14 BULLETIN 319, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



(4) Repeat the process, using a teaspoonful of the freshly curdled 

 milk to inoculate the heated and cooled milk. 



Buttermakers in the Northwest make a very refreshing and nu- 

 tritious drink by adding sugar and lemons to buttermilk. As the 

 casein is already precipitated, the acid juice of the lemon has no 

 effect. Slightly more sugar and lemon juice are necessary than in 

 making ordinary lemonade, and the mixture should be well iced. 



KEFIR. 



Fermented milks have evidently been extensively used for many 

 centuries by the people of southern Russia, Turkey, the Balkan coun- 

 tries, and their neighbors. The natives have no records and few 

 traditions of the origin of the milks they use, and it is probable that 

 their preparation and use developed gradually by accident and cumu- 

 lative experience. One of the first of the fermented milks known to 

 Europeans was the kefir, made from the milk of sheep, goats, or 

 cows in the Caucasus Mountains and neighboring regions. Kefir 

 differs from most of the fermented milks of the Mediterranean coun- 

 tries in that it is made from a dried preparation and contains con- 

 siderable quantities of alcohol and gas. Kefir is made by many tribes 

 under varying names, as " hippe," " kepi," " khapon," " kephir," 

 " kiaphir," and " kaphir," all of which are said to come from a com- 

 mon root signifying a pleasant or agreeable taste. 



For a large part of their food the mountaineers of the Caucasus 

 depend on kefir, which they prepare in leather bottles made from the 

 skins of goats. In the summer the skins are hung outdoors, either 

 in the sun or in the shade, according to the weather, but in winter 

 they are kept in the house. The bags are usually hung near a 

 doorway, where they may be frequently shaken or kicked by each 

 passer-by. Fresh milk is added as the kefir is taken out, and the 

 fermentation continues. Made and propagated in this way, foreign 

 bacteria become mingled with the essential bacteria of the grains, 

 and abnormal and frequently disagreeable flavors result. When the 

 milk is drawn off, in order to prevent the escape of gas, a string is 

 first tied around the neck of the leather bottle, so that the small part 

 wanted for use is held between the stricture and the opening. In 

 the villages and the low country kefir is made in open earthen or 

 wooden vessels, and most of the gas escapes. 



Small, yellowish, convoluted masses are observed in kefir, which 

 are called seeds or " grains." These grains consist of a central fila- 

 ment of two parts, of which the outer spreads out, forming the con- 

 voluted polyp-like exterior. These parts are built up one upon an- 

 other, giving the large grains a coral-like appearance. The central 

 part is made up of a mass of bacterial threads. In the outer layer 



