We used to make madzoon (մածուն) every week, and whenever we did, we always set aside 2 or 3 tablespoons (the magart or starter) for the next batch. If we forgot, we would go foraging for magart from our Armenian friends or neighbors. In fact, in those days, women were known by how good their magart was! It's been years since I've known anybody from whom I could borrow some magart, and so I have not made madzoon, probably since my husband's mother Azniv passed away.
Visiting California was an eye-opener. I learned many things, but one of the most important was that I could make Madzoon (you probably know it by the name yogurt) from store-bought low fat yogurt. My mother, I remember, had tried to do that, and the results had been disappointingly watery. But my friend (is it the California milk, or the California weather?) served me yogurt that she had made from store bought low-fat yogurt and low-fat milk. Well, if she could do that, I figured, I could at least use store-bought whole milk yogurt for the magart and try to make my own home-made whole milk madzoon. And so this morning, after driving Karoun to the airport, I decided to give it a try. Granted, I am in New England where the weather is not yet warm, and I no longer have my grandfather's handmade thick wooden bowl covers with block handles to cover the madzoon while it is setting, nor do I have the heavy crockery in which my mother placed the magart & milk to set, but I do have an orange Pyrex bowl and an orange leCreuset pot to bring the milk to a simmer, and that will have to do. It's in the oven now setting (as our weather is in the fifties and we live in a drafty Victorian house built in 1870!) Let's see how it goes!
Okay, it's been 8 hours. I know my mother used to wrap the bowl of setting madzoon in many layers of towels to keep it cozy and hold the warmth so that the magart would infiltrate all of the milk and make good firm madzoon. Instead, I preheated the oven for about 3 minutes, being sure to turn it off before I placed the warm bowl of soon-to-be madzoon (covered with an orange leCreuset lid) into the oven. I left the bowl there for 8 hours (desperately wanting to check it throughout the day, but I resisted, thank goodness!) And just now I looked
(and as you can see from this photo, it was late in the day), and the madzoon was set! Solid! So I placed it in the refrigerator (if you break into it the same day, it will go watery) to firm up and set overnight, and tomorrow we shall try this madzoon that I haven't made for many a year!
Whoops -- I forgot to explain how to make it! Shall I? Okay -- read my post tomorrow, then, for the details.
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