Boza Recipe
Boza is the most popular winter drink in Turkey. You should expect a winter drink to be hot, but it's not. It's cold but it's really healthy and is good for winter colds and breathing problems.
I tried my first boza a few years ago, but didn't like result because of the ingredients I used. There are a few ways (with different ingredients) to make boza and the one I chose was wrong for me.
This year I found the best ingredients; millet. In my first experiments, I had to adhere to written sources and added a few drops of sourdough starter and fresh yeast in different times and I ended up with an unbearable yeast odor.
I decided to take a break and think. What is it that makes boza, boza? To be fermented. What I need for this? Bacteria. Are sourdough starter and fresh yeast the only source of bacteria? No.
We do not use yeast to make sourdough starter, chickpea yeast, turnip juice, or pickles from scratch . I don't want to make bread, so I don't need yeast to ferment the millet. In this case, all I had to do was feed the millet with sugar and keep it in an appropriate temperature, so I did. And a few days later I had the exact smell, color, consistency and flavor I wanted. Next time, I added half cup of boza to my new boza. In this way boza was fermented in a shorter time and its flavor was also better. I have been producing boza regularly for about a month and it gets even more delicious every time.
It may sound like it contains so much sugar, and yes, technically it does. But this sugar is essentially the food of bacteria. As it waits, bacteria eat sugar and make you boza. Therefore, as a result of fermentation, boza is not as sugary as you would expect it to be. After straining it, I usually add two tablespoons of extra sugar. But after tasting you may decide not adding at all or add more.
Let me underline one last thing. Pay attention to the ingredients mentioned in the recipe, such as wooden spoon and plastic strainer. Metal is a material that damages the fermentation process, be careful not to contact fermented food with metal containers.
Enjoy the recipe...
Boza Recipe with Video
Preparation
- Wash and drain the millet and take into a pot,
- Add the water and simmer until soft,
- Remove the pot from heat and pulse with an immersion blender until smooth, take it in a deep glass bowl or jar,
- Add 1 cup of sugar and mix,
- After it cools down, cover with plastic wrap and set aside in a cool place away from sun for three days, stirring every day with a wooden spoon once a day,
- At the end of the third day, filter with a fine plastic strainer (about 2-3 tablespoons of pulp will come out, you can eat the pulp) and take it into a bottle,
- Add and mix sugar according to your taste,
- Put it in the refrigerator and let it sit for two more days,
- You can serve it the next day or store it in the refrigerator for 3-4 days (the taste will sharpen as you wait).
Bon Appetit...
- mayte: Hello!! I was looking for this recipe , I saw the name BOZA and start looking what is it , your recipe is the one that makes more sense to me , I was expecting to drink like a hot beverage , so I have one question … you save a little bit of boza for the next batch ,for how long that cup that you keep aside it’s ok ? A week , 2 weeks ? Can I freeze it ?? Thanks and definitely I will try your recipe ;-) ( I read that you can add rice to the millet too ) did you try it with rice or bulgur ?? November 1, 2021 6:10 pm
- Kevser: As boza is full of living bacterias it can't stand longer than 3-4 days even if it's in the fridge. I've tried it with different ingredients including rice before but none of them were close to the original taste. I haven't tried to freeze boza before but with simple logic I can say that it's possible that bacterias can't survive this process as it's the case for sourdough and fresh yeast. But it's like Schrödinger's cat. You can't know if it will survive or not until you thaw it. November 2, 2021 4:38 am
- Lynda: I followed your recipe but I find the boza is much too thick, more like a pudding. It is difficult to stir. Will it affect the taste to add water? December 20, 2021 3:23 pm
- Kevser: It will not affect the taste. You can add extra sugar as well if the water addition affects the sugar amount. December 22, 2021 10:19 am
- Kim: Hello, I have only just found out about Boza and would like to try to make it. Is it safe to give to children or does the sugar and yeast give some alcohol in it? Thank you. January 10, 2022 5:13 pm
- Kevser: I have no idea if it’s safe for children or not but it contains around 1% alcohol (the longer you keep it the higher the amount gets) when ready to be consumed. January 10, 2022 5:16 pm
- Joshua: Hello. How do I make new batches of boza? Can I cook new millet and strain it before I add it to the previous batch? Thank you. January 23, 2023 4:38 pm
- Kevser: You can just follow the recipe as it is and add some boza before setting it aside if you have from the previous batch. But it's not a must. January 23, 2023 6:22 pm
- Joshua: Do I need to add the pulp, or can this be strained before adding to the previous batch? January 23, 2023 7:17 pm
- Kevser: You can strain it. January 24, 2023 2:51 pm
- nurp: Why do we strain it? If I blend with Vitamix, can I just leave it? Straining looks like a bit of work and mess December 5, 2023 3:10 pm
- Kevser: You should strain it no matter what you use to blend. You should get rid of the pulp. December 5, 2023 3:12 pm
- Fran: Thanks for the recipe. Two fermentation details: stainless steel for spoons and sieve is completely fine to use for fermentation. It's a myth that this will kill the microbes (I'm a professional fermentista). ALso, you write: "Are sourdough starter and fresh yeast the only source of bacteria?" Yeast cells are not bacteria. Both yeast and bacteria are microbes, but they have nothing to do with each other. July 2, 2024 9:18 am
- Kevser: Thank you for the clarification. July 4, 2024 11:39 am