Author(s): Dr. Adrija Sarkar and Shagufta Alam

Abstract:
Traditional starter culture for curd is made with a concentration of Lactic Acid Bacteria. Sometimes traditional starter cultures become expensive for the common man to make curd, so to reduce the cost they use a small amount of curd previously made. This causes the quality of the curd to degrade over subsequent generations. Thus, the main purpose of this study was to make curd with sources that are easily available. One of the most easily available sources was Red Chilies(Capsicum annuum) which is widely used in the Indian Cuisine. Curd was successfully developed using the stalks of the red chilies. Another objective of the study was to observe curdling of milk with the addition of sources derived from plants (in this case the fruit). Thus, the two objectives of the study was achieved using the red chilli fruits and the reason behind the curdling of milk was also assessed upon.