Author Topic: Can my failed yogurt be saved?  (Read 5053 times)

dadzcats

  • Guest
Can my failed yogurt be saved?
« on: November 06, 2012, 01:20:00 PM »
Had a friend over yesterday to learn what little I know about cheese making.  We had a lot going on - lunch, a batch of lactic cheese, chevre tasting, etc.  I think I got a little distracted and in the midst of it, instructed him to heat the milk for the yogurt we were making to 86 degrees (as for the lactic cheese we made) not 180 degrees. 

I didn't discover the problem until this morning when we saw that the resultant yogurt was very thin - not just warm milk but more the consistency of syrup. 

So - is it salvageable?  Can I reheat to 180 and start over?  What a dumb way to screw up 2 gallons of milk!  DUh!

Suggestions please! 

THANKS from the bottom of my ADHD heart

bbracken677

  • Guest
Re: Can my failed yogurt be saved?
« Reply #1 on: November 06, 2012, 02:32:52 PM »
There would be 2 ways to approach this.

1) if you trust the milk (I assume store bought pasteurized) then you could just increase the temp of the yogurt to 104 and hold for a few hours until the proper thickness is achieved

2) heat the milk to 180, after 30 minutes cool to 110, add your starter and proceed as normal.

I believe the main thing you have done is not re-pasteurized (180F) and then didn't warm enough (86) to provide an optimum growth temp for the culture. While I have never done this, it seems likely to be very recoverable via either of the 2 approaches, but if I were going to be using/eating the yogurt fairly quickly I would just use method 1.

Sailor Con Queso

  • Guest
Re: Can my failed yogurt be saved?
« Reply #2 on: November 06, 2012, 05:03:30 PM »
The damage is done. Start over.

Heating the milk not only kills most bacteria, it denatures the proteins. This creates an environment that will give a good, thick, set to the finished yogurt.


dadzcats

  • Guest
Re: Can my failed yogurt be saved?
« Reply #3 on: November 06, 2012, 08:06:51 PM »
Thanks for getting back to me.

Well bbracken, I decided to give #2 a shot - what do I have to lose except a little more culture?  It took a LONG time to get to 180 because of its thickened nature of the "milk" and now it has been incubating since 10 a.m. - 5 hours.  Interesting experiment.  There is some whey separation and some small amount of curd formation at this time.

I might as well let it in there for the evening and see what happens.  I'll let you know  :D

bbracken677

  • Guest
Re: Can my failed yogurt be saved?
« Reply #4 on: November 06, 2012, 09:01:04 PM »
Thanks for the update...but Sailor knows a ton more about these things than I do so I suspect your batch wont turn out right, but stranger things have happened  :)

dadzcats

  • Guest
Re: Can my failed yogurt be saved?
« Reply #5 on: November 08, 2012, 09:19:52 PM »
Sailor was right, turned out more like a kefir in taste and consistency.  Isn't going to waste though - it's being eaten on cereal and blended into smoothies :)

MrsKK

  • Guest
Re: Can my failed yogurt be saved?
« Reply #6 on: November 11, 2012, 01:54:20 PM »
It looks to me like you are checking the set every so often.  I found that when I opened the cooler (filled with hot tap water as an incubator for yogurt) the yogurt never turned out properly.  I know it is tough to do, but once you have it in the incubator, just leave it for a minimum of 8 hours.

I'm glad you are getting use out of it.