Ant Antics

Staff at the Alchemist, a Michelin restaurant in the Danish capital of Copenhagen, famous for pushing culinary boundaries, recently noticed that milk left in a fridge with an ant inside began to curdle, CNN reported.

This accidental discovery sparked the curiosity of anthropologists, microbiologists, food scientists, and others, who eventually realized they had rediscovered a nearly forgotten yogurt concoction once common across the Balkans and Turkey.

The restaurant then turned this concoction into a mascarpone cheese, a cocktail and an “ant-wich” – a yogurt ice-cream sandwich shaped like an ant. The creations were a hit.

The “ant-wich” was “very appreciated” by diners, a spokesperson for Alchemist told CNN.

Meanwhile, a team of researchers investigated the ancient recipe involving ants, explaining in a new study that bacteria, acids, and enzymes contained in ants can kickstart the fermentation process that turns milk into yogurt.

“Today’s yogurts are typically made with just two bacterial strains,” senior author Leonie Jahn said in a statement. “If you look at traditional yogurt, you have much bigger biodiversity, varying based on location, households, and season. That brings more flavors, textures, and personality.”

To better understand the ant recipe, researchers visited Nova Mahala, Bulgaria, the home village of study co-author Sevgi Mutlu Sirakova, where locals remember the tradition, according to Smithsonian Magazine.

One of the traditions consisted of dropping red wood ants (Formica rufa), native to the Balkans and Turkey, into milk.

“We dropped four whole ants into a jar of warm milk (per) the instruction of Sevgi’s uncle and community members,” lead author Veronica Sinotte said. “The jar was then tucked into an ant mound to ferment overnight. By the next day, the milk had started to thicken and sour. That’s an early stage of yogurt, and it tasted that way as well.”

Researchers tried the yogurt during the trip and said it tasted slightly tangy, herbaceous, and with flavors of grass-fed fat.

Back in the lab, they investigated the science behind the recipe and found that ants carry lactic and acetic acid bacteria. These bacteria produce acids that help coagulate the dairy.

Ants themselves, however, also contribute to the yogurt-making process. Formic acid, part of the ant’s natural chemical defense system, acidifies the milk, influences its texture, and probably creates an environment for yogurt’s acid-loving microbes to thrive.

Enzymes from the ant and the microbes work together to break down milk proteins and transform milk into yogurt.

Then, researchers compared yogurts made with live, frozen, and dehydrated ants. Only live ants were able to create the proper microbial community, indicating they are the most effective for yogurt production.

Still, ‘ant yogurt’ has risks: Live ants can carry parasites, and freezing or dehydrating them could allow harmful bacteria to flourish.

The research highlights how traditional practices can increase culinary creativity and inspire innovative approaches to food science.

“I hope people recognize the importance of community and maybe listen a little closer when their grandmother shares a recipe or memory that seems unusual,” said Sinotte. “Learning from these practices and creating space for biocultural heritage in our foodways is important.”