# Low-tech homemade yoghurt



## luc_h (Jun 6, 2007)

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## hotchef (Jul 25, 2006)

and works every time with very little effort.
bought me from moulinex a yogurtmaker. has 6 little glassjars, 200 ml each, with screwtop. machine has a timer, but there are also models without.
at the store buy a very good, plain, Bulgarian type yogurt.
put into each glass a coffee spoon full of yogurt. i than fill it up with 6% milk, no diat for us.
turn it on, the machine keeps the temperature of about 40C and after 8-9h yoghurt is done. close the jars and store the yogurt in the refridgerator.
the last glass you use than always as a 'starter' if you want to make the next patch.
if after some time (10-15 times) the yogurt becomes weaker, just buy a new jogurt and start all over again.
The little yogurtmaker was (here in Moscow) 30 $. it makes now yogurt once a week since 5 years with no hassles.
want to have flavored yogurt or honey. just put one spoon full of whatever you want to into the glasses and than the yogurt on top and milk and the rest...


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## oregonyeti (Jun 16, 2007)

I've made my own yogurt plenty of times. I make a gallon or a half gallon at a time. What I do is bring the milk/cream mixture barely to a boil in a stainless steel pot, let it cool to about 45 C, then use a whisk to mix in 1 cup of room-temperature yogurt per half gallon of milk, wrap the pot thickly with insulating material (towels or whatever), then let it stand 6-8 hours, in a place free of any major vibration (on top of the fridge is too much vibration). I also use Bulgarian style yogurt because I like the flavor that its culture produces.

After 8 hours or whatever, the way you handle the yogurt is important. In India, where I grew up, a kind of clay wok-shaped pan is used for fermemtation. After fermentation, a few slices are made through the pan of yogurt, and some of the whey separates out into the crevices, making the resulting curds thicker. Here in the US, usually a thickening agent is added (pectin or powdered milk or something like that) and no whey is drained off. Easier for mass production, but I prefer letting some whey drain off. 

In India, there is a drink, or kind of a milk shake, made with yogurt that hasn't had any whey drained off. They call it Lassi (rhymes with fussy). It's whisked or stirred, and salt and pepper added to it, or sugar and fruit or whatever. For thicker curds, you don't want to disturb it--handle gently.


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## bluezebra (May 19, 2007)

Luc and Yeti, how about making Greek style yogurt. Do you have any advice on this?

Thanks!

Yeti I love yocheese (where much of the whey is drained out and the yogurt becomes the consistency of cream cheese!)


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## oregonyeti (Jun 16, 2007)

You mean tzatziki? Greek style yogurt dressing for gyros?


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## oregonyeti (Jun 16, 2007)

Or if you were talking about just the yogurt itself, the cultures that are used make a difference, and the handling if it. If you are talking about a Greek yogurt culture, I don't know.


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## littlemama (Jun 19, 2007)

I make my own yogurt all the time....ussually the kind that you drink...mixed with lemon curd or pureed peaches....very good.....and then the thicker kind too...the thin yogurt I let sit covered with cheese cloth for about 8 hours and the thicker kind I let set for 10 hours....I could post the recipe but I think every one here is pretty much knowlegable in that department.


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## hotchef (Jul 25, 2006)

bluezebra;179105 said:


> Luc and Yeti, how about making Greek style yogurt. Do you have any advice on this?
> 
> with the 8% milk it that thick that the spoon says upright in the jar.
> maybe if you want to pour yoghurt into a very fine marley cloth and let drain of the liquid for an hour or so. than it will be realy thick.


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## kyheirloomer (Feb 1, 2007)

"I was following the logic that store bought yoghurt was alive with beneficial bacteria and I wanted to coax them into turning milk into yoghurt at home but most of my trials failed."

Luc, there are really two types of supermarket yogurt. Most of it, perhaps 99%, has been pasturized and flavored. That will never work, because the bacteria are dead. Even "plain" yogurt usually has been pasturized and sugar added.

If you want to start with store-bought, it has to specifically say "live culture" on the package. 

But the freeze-dried culture is cheap enough. And is consistent every time. So that's what we use.


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## oregonyeti (Jun 16, 2007)

There's that "pasturized" word again. Has the yogurt been put out to pasture? Ok aside from that most yogurt here has live cultures.


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## bluezebra (May 19, 2007)

KYHeirloomer I would like to make a yogurt that tastes like greek yogurt (not tzaziki SP? sorry...). It tastes different. Is there a specific culture you use for this and how do you handle it? Do you use cream instead or is it raw goat milk or raw cow milk? I would like the probiotics in it that's for certain!


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## luc_h (Jun 6, 2007)

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## luc_h (Jun 6, 2007)

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## luc_h (Jun 6, 2007)

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## oregonyeti (Jun 16, 2007)

Depending on what I will be using the yogurt for, I'll use whole milk (normally), or mix in some cream for a richer, thicker yogurt. When I buy yogurt in a store, it's plain whole milk yogurt, preferably "Bulgarian Style" or "Russian Style". The store-bought flavored yogurt usually has so much sugar in it that I don't care for it.

Brands I like, which may be just local:
Pavel's Russian Style Yogurt (whole milk variety)
Mountain High Original (which also has L. Bulgaricus)


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## mezzaluna (Aug 29, 2000)

Please do! I'm a home cook with no experience but I love yogurt, especially Greek style. I've been buying Fage (pronounced "fay-yeh") but at about $2 per 5 ounce container, it's pricy. I buy the zero fat version, 80 calories for the container.

Tzadziki, if I remember correctly, is actually a sauce made with thick yogurt. It includes cucumber and lots of garlic, with variations that include herbs, onions, etc.

When I was in Greece many years ago I enjoyed the "yaorti mi meli"- yogurt with honey. I got a case of food poisoning and after my guts settled down a bit, that's all I wanted to eat for a couple of days. Poor me....


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## oregonyeti (Jun 16, 2007)

Where did that littlemama go? I miss her already


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## shel (Dec 20, 2006)

Hi Mezz,

A couple of weeks ago the tasting booth at the local TJ's was offering TJ's greek style yougurt. It compared favorably to Fage at a substantially lower price. You might want to give it a try if there's a TJ's near you.

Tzadziki is good stuff - cool and refreshing, nice for a summer spread - and I don't even like cucumbers that much. 

Shel


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## bluezebra (May 19, 2007)

Now that I have a very nice sourdough starter robust and happy, I'm really wanting to try my hand at fermented foods. Yogurt and brined pickles and veggies top the list. 

So if I understand correctly, I can just go to WF and get their greek yogurt with active culture or their White Mountain Yogurt with active culture and just use that over and over again to start my yogurt, correct?


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## littlemama (Jun 19, 2007)

1 qt of milk, any type
1/4 cup of dry powdered milk for thickening agent if prefered
2 tblspoon of yogurt with live cultures

combine the milk, milk powder if you are using it and heat the mixture to 180 degrees F.

let milk cool to 116 degrees F and add the starter (yogurt with live cultures) and mix well.

keep covered, at 116 degrees F, for at least 6hours or until the consistency is of thick cream.....you can go for as long as 10hours and use a heating pad set on low to maintain temp.

Refrigerate and serve cold. this will keep refrigerated for up to 2 weeks.

save 2-3 tablespoons for your next batch......when your culture stops working, get fresh yogurt from the store with live cultrues and start again.


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## kyheirloomer (Feb 1, 2007)

Not quite, Blue.

What you want to do is save about a half cup from each batch you make to be used as the starter for a new batch.


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## luc_h (Jun 6, 2007)

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## mezzaluna (Aug 29, 2000)

Lots of good advice on this thread.

Has anyone used a home yogurt maker? It heats to a set temperature and comes with little cups to put the mixture in. This one is available at Williams Sonoma for $39.95 US: 








They also sell freeze-dried yogurt starter, 10 packets for $19.50 US. Each packet has 1.75 ounces.


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## bluezebra (May 19, 2007)

Thanks to all of you! I do think I'm going to try it soon. I may do a test with my heating pad and my tiny crock pot I use to keep queso cheese hot to see how hot it heats some water or milk.

Mezza I like the looks of that and may see if I can save my pennies for it! I love the idea of a thermostat!

Another idea I'm wondering about it using an electric frying pan with a thermostat control and a hand or dish towel place between the bottom and the yogurt container? Maybe will do an experiment about that too...

Luc thanks for the info about sanitation. That is exactly why I've always been afraid to do it before. It took a huge walk of faith to get past the Leukonostoc phase of Sir Stinky (my sourdough starter as I call him) and into the pleasant smell phase of him. I was skeered the whole time that I would be poisoning us all! I would love to make fresh fermented kraut and kimchee and pickled veggies but have been askeered of that too! Will start slow with the next step of yogurt. It's so dam expensive to buy in the store!!! :-/


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## luc_h (Jun 6, 2007)

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## oregonyeti (Jun 16, 2007)

With yogurt, sanitary conditions are not as important as, say, making beer or canned stuff. If you leave milk out it gets sour and it has to smell and/or taste bad before it's a health risk. Yogurt might not taste as good if you don't make it properly, but no worries about salmonella or botulism or anything like that. Unless you make it really wrong.

I'll try yogurt starter cultures. When you make a batch of yogurt using some of your last batch as starter, it doesn't taste quite as good sometimes. Getting starter culture would avoid this.


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## luc_h (Jun 6, 2007)

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## oregonyeti (Jun 16, 2007)

Right, botulism with an anaerobic environment. The safety precautions you mention are important. Don't can your yogurt and, let it breathe at least a little bit, but keep it warm as it ferments. 

I bring my milk to barely a boil, (hotter than needed) before making yogurt with it. I haven't used raw milk and I probably won't try it.


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