Yogurt making with Anna...

[Sola]

What she's also failed to mention about the milk is that you CANNOT use ultrapasteurized milk or it will be incredibly runny. Maybe that's why they're using gelatin. Ew.

I really should start making my own. My 2 yr old son inhales the greek stuff at an alarming rate.

That's one of the reasons I make it. We go through pints and pints of it here. I don't like milk, but I love yoghurt so I have yoghurt on my cereal instead of milk and use it to make porridge with.

[Jezebel]

I have an Excalibur dehydrator, and it's brilliant for making yogurt.

I don't understand why they'd use gelatin, unless the whole milk they use is ultra-pasteurized. I like thick yogurt, but I strain it (I first learned that trick when making yogurt cheese, back when I made a lot of Indian food). The whey then goes to the cats, who love it.

And Yoplait as a starter? That stuff's barely yogurt. Maybe they don't have a supermarket or health food store nearby that sells single-serving containers of plain, un-fucked-with yogurt. But if that was the case I'd buy yogurt starter to keep on hand for those times when I didn't have leftover yogurt to start a new batch with.

[Wolfie]

Exacty. It's rather like putting MSG in homemade chinese food, I don't get it.

But in China, they put MSG in their food at home...

[divadivine]

Dear Maxwells,

Your sentence structure and choice of words is, ummm..... for lack of a better word- stupid. Case in point, the opening sentence from Cooking with Anna: Yogurt Making:

Making yogurt is not hard nor is it a complicated process.

Hard is often listed as a synonym for complicated, so you used the same word twice in one sentence. Your writing is subpar and boring. Invest in a thesaurus.

Regards,

Diva

[Buzzard]

And Yoplait as a starter? That stuff's barely yogurt. Maybe they don't have a supermarket or health food store nearby that sells single-serving containers of plain, un-fucked-with yogurt. But if that was the case I'd buy yogurt starter to keep on hand for those times when I didn't have leftover yogurt to start a new batch with.

WTF is it about fundies that they just can GET the science behind things and they fuck it up? Milk to Yogurt is a bacterial process... so you need BACTERIA! LIVE FUCKING CULTURES and NO SUGAR! Ugh. Is it too much to ask that she find some plain stoneyfield farm?

FWIW - I also add a florastor to the milk with the starter to get a little extra probiotics.

[Wolfie]

WTF is it about fundies that they just can GET the science behind things and they fuck it up? Milk to Yogurt is a bacterial process... so you need BACTERIA! LIVE FUCKING CULTURES and NO SUGAR! Ugh. Is it too much to ask that she find some plain stoneyfield farm?

FWIW - I also add a florastor to the milk with the starter to get a little extra probiotics.

Starters should be milk and bacteria, nothing else. Most yoplait has sugar (or even worse, artificial sweeteners), fruit (which adds more sugar) and gelatin. Not something I would want to use as a starter. I have a few brands that I'll use, and I read them every time to make sure that they haven't changed the formula.

[johnhugh]

4 low fat yogurts for £1 at Waitrose in the UK Anna.

[gardenvarietycitizen]

I don't like Yogurt :shock: Maybe it's just the north american Yogurt? I've tasted it a few times and it just tastes sour and not good at all.

I think I'll stick to Chocolate or Vanilla Pudding. :whistle:

Heh. I can't stand the stuff either (organic OR not, gelatin OR not). So I won't be making yogurt anytime soon! (Was starting to wonder if it was only me, haha.) I'm not not a big fan of "sour" tastes in general. If I need some for a recipe, the amount is small enough that the easiest thing is to buy a small tub of the plain stuff at the store.

As for the whole "wow I can make yogurt" thing - I think some others upthread have nailed it too, there's a sense of "look at me, I live off the grid, and that's noble" going on in a lot of cases. Yeah, you can be pretty frugal doing a lot of things DIY in large batches, but IF you have a paying gig, it's often more economical to pay someone else to do the work (and that makes jobs for other people). For people who eat a lot of yogurt though, surely this is easy enough to do in spare time that it's worth it (unlike some other DIY projects that are popular with the fundie circuit).

Reading the post it struck me that this is a "yogurt multiplier" thing - if you keep using your own yogurt for starter, you can get away with just that one time only first can of store bought yogurt, and it just keeps going, and going, and going... which is kinda cool to think about.

Still, I find that as long as I'm willing to follow some instructions EXACTLY and not try to improvise the first time, lots of the various "wow, I can cook/make XXX" things aren't all that hard to learn from the internet, particularly now that there's video.

I wanna see them brew beer now :)

[Wolfie]

I wanna see them brew beer now :)

Yeah, but I'd expect lacto fermented root beer or ginger ale first... One step at a time.

[kaetrin]

I haven't tried, but I don't know why not since they sell soy milk yogurt. If you buy a soy starter yogurt,I assume both soy and cows milk would curdle the same way into yogurt? Maybe try a small batch so you don't waste the soymilk just in case. :)

No, it doesn't work. I tried several times to make non-dairy yogurt (having made regular yogurt perfectly successfully, without a yogurt maker) and it doesn't work at all. I read later that it's because the cultures in yogurt need the milk proteins to grow, and the non-dairy milks don't have the right kind. That's actually why soy yogurt has a) a lot of sugar and b) a lot of fillers/thickeners like xanthan gum.

There are special recipes out there for making the non-dairy yogurt (you can google it) but they do involve things like gelatin to make it thick, and it never gets sour. I gave up after a few mediocre attempts.

[emesbe]

So for those who use a coffee filter to strain the yogurt--do you use a paper filter?

[Wolfie]

So for those who use a coffee filter to strain the yogurt--do you use a paper filter?

I've used a paper filter put in a sieve. I wet it first.

[Buzzard]

Reading the post it struck me that this is a "yogurt multiplier" thing - if you keep using your own yogurt for starter, you can get away with just that one time only first can of store bought yogurt, and it just keeps going, and going, and going... which is kinda cool to think about.

The fresher the yogurt the more cultures it has as the different strains will crowd eachother out until there is only one and then it will die if theres nothing left to eat. So yes, it perpetuates forever so long as its within a period of time. I've been successful up to a month.

I use stoneyfield farms plain as a started and one florastor probiotic pill. Florastor is $40/box - about 2 weeks worth. My GI actually gave me suggestion and now one box lasts months as the yogurt multiplies the bacteria.

[doggie]

the problem is You end up getting mutated cultures and you loose flavor and end up only with sour. The best way to keep it going is find a strain you like sterilize the container and milk and make the yogurt. keep the jar sealed and always use a sterile spoon to remove some to make your batches. Or just use a new culture each time.

[WonderingInWA]

Oh, my -- "Kelly" and "Jill" are very bad girls on the Maxwell blog! Sooooo funny -- has to be people from here. LOL!

Jill said: "Blessings that you shared this with us.

I love making yogurt as well.

I stoke mine untill it is very hard, then let it come into the jar.

Blessings

Jill"

And Kelly said: "Bleesings for sharing your Yogurt idea. I make it too and is such fun!!

The other day I was making some, stroking away and it came all over me. What a mess!

I will try your idea!!

love and blessings"

[debrand]

Okay, I couldn't keep my icechest the correct temperature so I transfered my batch to the crockpot. That seemed to work because I have yogurt this morning. I had to strain it through a coffee filter but it seems to be the correct consistency. It tastes a bit like greek yogurt, sort of sour. That is fine because I put honey in mine.

I am going to experiment with making bread with the liquid that I strain out.

[LucySnowe]

I knit occasionally, so I do understand why you'd do something by hand even if you could just get it at Walmart. But I've never made yogurt so I don't understand the specific benefits of yogurt-making in this context. I have come up with these possibilities:

a) dramatically cheaper than buying it (especially for larger families or mothers of ravenous toddlers);

b) dramatically tastier when homemade;

c) healthier when homemade, including being able to control the crap that gets put into a lot of processed foods;

d) more interesting because you can personalise the ingredients, texture, etc.

e) enjoyable in its own right as an activity;

f) useful in situations where, say, you have a lot of the raw ingredients already (i.e. some milk-producing animal);

g) useful to demonstrate homemaker qualities.

Some of these have been proven within this thread, but am I way off base about the others?

I guess my main question is whether the cost (both of materials and of the time it takes) makes it worthwhile. Obviously, SAHDs have nothing BUT time....

[Guest Anonymous]

Oh, my -- "Kelly" and "Jill" are very bad girls on the Maxwell blog! Sooooo funny -- has to be people from here. LOL!

Jill said: "Blessings that you shared this with us.

I love making yogurt as well.

I stoke mine untill it is very hard, then let it come into the jar.

Blessings

Jill"

And Kelly said: "Bleesings for sharing your Yogurt idea. I make it too and is such fun!!

The other day I was making some, stroking away and it came all over me. What a mess!

I will try your idea!!

love and blessings"

I get the innuendo, but I am not sure why "stroking" is relevant to yoghurt making in the first place? I must say I find the more subtle comments funnier.

[WonderingInWA]

I get the innuendo, but I am not sure why "stroking" is relevant to yoghurt making in the first place? I must say I find the more subtle comments funnier.

I guess my point was more that Stevie let those comments go through -- they are obviously jokes, right? My guess is that whomever is editing the blog comments was to naive to notice that they were even remotely referring to sex. Maybe I'm reading too much into it.

[Arete]

LucyS,

Before Greek yogurt became available in US retail stores, I would say that making your own yogurt was preferable from merely a taste perspective. What my family refers to as "American yogurt" is just out and out NASTY. I wouldn't touch anything made by Dannon, Yoplait, LaYogurt or regular supermarket brands. The "Greek yogurt" Dannon peddles is also all wrong in taste and consistency.

When FAGE and Chobani hit my supermarket, I greatly rejoiced. Now when I want some yogurt for a snack I can just hit the store. I do still sometimes make my own in the summer when it becomes my defacto breakfast of choice and dip of choice, and my consumption skyrockets.

So in your list the 2 biggies are taste followed by cost when you need a large volume. I would stick to organic brands if you don't want the "sour" of Greek but want a well made product that doesn't have a lot of extra crap.

Sorry this post sort of got away from me. :oops: I love my yogurt, just never considered a useful household skill to be anything that put me on a higher moral plane the way the Maxwells do.

[kpmom]

I guess my point was more that Stevie let those comments go through -- they are obviously jokes, right? My guess is that whomever is editing the blog comments was to naive to notice that they were even remotely referring to sex. Maybe I'm reading too much into it.

Well if you're reading too much into it, then so am I. I'll join you in the X-rated gutter.

[eohiken]

Those permanent gold mesh coffee filters work the better than paper filters.

[Witsec5]

If you want it to be less tart, let it ferment for less time. That way there's more lactose in the yogurt. Also, I tried straining with a paper coffee filter and it worked great. Just don't know what to do for the larger batches. And yes my friend who makes yogurt every week figured that it was a little over a quarter of the cost of buying (not counting the fruit) with none of the additives. So it depends on the budget and how busy you are. It's not that time-consuming and there's something of a science experiment feel to it because presto chango first you have milk and then you have something else. And I'm a little bit crunchy. Not like the other women I know where I live but I can't help but be influenced by the culture (no pun intended). I'm near Berkeley.

[Caramel]

Also, I tried straining with a paper coffee filter and it worked great. Just don't know what to do for the larger batches.

I've tried cheesecloth, but it's a slimy disaster to clean up. I've tried a piece of muslin in a colander. It worked well. Drained a little slower than the coffee filter. My favorite for enormous batches (which I tend to make because I have several big dogs who, ahem, benefit from the active cultures) is to sort of shingle a lining for the colander using several damp paper coffee filters of the largest size.

[Jezebel]

For larger batches, I use a big colander or mesh strainer lined with a dampened muslin dishcloth. When the yogurt's done, I rinse the dishcloth in the kitchen sink and throw it in with the rest of my laundry.

Or, you could be like Emily and use a polyester skirt from a thrift store. Skirt yogurt! Yum!