From the cow
67 products of the world's cattle, each drawn as a ring of its inputs and made step by step: milk, boil, churn, ferment, serve.
Butter and ghee
Ghee, makkhan, smen, cultured butter and the butters of the world: cream churned and clarified.
🇮🇳 🇵🇰 🇳🇵 Butter and gheeGheeButter simmered until the water cooks away and the milk solids brown, leaving a clear golden fat that keeps for months.🇮🇳 🇵🇰 Butter and gheeMakkhan (white butter)Soft unsalted butter churned from curd by hand, eaten fresh on flatbreads and loved in the stories of the young Krishna.
Milk and cream
Clotted cream, kaymak, malai and the fresh milk of a breed known for it.
Curd and fermented milk
Dahi, lassi, kefir, skyr, amasi and the soured milks of herding peoples.
🇮🇳 🇵🇰 🇳🇵 Curd and fermented milkDahi (curd)Milk set overnight with a spoon of yesterday's curd: the everyday soured milk of South Asian homes.🇮🇳 🇧🇩 Curd and fermented milkMishti doiBengal's sweet curd: reduced milk, caramelised sugar or jaggery, set firm in unglazed clay pots.🇳🇵 🇧🇹 🇮🇳 Curd and fermented milkChhurpiCurd from churned yak, dzomo or cow buttermilk, eaten soft or pressed and dried into one of the hardest foods of the Himalaya.
Milk sweets
Khoa, rabri, kulfi, dulce de leche, doce de leite and the sweets cooked down from milk.
🇮🇳 🇵🇰 🇳🇵 Milk sweetsKhoaMilk cooked down in an iron pan to a crumbly or soft paste: the base of barfi, peda and gulab jamun.🇮🇳 Milk sweetsRabriMilk simmered slowly while its skins are lifted to the side, then sweetened into a thick dessert of creamy layers.🇮🇳 Milk sweetsBasundiMilk reduced to a sweet, pourable cream with cardamom and nuts, a festival dessert of Maharashtra, Gujarat and Karnataka.🇮🇳 🇵🇰 🇧🇩 Milk sweetsKulfiReduced, sweetened milk frozen in conical moulds: a dense ice that melts slowly and is cut into thick slices.🇮🇳 Milk sweetsMysore pakGram flour cooked in a great deal of ghee and sugar syrup until it sets into porous, melting squares.🇮🇳 🇧🇩 Milk sweetsRasgullaSoft balls of fresh chhena cheese cooked in light sugar syrup: the spongy white sweet of Odisha and Bengal.🇮🇳 Milk sweetsMathura pedaKhoa roasted to a brown, grainy fudge with sugar and cardamom, the sweet of Krishna's birthplace.
Milk drinks
Butter tea, masala chai, ayran and the milk drinks of the world.
🇮🇳 🇵🇰 Milk drinksLassiCurd churned with water and sugar or salt into a thick, frothy drink, served in tall glasses or clay cups across the Punjab.🇮🇳 Milk drinksChaas (spiced buttermilk)Thin buttermilk seasoned with salt, cumin, ginger and herbs, drunk with lunch across western and southern India.🇮🇳 🇵🇰 🇳🇵 Milk drinksMasala chaiBlack tea boiled with milk, sugar and spices, poured from a pan into small glasses or clay cups at every street corner.
Festival dishes
Pongal, kheer and the dishes cooked from milk and ghee for the cattle festivals.
🇮🇳 🇵🇰 🇳🇵 Festival dishesKheer and payasamRice slowly cooked in sweetened milk with cardamom: the pudding of offerings, birthdays and festival meals.🇮🇳 🇱🇰 Festival dishesSakkarai pongalRice and lentils boiled over in a new pot with milk, jaggery and ghee at the Tamil harvest festival of Pongal.🇮🇳 🇳🇵 Festival dishesPanchamritaThe five nectars, milk, curd, ghee, honey and sugar, poured over the image of a deity and shared as blessed food.🇵🇰 🇮🇳 🇧🇩 Festival dishesSheer khurmaFine vermicelli cooked in milk with dates, nuts and ghee: the morning dish of Eid al-Fitr.
Dung, hide and horn
Dung fuel and plaster, horn craft, hide and leather: the uses of a cow beyond food.
🇮🇳 🇵🇰 🇳🇵 Dung, hide and hornDung cakes (upla and gobar fuel)Cattle dung mixed with straw, patted into rounds by hand and sun-dried as fuel for the village hearth.🇮🇳 🇳🇵 🇧🇩 Dung, hide and hornCow-dung floor plaster (lipai)Fresh dung mixed with clay and water and spread over mud floors and courtyards for a smooth, renewed surface.🇮🇳 Dung, hide and hornKolhapuri chappalFlat, open leather sandals cut, stitched and braided by hand in southern Maharashtra and northern Karnataka.