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Fermentation Atlas

Fermented milk from India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Bhutan, Myanmar

Dahi (curd)दही

Dahi is South Asia's set curd. Milk is boiled, cooled to body temperature, seeded with 0.5–1 % of yesterday's dahi and left overnight, about 8–12 hours, until it sets firm. Earthen pots soak up whey and give a thicker curd. Made in 4 steps over 14 h – 22 h. The longest step, set undisturbed overnight, takes 8–15 h (FOODSAFE BC with the BC Ministry of Health 2022) and runs at 37–45 °C (Amin M.R 2012). Lactococcus lactis and Streptococcus thermophilus do most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main step8–15 hSet[bc-dahi][amin2012][fao-tmp]Set undisturbed overnight
Temperature37–45 °CSet[amin2012][bc-dahi]Set undisturbed overnight

Recipe

Amounts from a sourceHousehold practice with no fixed batch size; FAO and Indian dairy texts give the starter as 0.5–1 % of the milk. The BC food-service recipe uses 10 L pasteurised milk, 250 g skim milk powder and a commercial dahi culture.
Cow or buffalo milk, or a mix · Buffalo milk gives a creamy-white dahi; cow milk a yellowish one[fao-tmp]
0.5–1 % of the milk (about 5–10 g per litre)Yesterday's dahi or buttermilk, as starter[fao-tmp][inflibnet]
OptionalSugar, for sweet dahi · Added to the milk before boiling[fao-tmp]
Starterbackslop

Total time across the recorded steps: 14 h – 22 h

Start
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85–100 °C

What changes: Boiling kills the milk's own bacteria; a longer boil thickens it

Step 1 of 4
Boil the milk
Time
5–30 min
Reported
Temperature
85–100 °C
Reported
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Lactic acid bacteria
Lactococcus lactis
S. thermophilus
L. delbrueckii
Leuconostoc reported

Output: hot milk.

Flavour
Not documented
Texture
concentrating the milk in an open pan gives a custard-like dahi that does not weep whey
Colour
Not documented

Microbes at work in this step

heat kills the milk's own bacteria

Method

Measured measured in a studySet fixed by a specification or tested recipeReported one source reports itTypical a general value, not sourced for this fermentUnconfirmed not yet checked against a source

What makes this one different

Dahi is set warm like yoghurt but with a mixed starter carried from yesterday's pot, often including mesophilic lactococci as well as the yoghurt pair. It sets longer, overnight rather than 3–4 hours, and is often made in unglazed clay.

Related ferments

Variants

  • Industrial cup dahiStandardised milk is homogenised, held at 85–90 °C for 15–30 min, cooled to 37 °C, seeded with 1–1.5 % culture, set in cups and cooled below 5 °C once it reaches pH 4.4–4.5.
  • Nepali semi-continuous dahi (sho)Often made with no starter, from flora on the vessel. Boiled milk is topped up daily in a wooden vessel until it is full.
  • Myanmar dein chin started with limeWhen there is no starter, fresh lime juice is added to the milk and it takes about 20 hours to set.
  • Northeast Indian spontaneous doiRaw cow milk soured in earthen pots with no backslop. Lactobacillus and Lactococcus are shared with West African spontaneous milks, but Acetobacter, Gluconobacter and Leuconostoc dominate the Indian samples.

Safety

India's food standards (FSSR 2011) allow at most 10 coliforms and 100 S. aureus per gram, and require E. coli and Listeria absent in 1 g and Salmonella absent in 25 g. BC food-safety guidance uses pasteurised milk and a commercial culture, sets pH 4.6 or lower as the critical limit, and cools the dahi to 4 °C within 6 hours.

Hazards the sources name: Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli and Bacillus cereus in a few of 153 Lahore samples; Coliforms and yeasts in homemade dahi from 200 Kerala households; Clostridium spp. in spontaneous Northeast Indian doi made from raw milk.

History and sources

Every number is labelled with how it is known. How this atlas is made

FAO notes that dahi is named in the Vedas and other ancient Hindu texts. It is the most important fermented milk of the Indian subcontinent.

  1. [fao-tmp] FAO 1990, The technology of traditional milk products in developing countries, FAO Animal Production and Health Paper 85, section II Acidified milks (Dahi)archive
  2. [inflibnet] e-PG Pathshala (INFLIBNET), Technology of Milk and Milk Products, module 14 Fermented traditional Indian dairy products, dahi, lassi and shrikhandbook
  3. [niftem] NIFTEM (Ministry of Food Processing Industries, PMFME scheme), Dahi (curd) processing, including the FSSR 2011 and BIS standards for dahigov
  4. [bc-dahi] FOODSAFE BC with the BC Ministry of Health, BCCDC and Fraser Health, Guidelines for the Production of Dairy Products in Food Establishments, Dahi sample documentation, September 2022gov
  5. [amin2012] Amin M.R., Islam M.N., Habib M.A., Islam F. 2012, Shelf-life of dahi (yogurt) with or without potato mash, Bangladesh Veterinarian 29(1):22–30paper
  6. [naeem1986] Naeem K., Rizvi A.R. 1986, Studies on the physical and bacterial quality of dahi with special reference to public health, Journal of the Pakistan Medical Association 36:87–89paper
  7. [chandran2024] Chandran A., Beena A.K. 2024, Impact of climate and traditional practice on quality of homemade dahi, Journal of Dairy Research 91(3):339–342paper
  8. [sessou2023] Sessou P. et al. 2023, Comparative analyses of the bacterial communities present in the spontaneously fermented milk products of Northeast India and West Africa, Frontiers in Microbiology 14:1166518paper