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Food History

The Century-Old Acid Method That Preserves Dairy Products By Willow Roberts Oct. 18, 2025 6:39 pm EST

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Dairy products can be really nasty when they spoil, and even with modern fridges and preservatives, many of us are quick to throw out a tub of yogurt if it seems even slightly dodgy. Considering all this, it's hard to imagine the fridge-less folk of the 1800s bothering with such spoilable products, but they did. What's even more interesting is that they used the exact same technique we still use today: lactic acid fermentation. For us, fermentation is about making new food products like creamy yogurts and spicy kimchi. Back then, it was mostly about preservation. When you had more milk than you could drink within a few days,

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