Yogurt and cream-top milk problem? UPDATE: fixed

[AnnaRaven]

So, I've made yogurt for years. With regular store bought milk. Everything from 2% to whole milk, with and without powdered milk (mostly without), with and without a yogurt maker or yogurt starter. No problem.

I've tried twice now to make yogurt with the cream-top milk and both times have failed. It doesn't "set". What am I doing wrong?

I heat the milk slowly to 185F, then chill it back down to lukewarm. Add the yogurt starter (I've tried both regular yogurt and the yogurt starter packet!), put it into the yogurt maker like normal, and set it for 10 hours. Nope - still liquid.

Something in this stuff appears to be killing my yogurt starter, is my best guess. Do I need to scald the milk at a higher temperature? Or lower temp? Or let it go longer for it to actually "set"?

ETA: I've checked it a few times along the way - so it isn't setting and then separating again...


Edited to clarify: I'm hoping someone else had a similar problem and can tell me how to fix it. Thanks!


UPDATE: It was a dead yogurt maker! I put the stuff in my oven at "bread proof" setting for a few hours and yeah -no problem. Argh! You might know my yogurt maker would crap out on me just as I'm trying a new recipe!

 

[yardfarmer]

DW and I have made a few batches of yogurt from raw whole milk lately. We heat to 140 F then cool to around 105 and add 8-12 ounces of organic yogurt; set it in a warmed oven overnight. Have had good luck so far. Our oven has a proofing setting for dough, which works great for yogurt.

 

[AnnaRaven]

So, to try to salvage the ones I already made, I poured them (they poured like milk) into a pan and heated it and held it at 185 for 30 minutes. I'm cooling it down slowly now, and at warming my yogurt starter up meanwhile. I'll try running it through the yogurt machine again with fresh starter after this process. If *that* doesn't work, I'm outta ideas.

I'm just hoping that holding for 30 mins will have helped denature the whey proteins or whatever it's supposed to do that helps make it thicker yogurt. We'll see.

 

[Wifezilla]

Was it raw milk you started with? Also, what are you using for starter. It is old? Could it have "died" on you?

 

[AnnaRaven]

Was it raw milk you started with? Also, what are you using for starter. It is old? Could it have "died" on you?

I started with pasteurized cream-top (non-homogenized) milk. My starter is yogourmet starter that is newly purchased. (I had tried with some Fage yogurt, but that didn't work and I'd guessed it was due to it being old, so I went and bought starter.)

 

[AnnaRaven]

I think my yogurt maker died! It's not warm. That would certainly affect the process...

Okay - so I've closed the jars and put them into the oven on "bread proof" setting. (It's okay to close the jars, right? Or do I need to leave them open for some reason? It's been a while since I did yogurt in the oven...)

 

[AnnaRaven]

So, I put the yogurt in the oven on "proof" setting and it worked fine. Tastes good and really rich. Yum. I've ordered a new yogurt maker off amazon and I'll be back up in business. (The oven proof setting just seems wasteful for making yogurt.)

 

[Javamama]

You have a bread proof setting on your oven? Wow! That would come in handy.