Ergo substitutes

The best everyday swap, working for all three of ergo's jobs and available anywhere.

Best for

a cooling side beside kitfo or gomen, making ayib, kitfo seasoning, any recipe calling for ergo

Commercial yogurt is smoother, more uniformly tangy and cleaner-tasting than ergo, which has a wilder, slightly cheesy edge from being a spontaneous ferment. Thinning it matters, because ergo is looser than set yogurt and undiluted yogurt sits on the plate as a stiff dollop rather than spreading. Use full fat; nonfat goes chalky and thin and makes a poor curd.

Thin, sharply tangy cultured milk, which is essentially what arera is: the liquid left behind after butter has been churned out of ergo.

Best for

arera, making ayib, drinking alongside spicy food, a recipe wanting ergo's acid

For arera this is not a substitute so much as the same thing under another name, since both are the tangy low-fat liquid left after churning. It is more acidic and much looser than full-fat ergo, which makes it ideal to drink and ideal to curdle into ayib, and too runny to spoon onto a plate as a cooling side. Look for cultured rather than acidified buttermilk on the label.

The closest match to ergo's character, because kefir carries yeasts as well as bacteria and so tastes complex rather than cleanly sour.

Best for

a cooling side, drinking with a spicy meal, making ayib, when you want ergo's wild tang

This is the option that tastes most like real ergo, with a faintly effervescent, slightly yeasty complexity that plain yogurt does not have. The catch is consistency: kefir is thinner than ergo, so strain it in cheesecloth for an hour if the dish needs something spoonable. Plain, unflavoured, full-fat kefir only, because the fruit versions are useless here.

The easiest thing to buy anywhere, thinned back to something close to ergo's consistency.

Best for

a cooling side beside spicy stews, beyaynetu, a quick fix, any recipe wanting thick soured dairy

The thickness lands right after thinning, and the flavour is where it differs. Greek yogurt has been strained, so it tastes richer, rounder and less sour than ergo, and it reads as creamy rather than sharp and refreshing. It also makes ayib less readily, because much of the whey it needs to release has already been drained off. A squeeze of lemon sharpens it up.

The closest you can get to real ergo, and it costs almost nothing.

Best for

the most authentic ergo, making ayib, a cooling side, cooking Ethiopian food regularly

Stir the culture into the milk, cover loosely and leave at warm room temperature, roughly 70 to 80F or 21 to 27C, for 12 to 24 hours until it has thickened and tastes tangy, then refrigerate. Use pasteurised milk and a live culture. Do not try to sour raw milk on the counter: that is the traditional method but it is not a sound one outside its own context, and there is no flavour advantage worth the risk.

A workable cooling side when the fridge has cream products but no cultured milk.

Best for

a cooling side beside spicy food, an emergency, beyaynetu

It tastes pleasant next to a hot stew and it is the weakest option on this list for a reason. The fat content is far higher and the culture is different, so it reads as rich and creamy rather than sharp and refreshing, which means it soothes the heat by coating your mouth rather than cutting through it. It also will not make good ayib, because the fat gets in the way of a clean curd.