i think you can make a greek style (thicker, creamier) with your new culture. just follow directions and when its all cultured and ‘set’, spoon it into a colander lined with a couple of layers of cheesecloth and place over a bowl to drain a few hours (in the fridge). the longer you drain the thicker it will be.

this makes a lot less yogurt, but you can use all the whey. in fact, i am making all the yogurt this way now because i love using the whey in bread products. i made some without and it seemed flavorless. the whey makes such a nice tang.

i am trying to catch a wild yeast for a sourdough starter (a la the current issue of above rubies) but if it doesnt work out, i will be ordering from cultures for health so will probably get a yogurt start to try as well. so be sure to let me know how you like it!

my son max has a bit of a dandruff issue which may (or may not) indicate a yeast issue. one of their yogurts is supposed to be good for battling yeast, so ill probably try that one…

gab

ps- if you are wanting to salt the yogurt a little, i would think you would want to tir it in before culturing. however, it might interfere with the culture. so you will have to experiment and let us know.

I love hearing how much money you’re saving. I think I would really like your yogurt, as I love tart yogurt. I think it is my Middle Eastern upbringing – tart and salty! Yumm… I think your kids will adjust over time.

I ordered a culture from Cultures For Health – I can’t remember which one – and it doesn’t need a heat source at all. I wanted to do the Greek style (because that is the one of my upbringing, I’m sure) but that is the only culture that requires heat. Once I get it going, I’d be happy to share some with you for your kitchen experiments!

That is so cool that you set up a bed on the deck! My kids would love that.

i was able to use a bit of the first batch to culture the second. at 110 in the dehydrator for 7-8 hours, it set up very nicely. this time i added just a bit of agave at the beginning so as to avoid stirring away the thickness after it set.

but somehow, it is all quite tart- even more tart, it seems to me, than the original unsweetened batch! maybe its because i used my own culture instead of commercial. also, i think the agave was ‘eaten’ by the culture (similar to kombucha) because there is no trace of a taste of it.

i made one regular and strained one batch for thicker greek style. i strained it a little too long and it is VERY thick. it is a tart cream cheese. with a little salt added it would make a nice salad cheese like feta or fresh goat cheese. very smooth and creamy.

the regular is a little lumpy and not commercial-yogurt-smooth, but definitely thicker than last time. there is a little whey separation, but im resisting stirring it. we just stir up our own portions in our own bowls.

my kids are a little resistant as it is tarter and not as nice a texture as they are used to. but since i am making this homemade live culture organic yogurt for $1.25-1.50 per quart as opposed to 4$ per quart for nancys live culture whole milk plain yogurt, they are just going to have to get used to it!

for those with an excalibur (large) dehydrator, i definitely recommend this method for ease. but it sounds like christina has it down pat without using a dehydrator or other special device.

wardeh, it was so hot yesterday that we were ready to set up a bed on the deck as we do each summer. but today it is so cold i had to put on thick socks this morning!

I’ll be back to pore through yours and Christina’s methods when we have more milk to turn into yogurt. I’m really glad the two of you are sharing so much – it will be helpful for so many!

do you make goat milk yogurt now? how does it compare?

i thought the dehydrator would just help the yogurt maintain the heat it already had and i didnt want it to get too hot but i ended up keeping it around 100 for the duration because my kitchen was quite cold last night (i refuse to firs up the pellet stove in may!)

it turned out well. i did some regular and then drained the whey from the rest. that greek style was greatly reduced in volume but boy was it superior! sweeter, much thicker, creamier, etc. and the whey wasnt waisted- i put it into a batch of whole wheat bagels and it gave them a nice sourdough like tang.

but i sort of ruined everything when i decided to stir in a little fresh raw honey (i was blessed with some fresh from the hive by a friend this morning!) and a dash of vanilla. the stirring after it was set turned it into a very thin milk like consistancy : (. so we drank it instead of using a spoon!

i will keep practicing. wardeh has an ad right here for a place that sells cultures that can be stirred into cold milk and they offer a special thick style. my own was nearly cream cheese consistancy so im sure you could make a marscapone out of this other stuff.

thanks again!

In fact I have forgotten some details now, I did strain some yogurt that came out like cream cheese. How thick it turns out is determined by how long it strains and how much pressure is applied: I line a colendar with a dish towel, let it strain untill I can gather the cloth at the top, wrap a rubberband around it and hang it from the sink faucet to drip overnight.

Presently I have a dairy goat, recently I have purchased milk from Costco for cheapness, and in the past I have kept track of the expiration date for organic milk at Safeway so I could show up on the day of clearance prices and buy it all to freeze. If you do that remember to open each container and pour a little out so it has room to expand

The milk gets heated to cause a chemical change that helps it to turn into yogurt or cheese, again its in my packed books…

I generally use fresh starter, recently I found a website that recommended a specific yogurt start for making raw yogurt thick, let me see if I can find the address…nope, I’m using my husbands computer and it doen’t have my favorites in it, hopefully I can find that site again someday.

Happy yauging everybody!

after heating and cooling the milk and adding the yogurt, i put it in my large dehydrator at 95 degrees. im not sure if this is the right temp to keep it ‘warm’! i plan to turn it down to around 80 after the second hour.

i am curious if christina ever strained for the greek style yogurt and how it turned out?? i would imagine it yields quite a bit less yogurt?

i have heard that you can save the drained off whey and use it in recipes in place of water (especially in breads) as it has a lot of healthy riboflavin.

i am also curious as to what type of milk christina uses here locally, and if she always uses started from her last batch or if she purchases new commercial yogurt for started sometimes. i read that you can only use the homemade started for about 4 batches…?

lastly, i was under the impression that heating the milk fully was to sanitize it. so thats probably why christina had conflicting advise on it? on the one had it is ‘safer’ on the other hand, more enzymes are destroyed!

thanks christina for sharing your expertise, and thanks wardeh for providing the space for us all to discuss it!