Following on from my post about making yogurt at home I have a discovery for you. For blogging purposes, I’ve been studying the varying qualities of my homemade yogurt rather more closely than usual.
Homemade natural yogurt can vary quite a lot. Sometimes it is a bit runny and sometimes insanely creamy. Both textures taste good but the ultra creamy homemade yogurt is definitely more attractive (and more impressive when boasting about a new skill to friends or serving as a dessert).
How to Create Creamy Homemade Yogurt
Use a Less than Fresh Yogurt ‘Starter’
In my experience yogurt made with a ‘starter’ of commercial natural yogurt is less likely to create a creamy end product. My theory is that the preservatives in the natural yogurt widely available, inhibit the yogurt making process.
This would seem sensible as commercially prepared natural yogurts last a very long time when compared to the homemade yogurt which will turn sour relatively quickly within a week.
Yogurt made with a starter of slightly sour smelling homemade yogurt (even of the runny variety) produces an extremely creamy textured yogurt. It seems a starter of yogurt which is not good to eat any more and smells pretty bad makes the best yogurt!
So if your yogurt is turning bad, turn it into lovely creamy yogurt rather than assigning it to the compost bin!
For a more self sufficient future
Sorry but I am not convinced.
You didn’t provide much explanation on the science behind it, especially that there are risks when consuming expired food.
I’d be glad to hear more on this. As it stands, I’d rather not get that perfect texture than eat expired yogurt. Ouch! my belly hurts just thinking about it. 🙂
PapaGeek.
PapaGeek’s last blog post..Are these people going to teach my kids?
Oh well sorry not to convince you PapaGeek. But then again I don’t do science on this site!
There is no expiry date on my homemade yohurt so I guess I just go with my nose!
I don’t want to eat ‘off’ yogurt either. The yogurt I eat always smells fresh and yummy. BUT what I don’t mind is using a few spoons of slightly less fresh tasting yogurt to make some more. The resulting batch of yogurt tastes (and smells) like fresh creamy yogurt because that’s what it is. That’s what all yogurt is really – milk turning ‘sour’ its just that by putting a little off yogurt into the milk we get it to turn sour with all the yogurt making bacteria we enjoy. I hope that explains things a little better!
But if like you, I had any worries I just wouldn’t make any!
Don’t worry Mrs. DB, I got your back.
The FDA doesn’t require companies to use expiration dates. My sour cream container says “best by” and my ricotta is labeled “sell by”. My comercial yogurt container doesn’t have anything except for a date!
And as for science background. My use of the scientific method by way or repeating my yogurt making experiments has also consistently resulted in old starters making the creamiest consistency yogurt batches. Fresh commercial yogurt as a starter has yielded me the thinnest, most disappointing batches. The flavor isn’t up to par, either. But this is just from my personal experience, making yogurt once a week since November last year.
So true about the difficulty in bragging about runny yogurt. I was so proud of my homemade batch so I served it to some friends and they wouldn’t even touch it. Will
try this asap. Thanks!
Fil, good luck – and if your friends are being ‘fussy’ don’t let them taste how great it is as they obviously don’t deserve it!
Thanks so much for sharing this! I’ve tried several things but we have goats milk and my yogurt is always a bit sad. As for expiration dates, anyone who throws out something because “they” say it’s bad is a very good consumer indeed. No offense meant at all but i prefer self sufficiency 🙂
I am with you on the best before dates. My nose is pretty good at sniffing out the good from the bad!
I have never tried yogurt making with goat’s milk, but it does make a mean Catalan flan!