Why is my yoghurt seprating

[nettie]

Hi All,

I am trying to make some fresh yogurt using the cr hansen yc-280 culture.  I am using raw milk.  My problem is after 6 hours ant temp 41c - 43c it is not what I would expect yogurt to be it is infact separating and  I am getting a curd and whey. Does anyone have any ideas why this is happening

Cheers

Annette

[Dorchestercheese]

It happens to me generally when the temp is a bit warmer.  Stir it in and you're all set.  I've never used the culture I always grab my favorite yogurt at the market.

[AnnDee]

Do you heat the milk first? I found that I make better yogurt from milk that has been heated to around 85-90C then cool it back to 40-44C.
When I make yogurt with straight raw milk, it didn't gel up properly and my yogurt end up soupy and runny.

[awakephd]

I agree with Ann - heating the milk first makes a remarkable difference in the results. I heat to around 82-83°C (180°F) and hold it there for 30 minutes. Not sure if the last part is truly necessary, but that's what I had read when I first learned of the importance of heating the milk first.

As I understand it, what this step accomplishes is to denature some of the proteins, making them available to be included in the structure of the yoghurt. These are the proteins that are normally left in the whey after making cheese - the proteins that are recovered as ricotta cheese by heating the whey.

[Bernardsmith]

I thought that heating the milk above the temperature necessary for culturing the yogurt also had the effect of evaporating off some of the water and so concentrating the solids resulting in a thicker yogurt.

[nettie]

Thanks so much I will try heating up first.  The recipe said to heat to 110f then add culture straight so will try to let it cool a little. There was a distinct curd and whey effect and I couldn't even stir them together so I drained the weigh and made some labneh.

[Dorchestercheese]

Hi curious what breed of cow is being used in Sri Lanka?

[nettie]

We have fresian, Jersy and ayrshire . There are some Indian breeds floating around.  We should be getting around 25 pregnant girls fromAustralia in August too.  Then my daughter and I won't be the only Aussie girls here hehe

[awakephd]

I thought that heating the milk above the temperature necessary for culturing the yogurt also had the effect of evaporating off some of the water and so concentrating the solids resulting in a thicker yogurt.

Maybe a tiny bit, but I don't think this is enough to account for the difference. In fact, I have made yoghurt in my InstaPot, which does a high-temp cycle (180°F), then after the milk cools you add the starter and it does a culture cycle (120°F) for however many hours you set. The lid is on the whole time, except when adding the starter, so any evaporation should condense back into the milk - but it still produces that thicker texture that comes with the high heat cycle.