Clay-Pot Dessert · Fermented Sweet Yogurt
Mishti Doi
Photo: Marajozkee / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0
Before antibiotics existed, well-known Bengali physicians — including Dr. B. C. Roy — reportedly prescribed mishti doi to typhoid patients to help them recover their B-vitamins, decades before anyone called it a health food.
Milk is boiled down and sweetened with jaggery or sugar, then set to ferment overnight in a small earthenware pot whose porous clay walls slowly wick away moisture, thickening the yogurt into a dense, caramel-toned set custard. Sweet shops across Kolkata sell it by the pot, straight off the fermenting rack.
Why it's made this way: The clay pot isn't packaging but part of the recipe — its slow evaporation is what gives Bengal's set yogurt its characteristic thickness and color, a technique refined in sweet-making towns like Nabadwip and kept as a point of regional pride.
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Part of World of Street Food — 3248 dishes from 118 countries.
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