Doogh

Doogh is a popular, yogurt-based drink in many parts of the Middle East. It is made at home simply by beating plain (ideally over 2% fat) yogurt until soft and then diluting it with flat or carbonated water.

We Iranians often add a pinch of salt, black pepper and powdered dried mint. Some say doogh has a rejuvenating effect especially when taken with ice – a popular summer hit, while others believe drinking too much doogh makes you drowsy – pleasantly so, I would add! In any case, doogh has great nutritious values and it best goes with rice and meat kebab- be it barg or koobideh type.

In the old days in Shiraz, all spring long, nomadic women walked with their donkeys carrying goatskins of doogh and passed by houses chanting their products. That doogh was the “original” one and made in traditional way: In the process of making butter from yogurt, the yogurt was beaten in goatskins until it was divided into a solid butter and liquid residuals, or doogh that was naturally carbonated through fermentation. It tasted like nothing you could compare it with!