Yogurt Culture

[Mackay]

Can anyone recommend a good yogurt culture product that can be used repeatedly from batch to batch?

 

[big brown horse]

Sorry Mackay, I only do kefir. I think I heard organic stoney farms is pretty good.

 

[Blackbird]

I use Greek organic plain yogurt for my first culture, then I just save about a cup from each batch for the next batch's culture.

 

[freemotion]

I'm not sure what you are asking....I used Chiobani (sp?) to get my first batch started and used culture from each batch to start the next....unless dh ate it all up, then I'd buy some more. Then I went to kefir-making and rarely make yogurt. Kefir is so much easier. I bought a jar of powdered yogurt culture that I keep in the freezer now for the occasional big batch of yogurt because my dad likes it. I got it from The Dairy Connection when ordering cheesemaking supplies.

 

[Woodland Woman]

I have had great results with Stoneyfield organic plain yogurt. The yogurt turns out nice and thick using whole milk and I have used the culture over and over every couple weeks. I use 4 cups of milk to 1 container of yogurt.

 

[big brown horse]

THX WW, Stoneyfield is what I meant.

 

[ORChick]

To avoid the problems caused either by family members eating all of your last batch, or of not needing to make yogurt again until the last batch has been sitting around for awhile longer than optimum, take some of your original starter (any plain commercial yogurt you like the taste of, that has *live* cultures), or of the first batch you make, put it in an ice cube tray, and freeze. Pull out a cube or two while you are heating and cooling your milk, and mix it in to the 120* milk. This way you will always have some on hand. When you near the end of your yogurt cubes just make a double batch, and freeze some more.

 

[flossy]

Has anyone had any trouble with using yoghurt from a store as the culture? every single time I have tried it it hasn;t worked. Any ideas what I am doing wrong?

I use about 600ml of milk, just under a pint (forgive my metric measurements!!!) and I have added anywhere from a tablespoon to half a cup of yoghurt. I would love to make it every few days, but I can't get any of it to work.

 

[FarmerDenise]

Did you check to make sure the store bought yogurt has live cultures in it?
I always start mine with storebought, but I try to get organic, when I can. Then I use my homemade for a while and eventually end up getting a new batch of storebought.
I prefer a greek yogurt.

 

[Mackay]

To avoid the problems caused either by family members eating all of your last batch, or of not needing to make yogurt again until the last batch has been sitting around for awhile longer than optimum, take some of your original starter (any plain commercial yogurt you like the taste of, that has *live* cultures), or of the first batch you make, put it in an ice cube tray, and freeze. Pull out a cube or two while you are heating and cooling your milk, and mix it in to the 120* milk. This way you will always have some on hand. When you near the end of your yogurt cubes just make a double batch, and freeze some more.

this is a good idea! I will try this. Right now I have a packaged culture that is working well being that I like the taste of the yogurt, it has the type of bacteria I want.... but the company that sold it does not have it anymore!

I just made a second round with it and it came out well

My issue is that I have be been using store bought yogurt most of the time and come the third round or so the yogurt is not thick... and I've had to go out and purchase more that I know will only last a short time... I will try putting some in an ice cube try. It should work as the the actual packet of culture is to be kept in the freezer too.

Maybe I can really stretch the culture I currently have. We don't have stonybrook around here,,, have to go to the big big city for that.
Thanks everyone.