Low-tech homemade yoghurt

I started making yoghurt as a personal experiment. 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. My conclusion is that store bought yoghurt may not be as <healthy/beneficially alive> as I previously thought. One day I purchased some freeze dried yoghurt culture at the supermarket and started making amazing tasting yoghurt. When I tell people I make yoghurt they think I bought a machine to make it, not the case. I share with you my low tech technique.

Equipment: (have very clean)
1.5+ litre (6 cups+) capacity mason jar
accurate thermometer
a spatula
measuring cup
tall glass
Yoghurt culture (1 pouch/5g makes 1 litre of yoghurt)
a 6 pack beer cooler that can hold water (mine is plastic)
Dishwashing detergent (powder).
heavy bottom pot


Recipe:
I blend 500ml (2cups) of 10% cream (half and half) with 500ml (2cups) of 2% milk to make 1 litre (1 pint) (any combination of milk/cream or just plain milk will do). Place in pot and heat over medium-high

In the meantime:
Add 1 tbsp of dishwashing detergent to the glass and fill with hot tap water. Place the thermometer and spatula in the liquid. This glass is your sanitizing liquid for your instruments.

Add 2 tbsp of dishwashing detergent in the mason jar and fill with hot tap water, close and shake so that the liquid has contacted every surface.

To use either the thermometer or spatula, take it out of the glass, rinse under running water and use. Rinse under water before placing in the sanitizing liquid (glass).

Stir the milk occasionally. Heat to 82C (180F). Maintain the heat for 5 minutes. (If you overshoot the temperature, no problem.). When you reach the temperature, empty the sanitizing water from the mason jar into the measuring cup. Rinse the jar thoroughly several times until no residue. Pour the hot milk in the jar, leave the lid ajar, place in the cooler then add cold tap water to the cooler to the same level as the milk. Let stand until the milk has cooled to between 42-45C (108 – 112F) (about 8 min).

Take out the jar, empty the cooler, rinse the measuring cup thoroughly then add ¼ cup approx of milk, add culture and stir. Pour the inoculated milk back in the jar, seal, mix well then place in the cooler. Let the tap water run in the measuring cup in the sink and adjust the tap hence the water temperature using the thermometer to 45C (112F). Add the 45C (112F) water to the cooler to the same level as the milk. Close the cooler.
Let the mixture sit for 4 to 6 hours. (I usually change the water after 2 hours because it often has cooled to below 42C by then.)
Take out of the cooler when the milk has thicken/gelled and refrigerate. If the milk has not gelled after 7 hours discard and try again.

Luc H.

Bluezebra,

I found this reference for you (if yogurt cultures are available in your local supermarket I would go for that instead of buying plain yogurt, see my reason below...)
Luc

KYH,
I knew about the live yogurt versus the pasteurized ones but nevertheless when using live plain yogurt my results were disappointing and inconsistent (sometimes it worked sometimes not).
It almost felt like what Hotchef said :...after some time (10-15 times) the yogurt becomes weaker...
I think live yogurt is pumped, packaged and transported (etc..) that it is probably affected in someway and weaken. Cultures is the way to go.

HoChef,
I posted this recipe because many people that I tell them about making yogurt think you need a machine and are hesitant to make it themselves. This post was to show how low-tech yogurt making can be.

Luc H.

OregonYeti,

That clay wok-shaped dodad is interesting. I can almost taste the yogurt you are describing.
I have made Lassi before (with mango purée).. great stuff but never had the salt/pepper lassi.

As for Bulgarian yogurt, it is a very thick product that has to do with the culture composition:
The culture I use has a combination of:
Lactobacillus bulgaricus, Streptococcus Thermophilus, Lactobacillus Acidophilus.

L. Bulgarian bacteria converts lactose to lactic acid quickly which sets the yogurt into a firm product. If you replace milk with cream your yogurt will be thicker and creamier.

Luc H

My fellow forum colleagues please be cautious if you want to start making yogurt.

Make sure your equipment is always clean and sanitized while handling milk because the temperature used to ferment the yogurt is also the perfect temperature for nasty bacteria to grow as well.

Pasteurized milk, in particular, is susceptible of being contaminated with a pathogenic bacteria because it has little or no natural live bacterial flora of its own as a defense.

I have explained in my original post how to stay safe with a sanitizing solution.

Be safe,
Luc H

Mezzaluna,

almost $20 for yogurt starter cultures Wow that sounds expensive?!

I purchased cultures from an industrial source for $30 that can inoculate 100 liters of milk.
Even the cultures I buy at the supermarket is $4 for 6 packets of 5grams. Each packets can make 1 liter (1 pint) of yogurt.

Luc H

Hi OregonYeti,

(I feel this is too important not to respond)

Pasteurized milk is a low acid and high protein containing food before becoming yogurt (high acid) so has the potential of being dangerously contaminated by manipulation. see: http://www.fcs.msue.msu.edu/ff/pdffiles/foodsafety2.pdf

(Unspoiled from healthy cows) unpasteurized raw milk will sour into harmless curds if left on the counter because it is teaming with harmless even beneficial bacteria. Pasteurized milk having lost most of its indigenous bacteria is potentially susceptible to pathogenic bacterial contamination. Although the pathogenic bacteria may die off once the milk becomes acid turning to yogurt their toxins may not be destroyed and can be harmful.

In my recipe, the initial heating to 82C (180F) is a pasteurizing step then the sanitation solution for instruments just makes any subsequent manipulation more safe.

I have made beer from grain and mash for many years. Being high in carbohydrate and in water (low protein) the worst beer can turn is being spoiled by wild yeast or mold. None of which is life threatening. High protein foods like milk, meat and the like are potentially dangerous for a host of bacteria.

Bread, high in carbs, low in water and protein are almost always safe although like homebrews, not always edible.

The main problem with cans is botulism because of the provenance of the produce (cultivated in earth) which, strive in low acidity and lack of oxygen.

Luc H.