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    Fermentation and Food Preservation

    Post by: thalassa on December 14, 2008, 05:20:02 PM
    After B. started a thread inquiring about making yogurt (http://www.paganforum.com/index.php/topic,17772.0.html
    Homemade Yogurt Recipe
    4 cups of fresh, organic 2% milk
    1/3 cup of powdered milk
    1/2 cup organic yogurt (this will be your starter)
    Making yogurt begins with milk. Readers of 101 Cookbooks will not be surprised with the advice to buy organic milk that is fresh as possible. Slowly heat the milk on the stove over low-medium heat.
    At this point you can choose to add powdered milk. Powdered milk creates thicker yogurt that takes less time to ferment. It's optional if you are using whole milk or two percent. Some skim and one percent milk include added milk proteins which make the product taste less watery and will behave the same way as if you added powdered milk.
    For your first batch we are going to go with two-percent milk plus 1/3 cup of powdered milk. This combination of milk with the powder will produce a delicious, basic yogurt.
    The most tedious thing about making yogurt is watching the milk get hot. You need it to hit 170 degrees, but not have it boil. So you want to pay attention to the pot and have a thermometer at hand. Once you've hit the target temperature, remove from heat and then wait for the milk to cool. Unless you put the pot in the refrigerator it will take some time to cool to 108-112 degrees.
    If you are using existing yogurt as a starter, have it handy in a cup. When the milk is cooled to the proper temperature, mix a small amount it in with the yogurt. This will break up the yogurt and makes blending it with the rest of the milk easier. Once you add the starter, the milk can be placed in the pre-heated yogurt maker for four to eight hours. Refrigerate before serving. Makes one quart.
    From http://www.101cookbooks.com/archives/000176.html\


    International recipes, Barbecue and Grilling recipes, Dungeness crab recipes, Seafood, Cookbooks, Soul Food, Armenian recipes, desserts, Greek recipes. A selection of recipes from the Mediterranean, Middle East, Asia and Australia. All free and friendly


    http://homecooking.about.com/library...ogurtindex.htm
    Since this pre-crash post, I have discovered that a far easier way to do it is to put a gallon of milk in a crockpot, add a cup of the milk to about 1/2-3/4 cup of yogurt and blend til it is no longer lumpy and dump that in the crockpot. Cover and put on warm for 3-6 hours (check periodically). For thicker yogurt, add about a cup of dry milk in the beginning (blend it separately with a smaller amount of milk before adding it to the pot to prevent lumps).
    Wonderful Life: The Burgess Shale and the Nature of HistoryPagan Devotionals, because the wind and the rain is our Bible
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    #2
    Re: Yogurt Making

    Azazel and I made some decent yogurt with boiled milk, a teaspoon or so of lemon juice, and just keeping it in the fridge. Then when we made a new batch we'd just use some from the old batch with boiled milk.
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      #3
      Re: Yogurt Making

      I thought that was how you make a buttermilk substitute?
      Wonderful Life: The Burgess Shale and the Nature of HistoryPagan Devotionals, because the wind and the rain is our Bible
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        #4
        Re: Yogurt Making

        Weird. It worked fine for yogurt...
        my etsy store
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        "...leave me curled up in my ball,
        surrounded by plush, downy things,
        ill prepared, but willing,
        to descend."

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          #5
          Re: Yogurt Making

          [quote author=Caelia link=topic=319.msg3697#msg3697 date=1287293379]
          Weird. It worked fine for yogurt...
          [/quote]

          lol...they all sort of taste the same anyhow...like sour milk ;D
          Wonderful Life: The Burgess Shale and the Nature of HistoryPagan Devotionals, because the wind and the rain is our Bible
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            #6
            Re: Yogurt Making

            [quote author=thalassa link=topic=319.msg3700#msg3700 date=1287293487]
            lol...they all sort of taste the same anyhow...like sour milk ;D
            [/quote]

            Hmmm, see I've never had sour milk that I know of so I can't say.
            my etsy store
            My blog


            "...leave me curled up in my ball,
            surrounded by plush, downy things,
            ill prepared, but willing,
            to descend."

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              #7
              Re: Yogurt Making

              Powder milk? For yogurt? Never heard of this one.
              I make my own yogurt for years (3 years to be precise) and have never used anything else but about half a cup yogurt and the milk I want to make yogurt.
              Try to find fresh milk and boil it rather than milk from the store. When you can put your finger in the milk without burning it, pour the yogurt in it and stir. Then you need a big blanket to wrap the milk up. Wait 4-6 hours and ta - daaaaa, you got it. I usually make it in the evening and in the morning i have yogurt. I save some for the next batch.
              When everybody is thinking the same, nobody is thinking enough!

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                #8
                Re: Yogurt Making

                [quote author=StellaMorganna link=topic=319.msg3757#msg3757 date=1287298431]
                Powder milk? For yogurt?
                [/quote]

                Yup, it makes it thicker. I usually don't do it, unless I plan to make yogurt cheese, just because its less whey.
                Wonderful Life: The Burgess Shale and the Nature of HistoryPagan Devotionals, because the wind and the rain is our Bible
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                  #9
                  Re: Yogurt Making

                  [quote author=thalassa link=topic=319.msg3683#msg3683 date=1287291812]
                  I thought that was how you make a buttermilk substitute?
                  [/quote]

                  I've always used milk and vinegar as a substitute for buttermilk...


                  Mostly art.

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                    #10
                    Re: Yogurt Making

                    Powdered meilk, eh? I'll have to try that - I make my yogurt by setting the mix (just milk with a bit of yogurt added) on top of the bun warmer on the wood stove. Making yogurt is just soooo easy, everybody ought to try it!

                    When I make yogurt cheese, I actually drink the whey. I don't know why, but I have a thing for sour tastes. I figure that if it was good enough for Polyphemus, it's good enough for me!
                    Every moment of a life is a horrible tragedy, a slapstick comedy, dark nihilism, golden illumination, or nothing at all; depending on how we write the story we tell ourselves.

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                      #11
                      Re: Yogurt Making

                      [quote author=B. de Corbin link=topic=319.msg7119#msg7119 date=1288141325]
                      Powdered meilk, eh? I'll have to try that - I make my yogurt by setting the mix (just milk with a bit of yogurt added) on top of the bun warmer on the wood stove. Making yogurt is just soooo easy, everybody ought to try it!

                      When I make yogurt cheese, I actually drink the whey. I don't know why, but I have a thing for sour tastes. I figure that if it was good enough for Polyphemus, it's good enough for me!
                      [/quote]

                      I've read you can make bread with it...and that there is some sort of gatoradey kind of drink you can make from it
                      Wonderful Life: The Burgess Shale and the Nature of HistoryPagan Devotionals, because the wind and the rain is our Bible
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                        #12
                        Curd cheese, homemade butter and buttermilk

                        Nothing like a simple bit of homemaking dairy products to keep me busy!

                        Butter is the easiest thing in the world to make. Take one carton whipping or extra thick cream, pour into a screw-top jar that is at least double the volume of the amount of cream. Screw tightly shut. Put on some energetic music and bounce about, shaking, rolling and agitating the jar. Over time the contents will whip up, stiffen, coagulate, congeal and as if by magic will suddenly become a lump of butter floating in buttermilk. This can take anything from 20min to an hour, depending on the temp of the cream, so it is a great workout! Pour through a seive or a jelly bag if you have one, reserving the buttermilk for breadmaking. Gently knead the butter in your hands or with wooden spatulas to squeeze out any leftover buttermilk, rinse under a cold tap and then (optional) add up to 1/4 tsp salt. Done.

                        Curd cheese is also easy, but sadly the whey leftover is no good for baking. Take a carton od the same cream, as above, or whole fat goats milk (if you can get it from the milkman do so, as supermarket cream is often pasteurised). Gently heat the cream in a pan until it is at a rolling preboil. Add vinegar (any type), one capful at a time, pausing for a moment between each capful, until the contents of the pan will suddenly separate. For a smooth, ricotta-like curd cheese, stir the cheese to break up contents. If you want something more like mozarella, do not stir. Remove immediately from the heat and strain through a jelly bag until all whey is passed through. Take curds out of the bag, add a tiny amount of salt (optional) to taste. Beaten, it goes lovely with a fruit chutney on crackers. Unbeaten, it is a perfect home made pizza topping.

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                          #13
                          Re: Curd cheese, homemade butter and buttermilk

                          I've simplified making yogurt to a gallon of whole milk (just milk from the grocery store), a single serving size of plain yogurt...put it in the crockpot on warm, put the top on and check on it every couple hours.
                          Wonderful Life: The Burgess Shale and the Nature of HistoryPagan Devotionals, because the wind and the rain is our Bible
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                            #14
                            Re: Curd cheese, homemade butter and buttermilk

                            Ooh, that sounds far too easy to work! I have to try it! ;D

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                              #15
                              Re: Yogurt Making

                              This place, http://www.culturesforhealth.com/sta...t-starter.html has cultures galore. Great store, pretty good prices, and if you keep your yogurt going, never have to buy starter again. Sort of like a sour dough or a vinegar once you get the starter cultured correctly it'll go for hundreds (really) of years.

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