Comments on: Yoghurt Recipe

By: kate

kate — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 02:44:43 +0000

The starter yoghurt is an organic, plain, full fat small business one that comes from the farm that the milk is grown on. It’s mild, especially at this time of year. I’ve used this yoghurt often as starter and not had sourness problems before.

I think it’s that I’ve used too much starter and let the yoghurt set for too long. I’ll try one more batch carefully, and if that doesn’t work I’ll change starter.

btw, can I freeze starter yoghurt? I hate having to buy a tub of yoghurt in order to make my own (the smallest tub here is about 200mls and although it’s an organic yoghurt it’s made from milk ‘concentrate’ and I don’t quite trust it).

By: Sarah Luck

Sarah Luck — Sun, 24 Aug 2008 08:14:25 +0000

It’s the sourness of the yoghurt starter that you use as opposed to the age - but it tends to become more sour and more tart as it ages. However sweet or sour your starter yoghurt culture is will determine the taste of the yoghurt that you make - this is what I learnt when I first started to experiment with yoghurt making and it has held true for me so I’m not sure how you’re ending up with very sour yoghurt when your starter tastes mild. Is your starter a store bought yoghurt? Does it have any sugar or sweetners in it?

By: kate

kate — Sat, 23 Aug 2008 22:50:09 +0000

Thanks Sarah, I’ll try that out. The yoghurt I am using for starter is a few weeks old but tastes very mild. Do you think it’s still going to make sour yoghurt? Also can I use the sour yoghurt I made as starter, given that it’s only a few days old? What I am asking here is if it’s the age that’s the issue or the sourness?

By: Sarah Luck

Sarah Luck — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 02:05:43 +0000

Kate, it sounds like your starter is too getting too old. The older it gets, the more sour your yoghurt will be which is fine if you like it sour but not so good if you don’t. Probably best to start off with some fresh yoghurt for a starter. There’s an organic brand in my health food store that do a full fat natural yoghurt in a tiny baby sized tub and I buy one of these to use as a fresh batch of starter whenever mine starts to get too sour or I haven’t made yoghurt in a while.
Sarah

By: kate

kate — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 23:04:07 +0000

I have a friend who uses an easiyo with raw milk and I’m pretty sure she uses hot tap water, not boiling water. She changes the water half way through if it gets too cold.

By: kate

kate — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 23:01:57 +0000

Yes, I think the water is too hot too Ingrid. And I agree with Sarah, strain the curds to make lebneh.

My own problem at the moment is that I’ve made 3 batches in a row that are too sour. I’ve just started using raw milk again, and for the latest batch I used less starter and grew for 12 hours, but it’s still too sour. I’ll use even less starter next time and try 6-8hours, but is there anything I can do with the batches I have to make them less sour? I’m not big on adding anything sweet, but wondered if there were other ‘remedies’?

By: Sarah Luck

Sarah Luck — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 08:52:04 +0000

Ingrid I’ve had the same thing happen a few times and I think that mine ended up like that because the incubation temperature for the yoghurt was too hot. I was so excited the first time it happened though- I thought I’d discovered how to make mozarella cheese!
Maybe try again with a smaller amount and use hot water from the tap rather than boiling water for about 12 hours. Or use boiling water but don’t change it - you shouldn’t need to if the easiyo is insulated. All I use is a hot water bottle inside my oven to keep the temperature warm and stable (oven is insulated). I sit my yoghurt on the shelf above the hot water bottle and this works for me everytime.
If you strain the curds (the lumpy bits) from the whey (greenish liquid - looks like a proper witches brew) you’ll end up with a thick ‘yoghurt cheese’. Or you can just throw it in the blender with your fruit as you would yoghurt.

By: ingrid

ingrid — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 01:11:31 +0000

Hi Kate and all,
WHAT HAPPENNED. This time I ended up with a thin watery liquid and lumpy ‘curds’? are they called curds?
Sarah said that an Indian woman told her that too much starter makes for a runny lumpy product. I used less starter and it was worse. Am I leaving it in hot water too long…19 hrs?
I did as you suggested and used half the amount of starter that I had previously used. Then in put in my easiyo maker with the boiling water and changed boiling water more often. I keep reading that the mix to be covered loosely. My yoghurt maker says to screw the lid on tightly…but that was with making it from dry packet mixes that were then mixed with water.
Will the lumpy separated curds make a cheese if draining the lot through a cloth? Or do I put it in the blender and mix with fruit as I usually do when eating yoghurt.
Regards Ingrid

By: Sarah Luck

Sarah Luck — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 05:49:11 +0000

My thermometer for making yoghurt is my finger. An elderly Indian lady taught me this trick years ago - when the milk is warm enough to stick your finger in while keeping it still but stirring your finger through the milk feels too hot then it’s ready to have the starter added.
Like Kate, I often find that less is more when it comes to starter and also find that 1 tablespoon per litre of milk is enough. I also use a bamix to thoroughly blend the starter into the milk.
In his wonderful book Wild Fermentation, Sandor Katz says that by using too much starter yoghurt you crowd the bacillus bacteria which produces a sour, watery yoghurt.

By: kate

kate — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 00:58:24 +0000

Ingrid, try using less starter - say 1 tablespoon to a litre of milk. Probably your milk wasn’t warm enough when it went into the container. The starter would have cooled it furhter. And replace the hot water more often. Also make sure you don’t shake or disturb the yoghurt when you do this, as this affects how it forms.