:
- milk - 1 l;
- sour cream - 0, 25 l;
- boiled water, salt - to taste.
Method of preparation:
- Put the milk on the fire, bring to a boil, reduce the intensity of the flame. While stirring occasionally with a spoon, boil it for at least 5 minutes. Experts advise to boil the milk until its volume decreases by at least 20 percent.
- Cover the pan with the milk lid, leave to cool. For further action, the milk must cool down to at least 40 degrees, otherwise the live bacteria contained in the leaven, in the role of which sour cream acts, may die.
- Add sour cream to warm milk, mix thoroughly.
- Pour the mixture into a glass jar, cover it with a lid and leave at room temperature for 6 hours.
- Dilute the resulting fermented milk product with sour cream, adding a little salt. Stir with a spoon or mixer, put in a refrigerator for half an hour. After this home ayran is ready to eat.
Milk can be fermented with kefir or other fermented milk product. In this case, you need to take it in 1, 5-2 times more than sour cream.
Ayran from yogurt and mineral water
Composition:
- unsweetened yogurt - 0, 5 l;
- mineral water (preferably salty, carbonated) - 0, 2 l;
- fresh dill (optional) - to taste.
Method of preparation:
- Pour the yoghurt and mineral water into the whisking container. Beat with a mixer until a homogeneous consistency.
- Add the finely chopped dill, whisk again.
The drink prepared according to this recipe can only be called airan conditionally, since the technology of its preparation does not correspond to the traditional one, but it is almost indistinguishable to taste from a real ayran and is also very useful.
Ayran on milk, ryazhenka and bread
Composition:
- milk - 1, 5 l;
- Ryazhenka - 100 ml;
- rye bread - 100 g.
Method of preparation:
- Boil the milk for 5 minutes, then pour it into the pot and stew in the oven for half an hour. Cool to room temperature.
- Slice dried rye bread in small slices.
- Mix milk with ryazhenka, put bread. Cover the container with the workpiece lid, leave for 6 hours. Strain. Dilute to taste with boiled water and salt.
It remains to cool the drink in the refrigerator and serve it to the table.
Ayran on kefir and whey
Composition:
- kefir - 0, 5 l;
- curd whey - 0, 5 l;
- pickles - 0, 2 kg;
- dill - to taste.
Method of preparation:
- Peel the cucumbers, chop them finely, put them in the blender bowl.
- Add dill and kefir. Whisk.
- Dilute with cold serum.
It is not necessary to salt a fermented milk drink prepared according to this recipe.
Ayran is a useful fermented milk drink with a unique salty taste. You can cook it at home using a special leaven or sour cream, kefir. The basis is milk. Ennoble the drink by adding cucumbers and greens.
