Made yogurt

[darxus]

1. Heat Milk to 85°C (185°F) for 30 minutes to prepare it for fermentation.
2. Cool milk to 43°C (110°F) (optimal for fermentation).
3. Add a few spoons of Stonyfield plain yogurt.
4. Keep roughly around 43°C (110°F) for 7 hours.
5. Refrigerate.

I'm very happy with the results.

Of course, you can add fruit or sugar if you're into that kind of thing. I've been enthusiastically enjoying it plain.

I just did the initial heating slowly in a pot on my stove. Then I ended up pouring the milk in a ziplock and putting it in 43°C (110°F) water in my cooler. I made no attempt to maintain the temperature. The website I followed recommended using a heating pad (like you might use for cramps).

I used whole fat plain yogurt, and whole fat organic milk, Hannaford store brand I think.

My plan is to reduce / cut out dairy, as my cravings for sugar fade. But fermented foods with live cultures are generally supposed to be good, so I don't think this should be too bad. Although it's kind of scary easy for me to consume lots of calories of it, even plain.

Of course, you can use any plain yogurt with live cultures to seed, Stonyfield was just one I was familiar with.

I'm curious about yogurts that can be cultured at room temperature.

Comments

[darxus.livejournal.com]

I've been vaguely interested in kefir for a while.

What is the liquid separated from yogurt useful for? I did like the texture a lot more before I mixed that stuff in.

[starphire.livejournal.com]

It's a lot like whey, it's rich in protein and can be used like whey in soup stocks, etc.

There's also fil, the Scandanavian milk culture that also works at room temperature, but you'd probably have to mail-order to get a culture of that to start.

Both kefir and fil are easier to make in that you don't even need to heat your milk first - just pour it from the bottle into your culturing jar, cover, and let it sit on the counter until it's ready.