Yogurt:.... finally

So here it is, the long awaited entry on my yogurt.

I've never made yogurt by myself before. I made it once when I was kid, but I had lots of help from my father, so I can't really say I made it.

So I went out the other day and got some supplies.
I got yogurt, milk and cream. I've heard conflicting reports on whether ultra-pasteurized cream is worse than regular pasteurized (raw is ideal), but ultra pasteurized was my only option and I really want to make some cultured cream, and maybe make some cultured butter out of it. Also, I've read that ultra-pasteurized cream doesn't ferment well. We shall see.

I chose the yogurt that I did because it was made quasi-locally (Austin) and contained four cultures. L. acidophilus, L. bulgaricus, S. thermophilus, and Bifidobacterium longum. As you might already know. I strive for diversity in my gut flora.

So I got a pot and Put The milk in it. Then I slowly heated the milk until it reached 185 degrees. This seems redundant to me. Why should I repasteurize pasteurized milk? Won't I just be doing more damage to the milk. It seems to me I should just let it come to room temp then add the yogurt. I don't know how it could get contaminated, its already been killed. Oh, I forgot to tell you this took for-freaking-ever.

So I cleaned my fermentation vessel, a one gallon pitcher, and put the now double pasteurized (for that double cancer flavor) milk in there. I placed that in the sink with some water to let it cool. This also took forever. I tried stirring the milk and the water to make the milk cool faster. It didn't seem to help much.


So in the meantime I decided to get the cream started. I took a one literish storage container and put about a cup of yogurt in it, then I beat the yogurt to thin it out, as if I were making doogh or lassi. Next I started adding in the cream, doing my best to emulsify it, without whipping it too much. The cream did start to whip up pretty fast, but I got it all emulsified with the yogurt. Notice I did not bother to repasteurize the cream like I did the milk. I figured I'd live life on the edge. I mean this stuff is ULTRA-pasteurized. there better not be anything alive in there.


Eventually the milk cooled down to 110 degrees and I added some yogurt to it. I whipped this yogurt in the same way to thin it out before I added it. Then as logic would dictate, I mixed it in with my double cancerized... I mean pasteurized, milk.


Well where do we go from here? Should I stick it in a closet? No, I'm home for part of the summer, and my father keeps the AC nice and cool. I got a heating pad and some rubber bands and then wrapped it around the pitcher with some rubber bands.


As you can see if you look closely at the pitcher, the cream is sitting beneath the pitcher of yogurt, also being wrapped in the life giving warmth of the heating pad. I put this whole thing in a small laundry basket, and wrapped everything with dirty laundry. Just kidding, I used two clean towels. I didn't take a picture of this because I was already late to go over to my friends place and watch Star Trek: The Next Generation. I'm pretty sure you would do the same in my position. (And before we go any further; yes I'm a trekker, no, I won't tell you what I thought about that piece of crap backdoor reboot special effects orgy that just came out.)

So now my milk and cream are fermenting away in the corner. Tomorrow I will teach you how to make doogh, a traditional drink made from yogurt.

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This post if part of Fight Back Fridays.