My method of making yogurt

[oriboaz]

Hi all,

I am a newbie to this site, and a newcomer to cheese making. I have, however, been making my own yogurt for several years now. It all started when I was living in San Diego and bought, on a whim, a Salton yogurt maker. This set me off on a yogurt-making journey. My first few batches were not consistent, but since then I have perfected my method, which I will detail here.

For making yogurt, I use 1 liter of milk (I like to use 1%, low-fat, milk), and 1 tbsp of culture from the previous batch. Since I don't sterilize my equipment, I use a new store-bought culture every few months. When living in the US, my favorite yogurt to use as culture was Trader Joe's "French Village" yogurt.
I do not use powdered milk. Many recipes suggest adding it, but I find it completely unnecessary. I get a thick yogurt without using powdered milk.

1. I heat the milk to 185F. I do this in a pyrex jug, in the microwave. I have done this so many times, that I know for my microwave this amounts to 9 minutes of heating. In my first few batches I used to stop the microwave and stir every couple of minutes in fear that the milk might run over, but I no longer do this. I found that the milk behaves well.
2. I leave the milk, in the microwave, for about 2 hours. It is important to let the milk stay hot for about 10-20 minutes at least to denature the milk proteins. Otherwise, the yogurt won't be thick. After about 2 hours in the microwave, the milk will have cooled down to 114F. Again, in the past I used to measure the temperature to make sure, but I have done this so many times that I no longer need to check the temperature. I do regulate myself every so often, but it's pretty consistent.
3. Once the milk has cooled down, I transfer it to a plastic container for culturing. (I use old 1qt yogurt containers that I have washed). I add 1 tbsp of previous yogurt, and mix well. The milk will have some foam on top from the pouring. I sometimes skim it off, and sometimes leave it. (If left, the foam will coagulate, leaving a slightly grainy layer on top of the yogurt).
4. Transfer the yogurt to the yogurt maker (I never bother to preheat). Incubate for 8-10 hours.
5. Refrigerate the yogurt for at least 12 hours. (It thickens upon refrigeration).

Interestingly, yogurt made in small containers will be thicker than yogurt made in large containers. I am not quite sure why this is so. (If anyone can enlighten me on this, it will be much appreciated). I sometimes make yogurt in individual size containers (especially when comparing several cultures; I like to try different yogurts available on the market), and the result is thicker than yogurt made in the 1 liter containers.

Another note: I am not fond of making yogurt in glass containers. I find that the yogurt made in a glass container doesn't come out as thick as yogurt made in a plastic container. I am not sure why. (Again, if anyone can tell me why this is so, I would be delighted).

Boaz

[MrsKK]

I can't say why you have the results that you do, but can only give my results.

I always use glass containers when making my yogurt, as I use a Coleman personal cooler filled with 120 Fahrenheit tap water to incubate the yogurt.

I heat a gallon of milk in the glass jar that I store my milk in.  I use a hot water bath with a rack in the bottom of it and place the jar of milk directly on the rack, water filling the kettle around the jar.  I leave the lid off the jar and insert my milk thermometer.  I also heat the milk to 185 degrees, then take the kettle off heat and allow the milk to set at that temperature for about 20-30 minutes.  I remove the jar and, depending upon my schedule, either allow the milk to cool at room temp or put it in a sink full of cold water.  I've had good results either way.  I cool the milk to 110 - 115 degrees before adding culture.

I use Greek Gods plain Greek yogurt as my original culture, using 1 cup of culture to 1 gallon of milk.  I remove one pint of the cultured milk, putting it in a sterilized pint jar - that will be the culture for two future batches of yogurt.  I then add one cup of sugar and a teaspoon of vanilla because that's how I like my yogurt flavored.

Into the Coleman cooler, filling it with 120 degree tap water, then the lid secured.  I leave it to incubate for 8-10 hours, depending upon my schedule, then put it in the fridge.  This makes a yogurt that is as thick as regular store-bought yogurt and I will eat it that way and use it for cooking.  If I want to be really indulgent, I drain the yogurt through butter muslin for a few hours until I remove about a half gallon of whey.  This produces a lush dessert yogurt that makes a wonderful topping for cheesecake or just eaten as is or with berries, etc.

I have also split my yogurt into two half-gallon glass containers, but have never noticed any difference in consistency.  I've never tried using plastic containers, so can't give any feedback there.

[tally]

thanks for the great advise on your technique. My yogurt often comes out thin and/or slimy. Good taste though. I just want it to be a little thicker. Can't wait to start another batch.

[MrsKK]

Are you using pasturized/homogenized milk?  I use raw, having my own cow, and the only time the yogurt has come out slimey was when I wasn't heating it up as much - I was hoping to have a raw milk yogurt, but that method doesn't really work.  I had to throw the whole mess away.

Good luck and let us know how it comes out.  I know some members on here use some powdered milk or tapioca flour to thicken their yogurts.  There is a newish thread that talks about that.

[tally]

Karen, I'm using store bought milk. I don't have access to a cow for raw milk (yet) I believe that my problem was not keeping the milk at temp for a long enough time. Does anyone ever add CaCl to milk when making yogurt?

[homeacremom]

I use raw milk and make a raw milk yogurt that is never heated above approx. 110*. I solved the slimy, thin textured problem by using a DVI yogurt culture.
I now do raw goat milk which doesn't thicken quite as much as the raw cow's milk. The texture reminds me of the drinking yogurt that seems quite common in every country I've been in other than the US. 

I love the ABY-2C.
http://www.dairyconnection.com/commerce/catalog.jsp?catId=11

As for the difference between plastic and glass....you might try preheating with the glass. If it were just an insulated yogurt maker  I would guess that it uses to much of the heat to warm the glass. I think all Salton's are thermostatic, electric units though. Is this correct?

[mtn_prof]

Karen, I'm using store bought milk. I don't have access to a cow for raw milk (yet) I believe that my problem was not keeping the milk at temp for a long enough time. Does anyone ever add CaCl to milk when making yogurt?

CaCl is an interesting idea. I imagine it would work? (It does for curds, after all.) I've only made yogurt once, and it was not as thick as I wanted. I'm trying again today with a different starter. If it still isn't thick enough, attempt #3 may use CaCl (unless anyone here has tried that before and it didn't work).

[linuxboy]

It doesn't work. Lactic coagulation is not enzyme-facilitated coagulation. Lactic coagulation happens because proteins lose their charge as the acidity increases. Acid production consumes colloidal calcium phosphate as well as dissolved calcium. For a thicker yogurt use the following approaches:

    * Use a stabilizing additive. Either a starch or gelatin work well. When using starch, pick one that doesn't interfere with mouthfeel, such as potato or tapicoa. Corn starch doesn't work well unless you cook the heck out of it. Start with 3 TBSP of starch added to cold milk before you start heating it (stir the starch in a cup with some milk to dissolve), or 1 packet of gelatin, or both.
    * Increase solids not fat percentage (SNF). To do this, you can boil away liquid from the milk, or add powdered or evaporated milk. If adding powdered milk, start with 5-6 TBSP per gallon and adjust to taste.
    * Introduce enzyme to strengthen coagulum. Add a little bit of rennet, like you would for a chevre. This works best in combination with other methods. Of course, add enzymes at the right temp, meaning same time as you inoculate the milk with culture.
    * Drain to remove excess whey. Similar to a greek yogurt, you can remove extra liquid after it has coagulated
    * Choose a specific culture that has tendency to form polysaccharide bonds between the outer membranes of each other. This leads to long chains of bacteria that physically thicken the coagulum and help to retain water. A good example is leuconostoc and selective lactococcus species.

[mtn_prof]

Thanks, linuxboy, that's helpful.

[BigCheese]

Is there any downside to the rennet thickener? That sounds great to me. Right now I am in the process of denaturing my proteins for the first time. I am expecting good results, but it is more work and no longer raw, so I would love similar results in a quicker raw-er form.

One other question: Sailor, I recall you saying something about adding a little raw milk into the denatured milk to re-introduce any desirable bacteria that may have been lost. The idea there is that these good bacterias will then propagate and to some extent make up for any loss that occurred during the denaturing, right?

[Sailor Con Queso]

If you want some of the natural probiotic bacteria and enzymes you can always add a little raw back in. However, it doesn't really serve a functional purpose for making yogurt. If you add too much it will defeat the purpose off denaturing the proteins.

[BigCheese]

Thanks sailor. I just added a cup back in to 2.5 gallons. Hope that was not too much!