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takyon (881)
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Normally when I want to make yogurt, I use a thermophilic process:
1. Heat/boil a gallon of milk to kill (reduce) whatever is in it.
2. Let it cool down to about 115-120°F (45-50°C).
3. Stir in a few tablespoons of store-bought yogurt, or "back-slopped" yogurt from the previous batch.
4. Hold it at 115°F/45°C for 8 - 16 hours.
5. Store in fridge.
You can use a yogurt maker, but some Instant Pots come with a yogurt function and if your oven can keep the temperature at 115°F/45°C, then you can just put a covered pot of it in there.
I got a couple of these on clearance with the intention of using one as a starter culture. It supposedly contains these active cultures:
L. lactis subsp. lactis, L. lactis subsp. cremoris, L. lactis subsp. lactis biovar diacetylactis, Leuconostoc subsp. cremoris, S. thermophilus, L. bulgaricus, L. rhamnosus, L. casei, L. acidophilus, Bifidobacterium sp.
My bottle is almost identical (some of the names are reformatted):
L. lactis subsp. lactis, L. lactis subsp. cremoris, L. lactis subsp. lactis biovar diacetylactis, Leuconostoc spp., S. thermophilus, L. delbrueckii subsp. bulgaricus, L. rhamnosus, L. paracasei, L. acidophilus, Bifidobacterium spp.
Filmjölk is described as a mesophilic yogurt - with the strains added to cold milk, not boiled, and fermented at room temperature, i.e. 70-78°F (21-26°C). However, some of the strains listed above, such as thermophilus and bulgaricus, are clearly found in thermophilic process yogurts.
So should I just make it the thermophilic way like usual, do it at room temperature, or try to do each version? Is there a middle ground (such as keeping it warm for 4 hours, and then letting it drop to room temperature)?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 25 2018, @07:01PM (3 children)
I thought the optimal temperature was around 40 degrees. I used either store bought yogurt for starter, or a part of the last batch. I kept it in the oven overnight with the incandescent bulb on inside. But after 5 generations, the taste started to deteriorate due to infection with other bacteria.
How do you keep the milk from skinning? I know fat free milk makes yogurt just as well, but I would like to have all natural components of the milk in my yogurt.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Monday June 25 2018, @07:10PM (1 child)
I just mix the skin in there, but it can be picked up as one piece and tossed out, fed to a cat or whatever. It's not that bad and it's a very small part of the gallon. I typically use whole milk.
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(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 25 2018, @09:01PM
I eat the skin myself, but I would rather have it be homogenous with the rest of the yogurt.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 27 2018, @01:45AM
When there was still a nearby farmer who would sell us raw milk (30+ years ago), my mother often made some into yogurt. Her process started out like yours:
1. Heat/boil a gallon of milk to kill (reduce) whatever is in it. [Pasteurize]
2. Let it cool down to about 115-120°F (45-50°C).
3. Stir in a few tablespoons of store-bought yogurt, or "back-slopped" yogurt from the previous batch.
Then she decanted in into small jars (pre-warmed with hot water cleaning & rinse), loosely covered, and set them in a soft cooler (insulated bag) overnight. Took out the yogurt the next day, tightened the covers and refrigerated it. Once she got the right starting temp, this was very reliable, yogurt had similar consistency to store bought. Tasted great once the creamy part on top was stirred in.
Separate story, I had a boss who grew up in Spain (warm climate). He told me that he would never pay money for yogurt because as a kid he got it for free. Some of the milk that wasn't delivered soon enough spoiled-to-yogurt and this was given to kids as a free treat. He didn't remember any culture being used, but my guess is that as a kid he didn't get the whole story. One possibility is that milk back from the daily delivery run was warm (pre-reefer trucks) and to keep it from spoiling completely the culture was added?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 25 2018, @08:59PM
According to Harold McGee, you should always heat the milk to at least 85'C for textural reasons (probably to denature low pH-stable proteins).
As for the growth temperature, I'm sure that the different bacterial strains will survive as long as they aren't above 40'C for too long but there might be population shifting due to differences in competitiveness (e.g. thermophilic strains growing twice as fast as mesophilic and eventually dominating the culture).
I'd recommend running a test by splitting the milk, growing in parallel to desired texture, and running a blind taste test. Choose whichever method has the best taste/convenience ratio.
Definitely report back with how it goes.
(Score: 2) by Snow on Tuesday June 26 2018, @03:07PM (9 children)
I think it's pretty cool you make your own yogurt. I never really considered that it was something that you could make at home.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 26 2018, @06:25PM (1 child)
You can even make PEOPLE at home too!
(Score: 2) by Snow on Tuesday June 26 2018, @06:42PM
Yea... I figured that one out.
It was surprisingly difficult.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Tuesday June 26 2018, @07:57PM (6 children)
It's pretty easy. It just works.
You could also make something like mozzarella cheese from milk fairly rapidly, but it seems to be several steps more annoying.
You can make Greek (thicc) yogurt by straining the yogurt to remove liquid whey. I haven't tried that yet but the right strainer setup could make it easy.
Kimchi is another relatively high value thing you can make at home.
If you're willing to try pressure canning, then there's a whole bunch of stuff you can make, like fruit preserves/jelly. If not, there's always something like lemon curd.
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(Score: 2) by Snow on Tuesday June 26 2018, @10:25PM (3 children)
~10 years ago I lived in an apartment. Whoever was living on the first floor was making something that I assume was kimchi. They had a large glass jar filled with something. It was yellow. They would leave this thing in the sun for a couple weeks (months?). I would see it every time I entered the building and it really grossed me out. It looked like pineapple chunks marinating in urine ripening in the sun. *shudder*
(Score: 2) by takyon on Tuesday June 26 2018, @10:44PM (2 children)
That sounds more like lemon pickle [vegrecipesofindia.com].
For kimchi I have used a food grade bucket with loose lid + cheesecloth to block pests. No sun exposure. However I will probably switch to using an airlock next time.
I use this recipe [minimalistbaker.com] except with the steps simplified [nourishedkitchen.com]. No fucking around with turning the cabbage over every 30 minutes or whatever. 1 large green (not Napa) cabbage per gallon. Along with carrots and onions, I plan to add radishes next time.
Kimchi should usually look red/orange, not yellow.
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(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 02 2018, @02:05PM (1 child)
The pests don't just eat thru the cheesecloth?
(Score: 2) by takyon on Monday July 02 2018, @02:27PM
I got a couple of tiny bug things at the top that I would just take out. Like one or two dead bugs. The same little ones that can accumulate in an airlock when you are making booze. I kept a plate or two on top to help hold the cabbage down under the liquid, offering some protection.
There was not just the cheesecloth. I had a 2 gallon bucket with the lid loosely on top of the cheesecloth. Not airtight but not much of a gap. The cheesecloth would sometimes dip down into the liquid so I switched to having the cheesecloth covering the lid, secured with a rubber band. Either way, the resulting kimchi was good but I don't want to do it that way again. I will use a sealed lid with an airlock. The taste will probably be different because of aerobic vs. anaerobic bacteria.
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(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 28 2018, @04:06PM (1 child)
My sister makes her own greek yogurt. She says, ignore all advice about strainer setups on the internet, just line your strainer with coffee filters, otherwise you'll lose the heavy high-fat stuff to the strainer or cheesecloth.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Thursday June 28 2018, @05:01PM
I never bothered straining it because it seems like a pain. Like I would want to set it up so that it can strain while in the fridge, but not topple over, etc.
I also hear you're losing some of the nutrition that whey.
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(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 02 2018, @02:03PM (1 child)
With your lovely worded title on your most recent submission [soylentnews.org] I thought the article was about people in the desert with a yearning for animals to mate with
(Score: 2) by takyon on Monday July 02 2018, @02:10PM
Fresh "milk". Unpasteurized.
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