Any milk products which you buy in the Indian subcontinent , including buttermilk or yogurt is always placed in these clay cups. They enhance the taste and are eco-friendly, because one does not bother about plastic packaging.
This is one item, which is definitely not ignored by people living in the North, South and Western parts of the Indian subcontinent. It is named with local names, but it is the same – spiced and salty buttermilk.
It is drunk as often as possible with lunch as their digestive accompaniment, instead of water. In such cases, it is sprinkled with a mixture of powdered roasted cumin seeds and roasted curry leaves, rock salt, pepper, cayenne pepper, and just this little pinch of asafoetida.
One takes a healthy swallow, and is grateful for the refreshing spicy feeling. This is an acquired taste, because it is going to be slightly sour in taste. That is because of the fermented bacteria, which are sold to you in supermarkets under the name of probiotic drinks.
All those are nothing but homemade buttermilk made up of Stale yogurt, packaged expensively and marketed winningly with scientific terms like probiotic bacteria, amazingly good for your health and all those impressive statements made by the superstar endorsing them on TV.
This is what happened when it came to India for the first time. People went crazy, because it was something new, and had been “discovered” by an American company who hired one of India’s most popular superstars to endorse it.
So people bought, they drank and said, “hey, what a sell! We are buying our own buttermilk and yogurt under the name of probiotic bacteria. And it is not even salted and spiced. Whatta bore!”And went home, and asked their moms or wives to churn something really traditional in the shape of pukka buttermilk.
Those products went off the shelf within the month. No other company has turned up with probiotic bacteria products, because they know that they are not going to sell in the land, where butter, buttermilk and yogurt is still churned by hand. Or in washing machines.[1]
The ancient sages drank buttermilk in large quantities throughout the day, because the women folk in the kitchen were busy churning fresh milk in the Hermitage, throughout the day and making butter.
They also made clarified butter, known as Ghee.
In Ayurveda, Ghee is considered to be the most powerful healing agent when taken internally, or when applied externally. That is because the concentrated power of the butter makes it a very powerful curing agent. Even today, in many parts of Asia, clarified butter is used as a base for healing ointments, especially for skin diseases, cuts, burns, wounds, and other skin related problems.