Yogurt

Yogurt is just milk that met the right bacteria, and they did patient, quiet work on it for hours. No rennet, no shortcuts.

Choose it with your senses. Good yogurt looks glossy, smooth, never grainy. Dip a spoon in — it should feel thick and velvety, almost like cutting into something solid, and not slide off in a thin stream. Smell it too: clean, faintly sour, never sharp. Taste it — it should be clean and tangy, nothing flat, nothing off.

Some people say thick yogurt means fatty yogurt. No! I've held lean yogurt that stood proud on a spoon, and I've watched rich, full-fat tubs slump like soup. What matters is what your hands and eyes tell you right there in the shop, not the number on the label.

This misconception leads to a real kitchen mistake: cooks judge yogurt by how thick it looks and stir it straight into a hot pan, expecting it to behave like cream. Then it breaks — grainy, watery, sad. Warm it gently first, off the heat or at the very end, stirring the whole time, and keep your eyes on the pan, not the spoon. The moment you see grains forming or liquid weeping out at the edges, pull it off the heat. Trust what's happening in front of you, not what the yogurt looked like a minute ago.