Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat
Eating and Drinking => Cooking, Storing and Preserving => Topic started by: lettice on June 14, 2017, 09:18
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Curry night :D Loads of home grown spinach included and homemade yogurt :)
Oooh! someone else that makes home made yogurt.
I made some yesterday, thought Id take some pics while making it.
Make it about every 7-10 days.
My way of making that I have been doing for many years;
2 pints milk
2 1/2 tbsp yogurt starter
I use a double boiler with two pots. This stops any milk burning or sticking to the bottom of the pan.
First sterilise your smaller pot, spoon and thermometer in the larger pot by boiling for 10 minutes.
Add your milk to the smaller pot.
Add water to the larger pot so the smaller milk pot sits in it comfortably, important not to let any of the boiled water into the milk pot.
Boil until the milk temperature gets to 93c or 200f, takes about 15 to 20 mins.
Place the milk pot into a bowl of cold water and let the milk temperature drop to 43c or 110f, takes about 5 to 10 mins.
In a jug add your yogurt starter (use 1 1/4 tbsp per 1 pint milk) and mix with some milk to blend together.
Pour all the milk and the milk with yogurt starter into the flask. Mix well.
Leave for 8-10 hours.
Pour into jar and cover and allow to cool at room temperature for 15 mins.
Put jar in fridge and leave for 6 hours.
The yogurt will last for 7 to 10 days.
I always take some of the made yoghurt and freeze in 1 1/4 tbsp amounts in an ice tray to create a new starter.
Next time you need your next starter, take one from the freezer and while you sterilise your equipment, boil and cool the milk, the cube will have defrosted and be ready to mix as above.
If creating a new starter from scratch, make sure you use full fat natural yogurt. Do not use Greek yogurt.
Avoid using low fat milk as it will not make a thick or tasty yogurt.
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I also make my own yogurt occasionally, but find proper Greek yoghurt (not the Greek-style yoghurts some supermarkets sell) does work well, especially the FAGE brand, which contains 5 different types of live cultures.
I often strain mine, through sterilised cheesecloth/muslin to make it really thick.
I do agree you need to use full fat milk though :)
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By trial and error some live yogurts turn out to be more live than others. A very live one is longley farm. They have their own dairy herd based near wentworth
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I use an EasyYo flask (that I bought years ago) and a small carton of live yoghurt from the supermarket. I save some as a new starter, and it keeps me going for a few weeks, at which point I buy a new one (just in case). That's good to know Mum. :) I shall have a look for that when I go shopping (I do love Greek yoghurt).
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I also make my own yogurt occasionally, but find proper Greek yoghurt (not the Greek-style yoghurts some supermarkets sell) does work well, especially the FAGE brand, which contains 5 different types of live cultures.
I often strain mine, through sterilised cheesecloth/muslin to make it really thick.
I do agree you need to use full fat milk though :)
Yes have heard of others using Greek Yogurt as a starter, but like you said it has to be right.
It will not make Greek yogurt though, that is a completely different process and involves straining the whey from the yogurt.
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I also make my own yogurt occasionally, but find proper Greek yoghurt (not the Greek-style yoghurts some supermarkets sell) does work well, especially the FAGE brand, which contains 5 different types of live cultures.
I often strain mine, through sterilised cheesecloth/muslin to make it really thick.
I do agree you need to use full fat milk though :)
Yes have heard of others using Greek Yogurt as a starter, but like you said it has to be right.
It will not make Greek yogurt though, that is a completely different process and involves straining the whey from the yogurt.
I think that is what MoS does ☺
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The process of making the yoghurt is exactly the same, you just strain off the excess water at the end, as I said.
I often strain mine, through sterilised cheesecloth/muslin to make it really thick
In Greece some of their yogurt is made from a mix of sheep and cows milk which alters the taste somewhat 8) but it is all still made in the same way :) Lovely!
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Can you tell me how you make yours please Mum? When I heated the milk first, I ended up with a really 'grainy' yoghurt (although it could be a coincidence).
For info, I've found that the Brooklea Authentic Greek Yogurt (from Aldi) contains live cultures (L. Bulgaricus and S.Thermophilus) - not as many as Fage, but it's around half the price (£1.39 for 500g, as opposed to £2.75 for Fage). :)
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I don't do anything different to a thousand recipes on line ;)
Bring the milk up to the boil, but whip it off the heat before it actually rises up the saucepan, leave to cool til you can just about put a (clean) fingertip into it, without burning yourself
Stir in 1.5 tablespns of live yoghurt per pint of milk, as a starter, put it into my Lakeland yoghurt maker overnight.
Cool it in the fridge and once set strain it through a muslin lined sieve inside the fridge.
Some people add dried milk which I think makes for a grainy yoghurt.
I usually FAGE yoghurt as a starter and use a non-homogenised milk (more natural fat make-up) to make mine. I have been known to add some sheep's milk for a more authentic taste if I see it for sale :lol:
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If you don't have a heated yogurt maker but do have a bread proving box, you can use that too for making yogurt. Mine has a temperature control and I set it to 41C for yogurt.
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Thanks Mum! :)
I've been using my old EasyYo yoghurt maker, and it's ok... Getting very tempted into buying the new Lakeland yogurt/soft cheese maker though (can't seem to resist a kitchen gadget! :nowink:). :lol:
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Has anyone tried making it in a slow cooker, and was it successful?
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Slow Cookers might heat it too much while running, even on the lowest setting. If you have an accurate thermometer, see how close to 40C the peak temperature with a decent amount of water in the Slow Cooker gets.
If you warmed up the whole Slow Cooker with water in it, turned it off, waited till it was down to about 40C and then placed pots of yogurt in, it may retain enough heat with the lid on to work long enough - a bit like the insulated EasiYo containers do.
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Just pulled out my old Swan slow cooker recipe book.
It has a yogurt recipe.
3 pints milk
5 tbsp yogurt starter
Preheat the slow cooker on low for 20 minutes.
Add milk to slow cooker and leave for 2 1/2 hours.
Set slow cooker to off and leave with lid on for 3 hours.
Remove a cup of the milk and mix with yogurt starter.
Add the mixed yogurt starter to the milk in the slow cooker.
Mix well.
Wrap two thick towels over the slow cooker.
Leave for 8-10 hours.
Remove the yogurt from the slow cooker and place in jar to refrigerate for 6 hours.
I may give this a try at the weekend and check the temperatures, as I expect other's slow cookers will be different. I will expect the heat and cooling temps to match my normal method above.
Be interesting to try.
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Looks interesting to try. 7-10 days freshness isn't bad for yogurt too.
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I tried the slow cooker recipe that was in my slow cooker recipe booklet as above.
Checked the temp at a few stages and it hit 90c and 42c at the right moments.
The yogurt was thick and tasty, exactly as I normally make.
Here is a pic of the yogurt, now in jars and my slow cooker.