Comments on: Homemade Yogurt Mistakes

By: Suzie

Suzie — Sat, 26 Jun 2010 17:07:47 +0000

Part of your problem is that you are expecting your yogurt to be thick like pudding. You might as well stick to the store bought type if that is the case. Homemade,”real” yogurt is not thick. It will run off of your spoon. The commercial yogurts have dried milk and often gelatin in them to thicken them up. I am skeptical about dried milk just because it has some negatives that makes me not want to use it. A tad bit of gelatin in your yogurt after it is set will thicken it up for you though without really any adverse issues. I would keep a fresh start out without the gelatin though before you add it. The idea here is a good, “REAL” FOOD without a bunch of additives! You will get used to the consistency. I have found that heating the milk to 80 degrees and keeping it in the microwave overnight makes the best results. Also I keep a tight cover on it, and I use more starter than most recipes call for. Sometimes it is runnier than others , but I just deal with it. I think making it with whole milk every few batches thickens it up also.

By: Suzie

Suzie — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 16:42:10 +0000

adding dry milk isn’t very healthy though because of the properties it has.

By: Ruth

Ruth — Tue, 11 May 2010 18:35:42 +0000

I used the method described above yesterday -not trying too hard! It was in the airing cupboard overnight and it didn’t really work. 24 hours later I had warmish, runny milk.
So this morning I put it in the oven with the temperature off, turning it on extra low for a few mins every hour or so, and it has started to thicken, but I’m a bit worried it will go off before it has a chance to set properly.
I’m debating whether to pack it in and turn it into curd cheese to make blueberry cheesecake. Could be worse I guess!

By: JBeezy

JBeezy — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 14:07:36 +0000

For anyone reading this now, I need to point out that you’re trying too hard. And that’s why you failed. =P
I tried hard my first attempt at making yogurt, too. All the measuring and temp checking and blahdy blah. Then I spoke with someone who makes yogurt every week. Her instructions sounded too simple: “Heat the milk in a pot until it froths/boils. Then let it sit until you can comfortably stick your finger in it & leave it there — about an hour. Then, mix some of the warm milk with a few tbs of starter yogurt & add the mixture to the rest of the milk. Cover with a towel & set it in a dark warmish place over night.” I set the container on my heating pad turned on the lowest setting & covered it with a bath towel to incubate.

Voila! Perfect yogurt. I then strained it through a triple layer of cheesecloth to make greek style yogurt and it was absolutely amazing.

So, stop measuring and fussing over the incubation temp & you’ll do just fine.

By: harrisgurl

harrisgurl — Sat, 17 Apr 2010 20:46:52 +0000

Hmm interesting little problems
-If you add skim milk powder–make sure you whisk it in well. This should be done immediately following the initial “cooking phase”. If you don’t mix it in, you’ll have lumps for sure!
-When you mix in your culture (I most often use an organic store bought active cultured plain yogurt), do it gently..no whisk. But make sure it’s really well incorporated–ie no lumps. And when you add it, make sure it’s room temp.
-I’ve found that if I leave the yogurt “setting” for more than about 12 hrs, it starts to separate ever so slightly–leaving that greenish liquid, which is the whey btw. You can EASILY rid yourself of this by leaving the yogurt to strain over a cheesecloth for 2hrs in the fridge. Any more than two hrs and it becomes really thick–and if you leave it in a cheesecloth overnight, it will be somewhat like cream cheese, so keep an eye on it.
-Lumps can usually be whisked out..but if you’re whisking in your skim milk powder, adding culture slowly and letting yogurt set for almost exactly 12 hrs, you’ll likely not find lumps. I find that even at the 10 hr mark, my yogurt is set as nice as a custard.

If you haven’t already tried, and you have a crockpot-I HIGHLY recommend my recipe above. Forget the thermometer and all the precision. It’s easy peasy and works EVERY SINGLE TIME.

Happy eating

By: Kate

Kate — Sat, 17 Apr 2010 03:11:06 +0000

I happened on your blog trying to figure out what just went wrong with my yogurt. But here’s what I know so far:

Two weeks ago, I got some local raw milk, heated to 167 degrees, cooled to 90-ish, then mixed in Yogourmet starter culture. I stuck the thing in my dehydrator at 110 degrees for about 8 hours. What came out had some lumps in it, but otherwise was thick and very yogurt-y. My son loved it. I put it in smoothies and loved it there.

Today, I used Snowville Creamery’s milk (pasteurized) and I heated it to only 110 degrees then mixed in the culture and stuck it in the dehydrator (someone else I “know” through blogs said she only heats her milk to 90 – 110 and it works just fine). Disaster! It has thick curds that look sort of like yogurt floating in a yellowish whey. Ugh. Umm…sounds like it’s what that guy said happens if it cultures too quickly. Should be technically edible, I guess, but…sigh. I was so looking forward to REAL yogurt in my smoothies tomorrow.

I’d recommend trying again with raw milk, if you can get some. You can heat to 180 to kill off everything if you’re worried about it, then cool down to 80 – 90 degrees, add culture, and put it somewhere where it will stay at a constant temp. for 4 – 8 hours. The first time I left it 8 hours. It wasn’t perfect, but plenty tart and pretty darn good, and I felt just fabulous after eating it. And it really was easy. Oh, that time I also took forever to heat the milk on low, like an hour. That might have had something to do with it too. Good luck!

By: Budsma

Budsma — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 20:18:06 +0000

Since my last post a few weeks ago, I’ve done some additional research & refined my technique. I’m happy to report that I now get lovely, thick yogurt with just the right amount of tang everytime & use no fillers! After reading up on the chemistry of milk, cheese & yogurt I found that to get thick yogurt you MUST heat the milk to 185 degrees F and hold at that for a minimum of 15 minutes (medium to medium low heat once its to temperature). I do this on the stove top and stir it periodically to keep it from sticking to the pan. You then let the milk cool naturally to 115 degrees F & add your starter. Alternatively, you could keep you milk heated at 185 degrees for about a half hour & chill it in a cool water bath to 115 degrees. I do the former becasue I don’t like to babysit the milk while its on the burner any longer than I have to. Other than these few specific changes, I continue to follow my picnic cool/warm water bath method I detailed previously.

I had always thought the reason one heated the milk to just below boiling is to sterilize it. It turns out there’s more to it than that! At 185 -190 degrees F, the milk proteins begin to change their molecular bonds. After the period of time noted at the higher temperature, the bonds on the milk protiens have changed in a manner that enables the desireable bacteria used in yogurt to convert the milk into that nice thick delicious mass we so love. If during the incubation period the milk/yogrut starter is kept between 108 & 114 degrees, the correct population balance of the various bacterias in the yogurt is achieved to get just the right tang. Lower incubation temperatures will result in a blander, less tangy yogurt, higher incubation temps will give you a much more sharp (sour?) tang because you have shifted the concentration of the bacterial populations! The yogurt should be ready in about 12 hours.
As to kifer, the bacteria in this prefers a cool temperature and needs longer to incubate. So here are the changes to that pervious set of directions I gave that result in a very nice kifer: heat milk to 68 degrees F, pitch starter & keep container in the dark and at 68degrees for 24 hours while it ferments. After that its ready, so keep it in the fridge. That’s it! You don’t need to heat your fresh pasturized milk to just below boiling for this one, there’s no need to change the protien bonds to make kifer happy!

By: Yogurt Starter

Yogurt Starter — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 13:54:33 +0000

Hi Nick,
Thanks for your information about yogurt starter, I would like to share with you my blog about yogurt starter. I hope you can visit later.

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The Yogurt Starter

By: Budsma

Budsma — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 22:41:01 +0000

I’ve been making yogurt & kefir at home for years with out problem & I agree with Harrisgurl . . . simple is better. Here’s what I do plus a few tips at the end.
1) pre-heat a small picnic cooler with hot tap water (fill with H2O, cover & put to the side)
2) place 1/2 gal of organic milk (yes, regular works too but what’s the point; if your going to make it yourself, make it the best you can) in a pyrex bowl, cover with a glass lid or plate & microwave (8 minute in mine) to 120 degrees F . Anything between 120F and 108F works but cooler tends to yield a thinner product. (if you don’t have a cheese thermometer, any thermometer that goes to 120F works)
3) gently stir in 1/2 cup plain yogurt.
4)Laddle/pour into clean, wide mouth glass jars of the same height; wipe rim; close lid snuggly.
5)Pour the pre-heating H2O out of the cooler. Place sealed jars in cooler and re-fill picnic cooler with fresh, hot tap water stopping about a half inch below the lid to the jars. Put lid on cooler and set it someplace where its at room temp over night.
6) In the morning, put jars in the refigerator. Its that simple.

If you’re going to flavor your yogurt, be sure to save a half cup of the unadulterated stuff for your next batch first.

TIPs: Your starter yogurt makes all the difference in the world. Most of your supermarket yogurts make a mediocre home yogurt, they tend to have too many fillers, too few live cultures and make an overly sour home yogurt. Go to a middle eastern, indian, eastern euroean market or similar market & by a good, plain yogurt.

That said, most of these have a bit of gelatin for thickeners also, so you’re homemade will likely be a bit thinner than what you started with; end of story. If you want thick, strain off the whey (I use a coffee filter in a strainer overa a bowl) in the fridge for a few hours & use whey for something else.

Your homemade starter will keep refrigerated for a couple of weeks, after that it looses some quality. Also, if after you’ve made several batches from the starter you’ve saved, you notice its lost some of its “charm”, just go buy some more of your plain commercial yogurt & start over.

To make kefir, use the store bought plain variety of your choice, the brands the supermarkets carry tend to be just fine for this. Use the same ratio of milk to starter (i.e. 1/2 gallon milk with 1/2 cup starter; 1 quart milk to 1/4 cup starter, etc). Follow the instructions given for yogurt. The only difference is, it takes a shorter length of time to thicken – six hours will likely do it.

By: Harrisgurl

Harrisgurl — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 07:55:07 +0000

I’ve made yogurt for years–and to be frank I often scoff at some of the recipes I see because they’re incredibly detailed, and my method is …not so much!
Hope this helps anyone wanting to try.
Equipment:
~Crockpot (with a high and low setting)
~Milk (1% is what I use–but more fat is fine)
~Skim Milk Powder (thickens–also adds protein)
~Starter: either active culture organic plain yogurt or store bought live culture starter
~Cheesecloth, Strainer, Bowl

Steps:
-8 Cups milk into crockpot. Cover with lid. Set to low. Leave for 2.5-3 hrs.
-Turn off crockpot. Add approx 1/3 Cup of skim milk powder to milk and whisk well to dissolve powder.
-Leave lid on crockpot. Allow to stand and cool approx 3 hrs. You need the milk to be warm-ish–similar to the temp you’d use if warming a baby bottle of milk or formula.
-After 3 hrs, incorporate 1/2 Cup of starter yogurt/culture and stir to combine well.
-Place crockpot in oven for 8 hrs. You don’t need alot of heat–any ofr that matter–but I do leave the oven light on; and if your oven is gas, the pilot light on is fine too. You’ll know it’s done when it’s the consistency of a custard.
-Transfer yogurt to cheesecloth laiden strainer and suspend over a bowl for 2 hrs.

Notes:
~Skim milk additive is a preference. I simply find the final product to have better consistency when I use it. I also like the additional protein offered with the skim milk.
~Straining is also a preference. We like thick and rich yogurt. Also, some of the harsh “twang” is lessened when I strain as it removes the bitter lactose..which is in the whey. Don’t be alarmed if you strain–you WILL see a loss in yield of about 30% total and the liquid will be a greenish yellow.
~Leaving the yogurt in the oven longer DOES produce a slightly tart-er final product, but if you leave it too long, it will start to separate. Don’t fret if that happens–your yogurt is still perfectly fine..just strain it.

Voila!
Enjoy!