From: dadams@cray.com (David Adams)
Subject: making yogurt
Reply-To: dadams@cray.com
Organization: Cray Research, Inc.
Date: 14 Aug 92 13:12:34 CDT

Wendy Campbell wrote to me:

>I'd enjoy knowing how you make yogurt...

Here is how I do it.  I think that this is the easiest zymotechnic* 
experiment I know of and hence I recomend it for anyone beginning
to experiment with things like sourdough.  (It is easier than sourdough.)

I begin by choosing some brand of yogurt I like at the store.  Buy the
plain or some other variety that states on the carton, "Includes Active
Cultures."


I make some powdered milk a with about 60% of the normal amount of water.
I use warm water.  (Warm to the wrist--Baby bottle wrist test)

I inoculate 2 quarts with about a cup of fresh yogurt.  I set the jars
(I have used 2 quart or gallon size) in a coleman camping cooler at one
end, with a 4 qt. ice cream bucket of hot water in the other end.  

Then I put the lid on and go to bed.  Heat radiating from the hot water
keeps the cooler warm.  If it is an especially cold day I will wrap the
cooler with a sleeping bag or something.  In the morning when I get up
the yogurt is done.  I put it in the fridge to get cold.  I serve it 
with fruit or some other flavoring, and sometimes honey, sugar, or 
some other sweetner.

Save a few cups for the next batch.






*zymotechnic is a word coined durring disscussions in the sourdough mailing 
list, by Beverly Erlebacher, to mean any food making process that envolved
use of micro-organisms to culture or ferment the food product.

---
--David C. Adams  Statistician  Cray Research Inc.  dadams@cray.com
___________________________________________________________________
       member--Minnesotans for Global Warming.


Here is some thing Beverly wrote about using yogurt:

Subject:  ZYMO: yogurt

From: Beverly Erlebacher <bae@utcs.utoronto.ca>

A few weeks ago:

>  dadams@cherry10.cray.com (David Adams) writes:
> > 
> > I would like to see some uses for plain yogurt.

You can replace buttermilk with yogurt in any recipe.  You can often
replace sour cream with yogurt in a recipe, especially if the sour cream
is more of a garnish than a structural component.  If you aren't sure,
replace the sour cream with a mixture of sour cream and yogurt and see
how much difference it makes.  I like cornbread made with yogurt.

You can easily make a good salad dressing by mixing yogurt with finely
chopped fresh herbs, notably dill and garlic.  Mix it up in advance to
let the flavours diffuse out of the herbs.  This is super on sliced
cucumbers.  It grades into the East Indian dish called "raita" which is
yogurt mixed with a bit of spice and an assortment of fresh veggies like
chopped cucumber, scallions, tomatoes, etc.

If you prefer a richer salad dressing, try half and half yogurt and (real)
mayonnaise with finely crumbled blue cheese and garlic.

You can make "lassi", an East Indian drink.  Mix 1 part yogurt and 1 part
ice water in the blender with some sugar or honey to taste.  Very refreshing
in hot weather.  You can also add fruit or fruit juice, mango is traditional.
It can also be made with salt instead of sweetening.

A western alternative is the "smoothie", consisting of half and half yogurt
and milk with banana and other fruit added, mixed up in the blender.  Some
people add coconut, raw egg, honey, etc.  This is a lot more filling than
a lassi!

You can make frozen yogurt: mix yogurt, honey and fruit.  Bananas are good
for giving a good texture.  I usually use bananas plus some other kind of
fruit.  Experiment with different ratios.  It helps if the fruit is pre-frozen.
I don't have proper equipment, so my frozen yogurt is usually full of ice
crystals, alas.

You can imitate the fruit yogurt in the store by mixing some canned fruit or
jam into your homemade yogurt just before you eat it.

> From: "Ruckstuhl, Keith E." <KRUCK@WVNVM.WVNET.EDU>
> 
>   For cheesecake-type yogourt, I have been told to suspend (an unknown quantit
> y) in a cheesecloth or maybe even coffee filter with large surface area in the
> fridge so that extra moisture will drip out into the bowl you so convieniently
> placed beneath. After a few days, it should have lost enough moisture to be the
>  consistancy of cream cheese and can be used as a substitute for such.
>    Oh yeah- open up the cheesecloth bag every 8-12 hours and stir so no moistur
> e is trapped in the middle away from the edges :)
>    Disclaimer- I tried this once but didn't layer my cheesecloth, so too much d
> ripped out in the beginning and I gave up.
>                                                   Kruck

I make this stuff, it is easier than it sounds, and very good too.

My method:  Put a colander in a bowl.  Take a clean cotton cloth such as a
bandanna or handkerchief or a cloth napkin, wet it, squeeze it out, and line
the colander with it.  Pour in one or two quarts of yogurt.  Carefully pick
up the four corners of the cloth, bind them together with a strong rubber
band, and suspend the cloth from a knob on a kitchen cabinet or other suitable
projection.  Whey will drain out in a stream at first, then a fast drip, then
a slow drip...  I pour the whey into one of the jars I used to make the yogurt
so as to measure how much as drained out.  (I leave the setup dripping into
the jar on the countertop.)  You want to reduce the volume by one-half to
three quarters. I.e. if you start with 2 quarts of yogurt, you want to collect
1 to 1 1/2 quarts of whey.  This takes several hours.  I often leave it
dripping into a jar on the countertop overnight.  Most of the whey comes out
in the first hour or two.  I don't refrigerate it until it is finished
draining.  The part nearest the cloth will be drier than the center, but
it will equilibrate.  I try to sort of roll it off the cloth into a bowl,
most of it will come away cleanly if you started with a wet cloth.

This stuff is used in greek and mideastern cooking, where it is called
"strained yogurt" or "labnah".  It is not as sour as the original yogurt
because much of the lactic acid goes into the whey.  I like it spread
thickly on whole-wheat toast with lotsa raspberry jam!  You can make a
good dip for veggies by mixing it (especially the wetter form) with one
or more of: finely chopped fresh herbs, garlic, chives, fresh ground black
pepper, etc.  You can use the drier form for recipes that call for ricotta
or dry cottage cheese (== farmer's cheese) or quark.  It's a reasonable
thing to put in lasagna.

At this point you have the whey to deal with.  I hate to throw it out
because it has a lot of nutrition in it (the bright yellow colour is due
to the B vitamin riboflavin).  I've never had much luck using it as soup
stock.  It's a good thing to use when making bread, however.  Some people
like to drink it - you might want to sweeten it a bit first.  If it is
too acid for throwing into your soup or bread recipe, carefully stir in
some baking soda, about 1/4 tsp at a time - it foams a lot.  Before you
resolve to pour it down the sink, pour it on your garden or compost instead.

I sometimes feed the whey to my sourdough culture, first neutralizing it
with some soda.  It's more nutritious than water, at any rate! :-)

If you are planning to make strained yogurt like this, it helps to use extra
milk powder when you make the yogurt in the first place.  I usually make
yogurt from instant powdered milk by filling jars half full of milk powder
before adding the water.  This makes a nice thick creamy yogurt, but is
essentially devoid of fat (a big win for me!).

I can give a detailed description of how to make yogurt from powdered milk
if people are interested.

yrs, b.


Editor:

>I sometimes feed the whey to my sourdough culture, first neutralizing it
>with some soda.  It's more nutritious than water, at any rate! :-)

	I wonder if that would have a tendency to introduce a new strain of
	lactobacilli to your sourdough culture?  OTOH maybe that is where 
	you got your culture?

>I can give a detailed description of how to make yogurt from powdered milk
>if people are interested.

	I would like to see your technique.  I also use powdered milk.  
	I don't do anything fancy.  I mix the milk a little thicker than
	normal.  I use warm water.  I let about a cup of old yogurt warm
	up to room temperature.  I mix the milk in the yogurt and proof
	it for about 8 hours at 80 deg. F.  It always comes out very 
	nicely.