Projo Fitness Blog

By TOM MEADE
Journal Sports Writer

Making your own yogurt is a breeze, and the results are as consistent as you want to make them, despite an enormous number of variables in the process.

Like all other fermented foods - including beer, wine, and cheese - you're working with the original fresh liquid and microorganisms that do the work of fermentation.

Fresh, raw milk from a single animal can vary tremendously from breed to breed, from season to season, and from pasture to pasture, depending on what the animal is eating, says Ricki Carroll, founder of New England Cheesemaking Supply and author of the book, Home Cheese Making. The book is the text for the basic cheese-making school Carroll operates in her huge kitchen in Ashfield, Mass.

To produce consistent fermented dairy products, it's critical to use clean and well rinsed equipment, and ingredients from known sources, she teaches her students. Be scrupulous about watching the thermometer and the clock.

Bloomberg News photo

Buying one brand of organic milk from the grocery store produces yogurt that is consistent from batch to batch. Fat-free milk works well. Raw milk also works as long as the animal from which it came is free of antibiotics. To make thicker yogurt, add one-quarter cup of powdered milk to the liquid milk you use.

You can buy starter bacteria from a cheese supplier or use three tablespoons of organic yogurt with live cultures. Widely available, Stonyfield Farm organic yogurt contains six species of bacteria; other brands of organic yogurt are also available regionally. Greek yogurt is available in many store; it isn't as sour as many American yogurts.

Two pieces of special equipment are necessary: a dairy thermometer which costs about $10, and an incubator or "yogurt maker." Non-electric yogurt makers, essentially insulated buckets, cost from $35 to $48. Electric yogurt makers start at $15, and one popular model, the Salton YM9 one-quart, occasionally is on sale at Amazon.com for $10.

The process is easy:

• Dissolve one-quarter cup powdered milk in 4 cups of cow's milk.
• Heat the liquid to 180 degrees.
• Cool the milk to 116 degrees, and dissolve the starter, either a package of powdered starter, or 3 tablespoons of fresh yogurt containing live cultures.
• Keep the mixture covered, at 116 degrees for about six hours until it "sets up," the consistency of thick cream.
• Refrigerate your yogurt for up to two weeks, reserving three tablespoons to start your next batch.
• If you're using goat's milk, add 1 drop of rennet (available from a cheese-making supplier) to 4 tablespoons of unchlorinated water, then mix the diluted rennet into the milk, and continue with the cow's milk process.
• If you're using soy milk, heat the liquid to 110 degrees, add the starter, and let it incubate at 100 degrees until it sets up as yogurt.
• For flavored yogurt, mix in honey, maple syrup, or fruit just before serving.
• To make it "Greek style," pour the chilled yogurt into a sieve lined with cheese cloth. Allow some of the liquid -- "whey" -- to drain into a bowl beneath the sieve. If you allow all the whey to drain off, you will be left with "yogurt cheese" in the sieve. It's similar to farmer's cheese.
• Use the whey instead of water or milk in baking, feed it to your pets, or drink it yourself: it's loaded with beneficial bacteria.

 Tags  cheese-making healthy foods home-made yogurt New England

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