How to Make Yogurt at Home
(Page 4 of 5)
March/April 1980
By V.B. Ramig
One clever way to delay even an occasional starter-shopping expenditure — as well as to ensure that every batch of yogurt will have a uniform beginning — is simply to freeze (in ice cube trays) a quantity of yogurt from your original starter. You can then store the accumulated yogurt blocks in your freezer, and thaw one or two cubes whenever you need a new starter.
RELATED CONTENT
Lifestyles Food Digest...
Make yogurt using an electric culturer or on the stove....
After more than a year of setbacks, MOTHER's methane maker is now in production, with Dick Shuttlew...
Recipes for low-fat, part-skim ricotta cheese and tangy yogurt cheese; including herbed ricotta spr...
MAKING YOGURT: TROUBLESHOOTING TIPS
Like many novice yogurtmakers, you may find that it takes a couple of tries to get a feel for fixing your own dairy food. In such a case you'll become an experienced bacteria breeder all the sooner if you learn from any initial mishaps. So, to help you understand such educational experiences (or better yet, avoid them altogether), here's a Yogurt Maker's Troubleshooting Guide:
* Are you a novice in the kitchen? Then be forewarned that a pot of innocent bubbling milk can swiftly turn into a raging, lid-lifting mess. And know that a hard-to-clean layer of scorched milk will coat the bottom of your cooking pan if you heat the milk too quickly.
* Did you successfully complete the yogurt cooking process but find that a thick coat of cream rose to the top of your yogurt? This outcome, which might occur if you're using nonhomogenized milk, can be prevented if you hasten the setting process by using less milk and also make sure the inoculated milk stays at its optimum cooking temperature.
* Did your yogurt separate into lumpy curds and watery whey? You probably let the milk get joggled around too much. It's perfectly fine to eat this way, but you can remedy the problem by stirring the whey back into your curds. Better still, turn the accident into an achievement: Strain the loose glop through a cheesecloth for bowlful of delicious yogurt cheese (called labneh). See also: Easy Cheesy: 4 Super-Simple Recipes
* What's that? Your batch didn't set at all? Well, such a calamity can have several causes. Your starter may have been too old. Perhaps you forgot to add the starter culture (you wouldn't be the first person to make this mistake!) You may have let the batch ferment for too short a time or at too high or low a temperature. Or the animals that your milk came from may have been treated with antibiotics, and the antibiotic traces could have wiped out the lactobacilli.
* Does your finished batch have an off flavor? Most likely, the problem is that some mold or foreign bacteria got into the incubator (probably from unclean equipment), or the milk wasn't heated enough initially to kill the liquid's natural microorganisms. In either case, don't use the strange batch.
SERVING YOUR FINISHED YOGURT
Yogurt is a versatile food that can be served at any meal, eaten as a quick snack, or slurped plain for a stomach-soothing evening sleep inducer. For family meals, yogurt can be mixed with apple or cranberry sauce and topped with granola and sesame seeds. Or you can use yogurt in salad dressings, for making dips and spreads, in bread, soups and casseroles or as a tasty sundae, by topping a batch of yogurt with some frozen juice concentrate and nuts. Be aware that any cooking that heats the yogurt up to more than 120 degrees will kill the live bacteria, but it's still OK to eat.
Page:
<< Previous 1 |
2 |
3 | 4 |
5 |
Next >>
