Cooking with Jonny69: home made yoghurt

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Something I've always wanted to have a go at is home made yoghurt. The prospect of creating a live culture in my kitchen has always been daunting. That said, tragically watching QVC, I've seen adverts for EasiYo which makes yoghurt from nothing more than powdered milk in a special yoghurt maker powered by hot water. Hmm, I figured it would be better with fresh milk, the more cream the better and I wouldn't need a special yoghurt maker to do it! The way yoghurt works is you introduce a culture into milk and keep it warm so that it breeds and the whole lot turns into yoghurt. You use a live yoghurt for the culture and I used a Thermos flask to keep it warm overnight.

It's really simple:
  1. Boil some milk and let it cool to 45 degrees,
  2. Add yoghurt
  3. Pour it into a Thermos and leave it overnight
  4. Yoghurt for breakfast!

Here's how you do it step-by-step with pictures...

1. Boil a litre of milk. You can use whole milk or skimmed, but the more cream the creamier it tastes. Let it cool to 45 degrees - if you don't have a thermometer this is about the same temperature as a hot bath. In a bowl, mix about 2 tablespoons of plain Greek yoghurt with a splash of the warm milk to make it runny. You need live yoghurt and I used Fage Total yoghurt because it was the only one that said it was live yoghurt on the tub. Stir it into the milk in the pan and pour the whole lot into a Thermos. The more manly the flask at this point, the better the yoghurt will taste. For example, this 1.3 litre unbreakable stainless flask will taste the best:

IMG_6839.JPG


2. Leave it overnight. I tend to do this at about 9-10pm after I've eaten dinner and it's ready by 7am, so it doesn't take long. The next morning when you take the lid off the flask you'll see the bubbles from the milk froth are still there except it's now super thick and it smells like creamy yoghurt:

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3. Check it out, it is still warm, it is ready to eat and it is THICK :D

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4. Yogurt from a tub tends to separate slightly and this is no different. It'll be a bit lumpy at this point. Pour it into a jar and give it a brisk stir, or if you want it extra thick you can pour away some of the liquid. Now you have a litre of some of the most amazing yoghurt:

IMG_6844.JPG


Important: This will be the most amazing yoghurt you've ever tasted. Make sure you don't scoff it all, because you need to leave about 2 tablespoons for when you make it again next time :D
 
I assume that when you finish you stick it in the fridge before serving?
First serving is too tempting so it's usually straight from the flask (plus the top bit is the creamiest bit :D), but straight in the fridge afterwards :D
 
Interesting, I didn't realize it was so simple to make this!! It really only takes a single night for the bacteria to do their work? This puts a whole new perspective on how horribly overpriced supermarket yoghurt is! :p

Just a question though, should it still be at 45C when you pour it into the Thermos? You seal the Thermos when the milk is still at that temperature, the objective being to keep it warm as long as possible?

Total is industrialised rubbish though, proper yoghurt should be made from sheep's milk (and ideally a sheep/goat milk mixture) and taste a lot more sour than Total! I'm going to try your recipe with cow's milk, and if it works I'm going to try it with goat's milk next!

Then if THAT works I'm going to scour around and see if I can source some unpasteurised milk! Now THAT would make good yoghurt!:D
Around 45 degrees C. As long as it's up there for a few hours it seems to be able to get itself done.

Interesting point about the sour flavour. I did some with Gold Top expecting it to come out creamier, but it is in fact a lot more sour. I think it must be the homogenisation process that all milk is subjected to these days that alters the flavour. Not really a problem for me because I prefer creamy to sour, but it should help you get the flavour you're looking for :p

I screwed it up:(

Used live yoghurt, about 2 tbs to 600ml of milk. Warmed and let overnight and it came out runny with a few lumps in it.

I didn't check your recipe when I made it, just vaguely remembered something about mixing milk and yoghurt! I didn't make the yoghurt runny by mixing with warm water first, i just whisked it in with a fork. Could that be the problem? The milk was thicker when I poured it out the thermos...
Yeah, mix a bit of warm milk with the yoghurt before you stir it into the milk. The other thing is I don't know if all supermarket yoghurt is live or not? Maybe that might have added to the problem?

how long will it last in the fridge.

jonny69 does it again, your kitchen science rocks :D
Lol, cheers fella :D I've been eating it quite quickly but the last lot has been in there over a week and it seems to be ok. I guess it'll keep as long as any other plain yoghurt ie a couple of weeks.
 
Maybe try Total next time. They do a comedy miniature size tub.

Would be interesting to find out what went wrong though. I would have though even if it wasn't mixed in properly it would still turn it to yoghurt.
 
Never heard of Gold Top, I'll look for it next time I'm in the supermarket!
Never heard of Gold Top? Psht. Kids these days :p

From the milkman you used to get silver top which was normal milk and gold top which was extra creamy Jersey milk. Both needed shaking because the cream used to float to the top. Then in the 80's stripy top came along which was semi-skimmed and then skimmed which is just flour and water I think :p
 
Ah, I see, now I know what Gold Top is! Remember [Texas twang] I ain't from around these parts [/Texas twang]
Yeah I figured that was probably the case. I'm pretty sure I saw sheep's milk in Waitrose and I'm going to give some a go with the yoghurt I've got going here. My mum is intolerant to cow's milk so she can have a nice surprise with this with a bit of luck.

This might be a retarded question but does the home-made yoghurt taste the same as the yoghurt you started off with?

If so... you can just keep repeating for INFINITE YOGHURT?

http://t1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRAlk33aF6trnI5Tc_CRHHtMIh9mhWsN8eKgziweACWWR9M_l7J[IMG]

YOGHURT COMPANIES WILL GO BANKRUPT[/QUOTE]
Lol. Depends what milk you use and I'm guessing the culture affects the taste a bit as well. Blue top milk with Total tastes exactly the same as the original Total. Unhomogenised milk was more sour. I'm going to try some raw milk from local cows when (if?) I next pass the farm shop and I'll let you know how it goes with milk from the other farmyard animals :D
 
Reporting a partial success here. Yoghurt came out but is quite thin and a bit lumpy. It's like a yoghurt drink consistency will probably be OK for use in smoothies/ cereal.

I used a crappy non- branded 'thermos' I got from work for free. Is this likely to be why I didnt get thick yoghurt?

Thanks
I got a thin lumpy one this morning too. There was a lot more liquid in it than usual so I strained it off. It's quite often lumpy though. I just give it a whisk to make it smooth. What milk and starter yoghurt did you use out of interest?

Just wondering, would this work with those expensive single serving probiotic yogurt like actimel?
Well I haven't tried it yet, but there's almost no reason why it wouldn't work. I was thinking exactly what you were thinking :D
 
I can confirm Actimel makes yoghurt. Now to try some of that Yakult stuff :D
 
It is literally biological experiments in my kitchen at the moment with the amount of bacteria and yeasts bubbling away in home brew and yoghurts :D
 
Pretty much. It's just live bacteria that needs milk to breed in, as I understand it, so you feed it milk and it breeds :D
 
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