Can you see the difference in density? The one on the left was taken just after pouring the warm milk into the starter. It took a mere 3 hours for the yogurt to grow (right). It should be denser and thicker than this after chilling.
Yogurt has been called a "superfood" for many good reasons. Not only does it have high calcium content, protein and B Vitamins, most importantly, the live cultures in yogurt help maintain a delicate balance of microorganisms in the body, promoting healthy digestive and immune systems.
Regardless of nutrition, yogurt is delicious and an important ingredient. Nearly every nation's cuisine has a recipe that uses yogurt. Besides, using it for smoothie and as a accompaniment of cereal, I also use yogurt for soups, salads, cakes, etc. Hopefully you'll get to see some of them in the not too distant future.There are plenty information out there for making homemade yogurt. I found most of them overly cautious. You can read this for more detailed instructions. You'll read recipe that calls for powdered milk. It gives a thicker products, which I don't find missing without (is it because I use whole milk instead of low fat?).
Although I do go for (not too pricey) organic products, I found it unnecessary in this case. What's more important is to have a good starter yogurt. You want to get a starter that says "active/ live culture". Most brands on the shelf contain either Lactobacillus bulgaricus and/or Streptococcus thermophilus. I've seen yogurt in the West that has up to 6 types of bacteria. Typically the more types it has, the faster the fermentation.
Being in this part of the world helps to make certain steps easy. For example storing the culture. I simply keep the culture away from light, either in a cupboard or inside the oven for up to 8 hours before I chill it in refrigerator. Although a typical recipe stresses the importance of thermometer, again, I have been culturing yogurt without it. I heat the milk to smoke but not boiling. Then I let the milk cool to good for touch (kind of like testing milk temperature before you feed the baby, I guess).
There have been a few occasions when I totally spaced out. Just to share:
1. I store the culture in refrigerator. Nothing happened after two days. I then transferred it to an enclosed cupboard, and it grew.
2. I heated the oven without realizing that I had stored the culture in there earlier on. Despite the subjection to 200C, the yogurt was still consumable after cooling and chilling. I have no idea if the bacteria were still alive since I didn't cultivate the oven-roasted yogurt.
3. The milk boiled and foamed over. The yogurt still grew but to less dense consistency and the subsequent culture didn't serve as good a starter.
4. I pour the milk when it's still hot. Result as No. 3.
Another thing I found unnecessary is measurement - as long as it's not way off the scale, say, 1Tablespoon yogurt to 1L milk...... DUH! I'm a advocate of pure and whole: pure cream, whole milk. Nothing low-fat for me; I'd rather balance out the fat content with real foods than to subject my body to unnecessarily processed foods.
Without further ado, here's how I stubbornly turned a blind eye to the many kind advises and cheat my way to preparing my morning stable - YOGURT
Ingredients:
Whole milk
Yogurt with active live culture, as starter
Take the yogurt out and let it sit in room temperature as you prepare the milk.
Heat milk to smoking point and let cool to room temperature. Pour over the starter and stirring to allow the culture to blend well. Store the culture away from light. Depends on the yogurt starter, sometimes 2 - 4 hours is all it needs. Longest would be 8 hours. Let it chill in refrigerator before serving.
Oh! you are doing so complicated way.
ReplyDeleteMy way to make is a really simple. Maybe because of hot weather? Or my bacteria is trained?
I use 2 glass jars. 1 is for ex-yogurt one, other for new. I recommend to use bigger mouth jug. The fermentation is much faster.
1. Wash and boil the jar for new, 1 table spoon. Drain water and dry them. Wait until cool down.
2. Take out the surface of ex-yogurt. Keep it for that day's your need. Take the center of ex-yogurt and put in jar 1. (Because at the outside of yogurt there may be other bacteria.)
3. Pour milk. Stir by the spoon 1. The milk can be room temperature or cold one. The room temperature's one is faster. But don't mind. Both are ok.
4. Cover the mouth of jag with kitchen paper for avoid dust. Put rubber band around it.
Don't make air tight. The bacteria need oxygen.
5. Wait one day or so, until make shape.
More lazy way is not using jar, but paper milk pack. Don't use plastic one. The mouth is too narrow. Open the mouth of the pack compretely. And just put in the ex-yogurt and shake. Then same as 4and 5.
Your bacteria are trained? Can I meet the trainer? ;p
ReplyDeleteSounds like we basically do the same thing except I heat the milk. That's to kill the bacteria that may have been in the milk.