Re: Ultimate Yogurt Bible
2018/03/30 02:34:37
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Sorry Jyoti, was overwhelmed by the deluge of responses and fan mail. Imagine that in a cyberspace realm where BECAN is king, that a wimpy yogurt recipe would produce such a landslide of support and interest...
Until then, few tips, tricks, observances…
You do not have to be in an absolutely sterile realm for this to work, but you are creating an environment to grow bacteria. Most stray bugs are below the heat barrier, but something nasty could get loose if you don’t keep things clean. Keep the milk covered while cooling and only test the temperature with clean utensils or fingers. Mason jars rinsed with hot tap water is sufficient.
You have a lot of control over the nature of the end product by varying heat. Obviously too hot or too cold won’t work but within say 98 to 120 degrees or so, the same bug will give a different yogurt. Borderline too hot or too cold and the yogurt will have a blah blandness like eating Elmer’s glue without the sweetness. Higher working temperatures otherwise produce a product that is more tart and with more whey separation on top. The whey can be used in cooking. Cooler temps produce a more bland yogurt with less separation. Would advise first trials to target the 115 degree mark. Then experiment on the edge.
Addition of the salt sugar and dried milk powder to the whole milk base is optional but makes the mix more firm when done.
Once everything is mixed, try not to disturb or shake the stuff as it can interfere. That’s why most home warriors set it up for night time cultivation.
Anything that is live will work, but make sure your source indicates live active cultures. I tend to avoid the sale store brands because they use ground up horse feet and starch to clot the stuff, allowing them to use only a small amount of actual yogurt. Add enough sugar and industrial chemicals to the clotted corpse and you think you are eating something good for you. Some of these brands are pasteurized after the fact to kill off everything and extend shelf life. These are worthless and you just lost your investment in a gallon of milk and your time wasted.
There are brands you can use like Activia that are a mono culture. Extremely vibrant, but all their line contains artificial sweeteners. These chemicals are so strong on our brain that even though you have done a dilution worthy of homeopathic titrations, the result will still be almost as sickening sweetened as the original. For variety I otherwise use plain cultures with multiple sources. My favorite is Nancy’s brand although this may be hard to obtain outside Oregon USA. Insane power in the hands of the creator is that you can mix and match different sources and come up with your own formula through trial and error. Scandinavians are way beyond us US yanks in this science, and have been for decades. Go to the store and purchase your refined gradient of probiotic by the identifying number across a vast selection.
If you like the stuff with fruits, sugar, additives, add them later, not in the original processing.
The Greek yogurt fad. Greater number of probiotics, more protein which they properly claim. Better for you, something exotic. Actually just made out of the normal rotgut cultures. They culture and squeeze out the liquid making it more dense, thus “Greek”. Sorry to bust the myth.
Acceptable probiotics… Uh… There are at least 5 genetic lines of probiotics that would work well in yogurt and deliver the real health benefits. Problem is that some of them are cultured residents in our colon and would likely affect a company’s sales if they were used. We tend to stick with Lactobacillis and not include the other goodies that sound really great on paper but may cause a mental disturbance if you were staring into a spoon and thought about the source.
These bugs have undergone a lot of selection, and hard work to come up with something that has health benefits and is also palatable. All Lacto’s are not the same. If you are taking a pill probiotic, the big question in an unregulated market is if the non refrigerated bottle of capsules you just forked out 10 dollars for is any good. Simple test. Sacrifice one of the capsules in a cup of warm milk overnite. In the morning, you should have yogurt. Will smell like and have the consistency of a cultured product, but obviously nothing you would want to eat. Verification procedure we used in the hospital in selecting our source for patients, making certain that the pill was viable.
Have been in the ring for a long time with this. Any questions needed for your presentations, will be more prompt to help if I can. Good luck in your travels.
John