Made homemade yogurt

[valmom]

Hmm. Lumpy has not happened to me- wonder if it is because of the boiling? I raise my milk to 160 or so, then cool immediately- it never actually boils. I think it is technically "scalded" milk. I have used both ultrapasteurized and low temp pasteurized whole cow millk for mine- every once in awhile it does come out runny. I suppose I could strain it, but I think of it as my version of the commercial "go-gurt" they sell to the kids as drinkable yogurt.

 

[Leta]

Boiling is overkill.

165F kills all bacteria. With raw milk, you'd probably only need to heat it 110F and then add your culture and hold at 110 for 8 hours.

I drink raw milk, but use storebought for yogurting. Maybe ask freemotion, she has more experience with raw milk yogurting than I do.

 

[savingdogs]

My family doesn't care for drinkable yogurt, I made Marianne's crock pot yogurt and it tasted fine, but I had a hard time getting anyone to actually drink it because they like custard-style.

 

[Marianne]

SD, this link explains more stuff about yogurt using raw milk and more tips:

http://www.uga.edu/nchfp/publications/nchfp/factsheets/yogurt.html

I cook my yogurt longer in the slow cooker, around 5 hours or even longer for 3 qts of store milk. The longer that initial cook time, the thicker the yogurt will be. There have been plenty of times that I have drained some of the whey out to make a thicker, less tangy yogurt.

I really disliked the yogurt when I added the gelatin. It had a weird, almost slick, shiny texture that just really bugged me. I have used dry milk a few times, but don't anymore. If it's not thick enough, I drain the whey.

One time I stirred a pot of milk on low heat on the stove for 2 hours, trying to get it to 180!! A lot of it evaporated, but that was the absolute best yogurt I ever made.

The only times I have had lumps was when the starter had some lumps. It was a new container of Dannon...if I didn't live out in BF Egypt, I would have taken it back. But it worked okay..and every batch I made after that using homemade starter had the same little cottage cheese type lumps. Tasted like cream cheese, but just wasn't smooth. I finally just ate it all and got a new container at the grocery store.

 

[savingdogs]

I never thought about it being the yogurt I used as a starter. I used Greek Gyos. It was the only plain brand they carried that wasn't a huge size. Thanks for the link!