Well, I made my first attempt at yogurt today. I followed a recipe from my favorite crockpot recipe website - actually a great blog called "Crockpot 365." I didn't want to have to figure out how to create a double boiler with the limited number of pots that I own. So this crockpot idea seemed good.
I used 8 cups of goat milk, a half cup of organic plain yogurt (starter), and a packet of knox gelatin. I messed up almost immediately. I was supposed to warm the milk up on low for two and a half hours. Then, turn off the crockpot and wait three more hours before I added the yogurt. But I added the yogurt immediately...thus (most likely) killing the live bacteria that I needed to cultivate. Sooooo, I cursed, then I waited the appropriate three hours and added a second half cup of yogurt to the mix, along with the gelatin. The gelatin glopped up even though I used a wisk to add it. I'm not sure how to avoid that next time. Maybe mixing it into just the milk and then adding the yogurt would work better.
After adding the yogurt at the right time, I unplugged the crockpot and wrapped it up in a thick towel. After eight hours of waiting, I checked on it. The yogurt had congeled to a "drinkable yogurt" consistency...but it tasted GREAT! I couldn't wait to cool it, so I poured a little into a bowl, added sugar and vanilla, stirred and then went around the house forcing everyone to taste it. The verdict was wonderful. Everyone liked it (even Z, my yogurt snob).
I placed the whole pot in the fridge and hoped it might thicken a bit more. It did a little bit, but nothing like the yogurt you buy at the store. Someone suggested I put it through cheesecloth and let some of the moisture drip off. I guess I could try that. But honestly, I could easily use this for smoothies (something my kids eat almost every day) and nobody would care.
I did blend up a quart of yogurt with strawberries and bananas, a quart with vanilla, and left a quart plain in the fridge. For each flavored quart, I added a half cup of sugar - probably a little more than necessary, but I wanted to make sure it tasted good for the kids (and I'm sure that's a lot less than what the store-bought varieties have in them). I made smoothies with it for the kids this morning and they all drank them happily (of course they didn't know I used the goat yogurt).
2 comments:
Suggestion: Purchase an accurate (laboratory quality) thermometer. Temperature is critical in any fermentation project; I think the slow-cooker just doesn't offer the control you need. Here's an extract from the Wikipedia article. Note the comments on proteins, and fermentation time:
"The milk is first heated to about 80 °C to kill any undesirable bacteria and to denature the milk proteins so that they set together rather than form curds. The milk is then cooled to about 45 °C. The bacteria culture is added, and the temperature is maintained for 4 to 7 hours to allow fermentation. Once the milk has cooled, a tablespoon of yoghurt containing live active cultures is added to the scalded milk and mixed well. The yoghurt is poured into a container and incubated for the desired length of time. The fermentation time depends on the desired texture and tang in the final product. A shorter period yields a slightly runnier product with a mildly sour flavor, while a longer period yields a thicker and tarter yoghurt."
--Dad
Regarding the gelatin: Knox gelatin, Jello, and the luthier's "hide glue" all are derived from rendered connective tissue [a.k.a. hides, bones, etc.] from the slaughter house--though you won't read this unsettling news on the Knox & Jello labels. Sending a horse to the "glue factory" was not an idle threat!
My suggestion: add the Knox to the *heated* milk when it has cooled to around 70C; it should dissolve readily when stirred at the higher temperature, and not "glop" together.
--Dad
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