What to cook with expired yogurt? Technology for preparing yogurt using a yogurt maker Why does yogurt curdle in a yogurt maker?

Almost every housewife can find a small supply of food, both in the refrigerator and in the kitchen cabinets. This means not only bags of cereals, sugar and tea, but also vegetables, semi-finished products and, of course, dairy products. Who among us doesn’t like to enjoy yogurt, and the desire can arise unexpectedly, so the housewives have everything ready.

When everything is fresh, it's good. What to do if supplies start to spoil, such as yogurt. It’s no longer possible to eat expired food, but it’s a pity to throw it away; in this case, you can put it to use, that is, cook something. To avoid a stomach ache from the timing, the ideal option is baking. Here are some recipes.

Pancakes made from expired yogurt

Combine two glasses of yogurt, two eggs, three tablespoons of sugar and a pinch of salt, beat in a blender, gradually add one and a half glasses of flour (you may need a little more). The dough will be thick, so the pancakes may look more like the American version - pancakes. Pour a pinch of soda into the mixture for fluffiness and add three tablespoons of odorless vegetable oil.

Heat a frying pan with a spoonful of oil, pour in a small amount of batter and fry on both sides, like regular pancakes. Serve with any tops, jam, honey or condensed milk.

Pancakes are made from the same dough, the dough is made a little thicker and spooned into hot(!) oil in a frying pan.

Chocolate cupcake and expired yogurt

In a bowl, combine one and a half glasses of yogurt, two glasses of flour, three eggs, a glass of sugar, a spoonful of baking powder (if you don’t have it, baking soda or a spoonful of lemon juice will do). Divide the finished dough into two parts, add 2-3 tablespoons of cocoa into one (depending on your love for chocolate baked goods).

We cover the form with parchment, grease it with butter and lay out a spoonful of one dough, then another (you can do two at a time to make it faster). When all the dough has been used, put the pan in the oven and bake for 30-40 minutes. If you want, drizzle the finished pie with chocolate glaze or cut it lengthwise and soak it in cream or condensed milk/jam. Let's serve. Another name for this pie is “Zebra”.

Excellent cherry pie made from stale yogurt

In a deep bowl, combine the ingredients for the dough - a glass of expired yogurt, a glass of jam (any kind), in this case cherry, and a spoonful of soda. Let it sit for 10-14 minutes, then add two eggs, beaten with a fork, sugar to your taste (note that the jam is quite sweet), a glass of chopped nuts (again, optional) and flour. Add enough of it so that the dough resembles thick sour cream, stir everything thoroughly.

We cover the form with parchment, be sure to grease it with butter or margarine and pour out the dough. We cook for about an hour, maybe a little more. It is best to check readiness with a wooden skewer or toothpick.

When the pie has cooled a little, you can top it with whipped cream or sour cream.

Expired yogurt is the basis of a delicious sponge cake

Combine a glass of cocoa, half a spoon of baking powder, 300 grams of flour, a whisper of salt and a spoon of soda. Add sugar to them in the amount of a glass. Separately, use a mixer to bring a glass of yogurt, three eggs and half a glass of vegetable oil until smooth. Combine both mixtures and mix well. Pour the dough onto a greased parchment tin or sheet and place in the oven until completely baked. Check for doneness with a toothpick.

To make the biscuit even tastier, prepare the cream. Boil one and a half glasses of milk (fresh) with 120 grams of sugar and a pinch of vanillin (you can even put a vanilla stick, the smell will be delicious). Beat another glass of fresh milk with 4 tablespoons of flour and one egg. Carefully pour the finished mixture into boiling milk (over low heat) and boil until the mixture thickens.

Cut the finished and slightly cooled sponge cake along the edges (so that the cake has an even shape), cut it lengthwise and grease it well with cream, cover the halves, grease the top. You can chop the sponge cake scraps with a knife or your hands and put them on top of the cake, filling them with cream again. Coat the sides and let soak for 60 minutes. If you like fruits or berries, you can put them between the cakes, it will turn out even tastier and more original.

I have always been very fond of dairy products and cannot imagine my usual daily diet without a jar of yogurt, a glass of kefir or milk. But it never even occurred to me to make fermented milk myself. I always believed that this was some kind of very technically complex process that required almost biological education.

The local nurse told me that you can simply buy powdered starter and add it to milk. The time had come to introduce dairy products to my little daughter’s complementary foods, and I understandably didn’t trust store-bought ones at all.

So, at the pharmacy I bought this box of dry sourdough “Skvaska”:

The box contains 5 bags of starter:

Each sachet is enough to make 3 liters of yogurt. Given the short shelf life, I don’t think it makes sense to cook so much at once. I divide the bag into three parts and prepare one liter at a time. It is enough for our family just for 2-3 days.

The cost of the entire box is 290 rubles. At first it seemed a little expensive to me, but then I found out that you can use already obtained yogurt for re-cooking. If used correctly, the starter can last for a year.

Naturally, I didn’t succeed right away, and questions naturally began to arise, especially considering that I had no idea what homemade yogurt was, what it should look like and what it should taste like. The answers to my questions were not always found on the Internet, largely due to the fact that everyone cooks in different ways and under different conditions. And in general, the concept of “delicious yogurt” is also different for everyone. Therefore, I had to experiment a lot and make mistakes until I got exactly the yogurt that I needed.

That's why I decided to write this review for beginners or for those who still don't succeed.

Main questions:

1.What to cook with?

Some people cook in a thermos, some use a radiator, and some don’t bother and use a yogurt maker. I belong to the latter. I tried cooking in a thermos and on a radiator, and even put yogurt in the oven. But when you have a toddler running around the house poking his nose everywhere, the chances of making normal yogurt using these methods are practically zero. This is because the most important thing in making yogurt is a stable temperature of 40 degrees. Where can you get it? A battery is a good option if there is no child or cat at home and the size allows it. I have a child, and a cat, and the batteries are narrow, you can’t install anything.

After several unsuccessful attempts, I bought this yogurt maker:

The price of the issue is only 900 rubles, but it saves a lot of time, and the whole process is simplified, it couldn’t be simpler.

2.How to cook?

Take 1 liter of milk, heat it (I do this in the microwave), but do not boil. Then let the milk cool to 40 degrees (precision is not necessary, 30 degrees is possible), and pour out 1/3 of the bag.

Mix and pour into the yogurt maker.

The cooking time according to the instructions is 6-10 hours, but in reality it depends on the cooking method and temperature. At first, I would recommend checking the yogurt every hour after 5 hours. When it becomes thick, it’s ready. Yogurt makers always overheat, so the time is reduced. Mine does it in 5 hours.

Once the yogurt is ready, put it in the refrigerator for 2-3 hours so that bacteria stop multiplying.

Manufacturer's instructions:

3.What kind of milk should I take?

I take 3.2% fat content and with a short shelf life. I don’t think that milk from a tetra pack, which sits in a warm place for a week and does not sour, can create a normal environment for lactic acid bacteria to reproduce.

4. How to cook from already obtained yogurt?

Also. Just instead of dry starter, add a tablespoon of prepared yogurt.

You could cook this way forever, but over time the yogurt will turn out more and more sour. I update the starter every 10-15 times.

5. Why did the yogurt turn out liquid?

Most likely, this question may arise if you are not cooking in a yogurt maker. The problem is not with the sourdough, unless, of course, your starter is expired. The problem is the temperature, it was not enough. For this reason, I bought a yogurt maker, because I couldn’t create the necessary and stable temperature on my own, and the yogurt turned out to be drinkable. I cooked it in the yogurt maker for so long, the consistency turned out to be like very rich sour cream.

6. Why does yogurt turn out sour?

Sourness in yogurt is not a sign of something bad, but a matter of taste. Here whoever likes it more.

The acidity depends on the cooking time. If you don’t like sour yogurts, then without any options you need to buy a yogurt maker and start experimenting with time and taste. As soon as the desired consistency is obtained, the yogurt should be taken out and placed in the refrigerator. For me it takes 5 hours, then it tastes like cream. If you leave it for another half an hour, acid appears.

The acid also increases with each re-fermentation.

7. Why do flakes appear in yogurt?

The problem is the sourdough. My flakes appear after repeated fermentation. Most likely, either something happens to the beneficial bacteria themselves, or during frequent use, unhealthy ones are introduced. You need to start again with dry starter.

And the last, in my opinion, important question:

8. Isn’t it easier to buy yogurt in a store or cook from a store-bought one?

I would have doubted it myself if it weren’t for my personal story.

Half a year before I started making homemade yogurt, my eldest daughter started having stomach problems. She was in the hospital, diagnosed with gastroenteritis, but the treatment only helped for a month, and she was put on a diet and fed bacteria, but after some time the heaviness and nausea returned. They were already planning to take her to a paid clinic for examination.

Then I started making homemade milk for the younger one, and at the same time feeding the older one with it. And the stomach problems stopped. I repeat, our family ate store-bought sour milk all the time, but it did not have any beneficial effect on our daughter’s stomach, and the course of bifidumbacterin also did not help. That’s why I’m all for yogurt made from normal starter culture.

I described the entire technology using only the “Skvaska” starter; I haven’t tried others, and I don’t plan to. For me it is ideal, and it is simply impossible not to make delicious and thick yogurt with it.

Thank you for your attention to my review!

There are three forms of homemade yogurt: liquid, paste... and balls :)

In the previous article (see link above) I talked a little about the properties of yogurt and what dishes can be prepared from it. It turned out that not everyone knows what strained yogurt is, how it is made and how it can be used. I'll tell you in order :)

The title photo shows homemade yogurt. Nowadays, however, we rarely cook it, so I only have an old photo at hand. Yogurt (or rather, a product that is similar to it) is easy to prepare at home: the main thing is to find a suitable starter.

In different regions, a similar product is called differently (yogurt, katyk, matsun, dahi, matsoni, etc.), it is prepared from different milk, in different climatic and even living conditions, different starter cultures are also used, plus, as always - human factor. That is why I do not participate in disputes on the topic “whose “Bulgarian stick” is more correct: Bulgarian, Greek, Turkish, Indian or Armenian” and, accordingly, “whose yogurt is better and tastier” and “which product can be called yogurt.”

If you can make homemade yogurt using dry starter from a pharmacy or “white” yogurt from a store, go for it :) I have been noticing for a long time that if they are going to continue working with homemade yogurt, i.e. to express it, then even in oriental kitchens (including cafes and restaurants) they use almost any suitable fermented milk product, even sour cream, as a starter for preparing yogurt itself. It’s not my plan to discuss this either :)

The only thing I don’t really like is that it is now fashionable to prepare yogurt using electrical appliances, however, they can produce an instant product with unknown properties.

The fact is that yogurt should be fermented slowly and independently for 8-12 hours (maybe less in the summer), and some manufacturers of yogurt makers, etc. devices boast that their “yogurt” is obtained in 3-4 hours (maximum 6), and even for this it is not necessary to boil the milk. Many chefs prepare a kind of “drinking yogurt” in just this amount of time (4 hours), and “to make it thicker, you need to leave it for 7-8 hours.” It gets to the point where milk and starter are taken straight from the refrigerator and simply mixed with a mixer. They say that the miracle technology will do everything itself. It is also recommended to add filler (fruits, dried fruits, chocolate, etc.) right during ripening. Maybe the end result is something tasty, but, in my opinion, there is no need to call it yogurt or expect real benefits from it. In addition, very often one comes across reviews about the technical imperfections of such devices.

I am not against household appliances in the kitchen, but any of them needs to be dealt with individually, as well as the quality and properties of the dishes that are produced in them. For example, take the same fashionable “smoothie” drink, similar to lassi, if it is prepared with yogurt, milk and various fruits: they threw everything into a blender, without understanding the properties of the products, it ground everything... and the person thinks that the result was a complete benefit...

Yogurt is a heavy product, all medical traditions say so. It has been known under different names for a long time in different regions of the world; its properties have been well studied. It is no coincidence that there are recommendations to add spices, oil, honey or dilute it with water (and even depending on the person’s constitution - in different proportions).

Yogurt does not go well with sour fruits, milk, melons, or nuts (for more details, see the article on lassi). It is a good remedy for diarrhea, but is not used for constipation (it tends to cause constipation). Fresh yogurt has a sweet taste, but old yogurt that has stood longer than 3 days after preparation is sour and can rarely provide real help to the intestines, most often causing constipation.

Yogurt is a mucus-forming product, so it is not recommended for colds. Like all fermented milk products, it has warming properties, so in the summer, pure yogurt is usually not consumed, but diluted with water to obtain the corresponding soups and drinks.

I am now talking about a product that can be called “real yogurt”, and not about “3-hour drinking yogurt from a multicooker” obtained in violation of technology.

We position this product as one of the best German yoghurts. By the way, once upon a time, a very, very long time ago, residents of the Fatherland became acquainted with yogurt through German products. Those who could travel abroad knew about Bulgarian and Turkish yogurt, and maybe even Greek. But personally, all my first memories are associated with German ones. So: there is nothing in this product for which one could pay the kind of money that is being asked for it :) Ingredients: yogurt, sugar, 13.5% apricot puree, flavoring. Fat content 3.1%. Naturally, those who for some reason cannot prepare yogurt at home are happy to buy it in the store. And those who can cook at home with the same pleasure.

How to make yogurt at home

Take milk that you trust and, stirring, bring it to a boil. If you need thick yogurt, the milk can be reduced by ¼ or even 1/3. For these purposes, for example, starch and other thickeners are added to store-bought yogurt. Some manufacturers of yogurt makers recommend using the same additives. The question arises: why then make yogurt at home? :)

After boiling, the milk is cooled. The ideal temperature for fermenting yogurt is about 45 degrees (if your little finger, dipped in milk, calmly stays there for 10 seconds). Ideally, after boiling, before introducing the starter, the milk should be poured into a clean, sterile container with a lid (for example, a saucepan).

The starter needs to be diluted with a portion of the same milk, stirred, added to the remaining milk and mixed well. After introducing the starter, close the pan tightly, wrap it (for example, with a blanket or even two) or place it in a warm place (30-45 degrees). It is advisable not to move or shake the pan. You can immediately pour it into several sterilized jars, if you can wrap each one separately.

If dry starter is used, then follow the instructions that come with it. If instead of starter, for example, you use liquid yogurt without additives, then up to 100 g of starter is taken per 1 liter of milk. If instead of sourdough you use strained yogurt (syuzma), then from 1 tablespoon. If the milk is pre-boiled, then less starter may be needed. Exact proportions are always verified only in practice.

The pan should not be kept warm for more than 12 hours! I heard this figure from the lips of residents of different regions. After 5-6 hours, you can carefully check whether the milk has curdled. Yogurt should be thick and dense. If the milk has not curdled, you need to check it every hour. If the pan is in a very warm place, you need to make sure that the yogurt does not “ferment” (this will become noticeable by the release of whey).

Once prepared, keep the yogurt in a cool place to stop the growth of bacteria. It will thicken even more as it cools.

"In Vedic cooking, yogurt is an indispensable product, because in India, homemade yogurt and cheese are used almost as widely as vegetables, cereals and legumes. When it comes to dairy products, their freshness cannot be underestimated: from the moment of preparation, the aroma and nutritional value of dairy products decreases as quickly as greens removed from the garden.The fresher the yogurt or cheese you prepare, the more inspiring the cooking process will be.

Yogurt used for fermentation should be fresh and sweetish; If you ferment milk with old sour yogurt, the resulting yogurt will also be sour.

The yogurt added to the dish serves as a binding medium and gives the dish a special consistency and tenderness. It is used to prepare many dishes of Vedic cuisine - from the delicate drink lassi to nutritious salads - rait. If you remove excess moisture from yogurt, you get low-calorie dekhin cheese, which, when sugar is added, turns into an exquisite dessert, shrikhand - a traditional dish of the state of Maharashtra." (Yamuna Devi "Lord Krishna"s Cuisine: The Art of Indian Vegetarian Cooking"; in Russian translation - Yamuna Devi "Favorite dishes of Indian vegetarian cuisine").

Vegetarians who look up to Indian cuisine know what it's like shrikhand. I also made it once, I got this dessert well at one time even from Activia, not to mention homemade yogurt.

My old, old photo: shrikhand (strained fresh yogurt, whipped with rose water and honey).

Desserts like these are very easy to prepare from strained yogurt and are always popular with children.

The optimal temperature for making yogurt is 38-42 o C (up to 45 o C). For good results, it is advisable to maintain this temperature throughout the entire milk fermentation process. You should also pay attention to the fact that the temperature of the milk when mixed with the starter should be in the region of 38-45 o C, but not higher, since already at a temperature of 50 o C the yogurt bacteria die.

Yogurt turns out sour, why?

The taste of yogurt depends on the following factors:
First - leaven. Various fermented milk microorganisms (including different strains of the same bacteria) included in the starter culture are capable of fermenting milk with the formation of varying amounts of lactic acid; accordingly, the taste of the final product depends on the starter culture used. Therefore, the taste of classic yogurt, delicate, with moderate sourness, differs from the Narine product, which is usually more sour.

Second - fermentation time and temperature . The longer the ripening time, the more acidic the product (lactic acid accumulates gradually). Here it is necessary to make a reservation that the ripening time largely depends on the temperature. Under optimal conditions, fermentation proceeds faster and 6-8, and sometimes 4, hours are enough for yogurt. To ferment yogurt in a home yogurt maker, 8-10 hours are usually enough; if the temperature drops, as, for example, in a thermos, then the fermentation process can be longer, and you need to keep the yogurt for 10-12 hours.

If you added the starter to cold milk and put the product in a yogurt maker, the fermentation time will increase, since even before the active fermentation process, the milk in the yogurt maker will have to heat up. Another point is that when using dry bacterial starters, the first batch of yogurt (“mother starter”) can take longer to prepare, since it takes time to activate fermented milk organisms after a state of suspended animation.

When re-fermenting yogurt, the composition of the starter is constantly changing. In practice, each subsequent batch will be more sour than the previous one. During the first or second re-fermentation, shortening the fermentation time can help; in the future, as soon as the taste of yogurt no longer suits you, you need to take fresh starter.

Is the yogurt “slippery”?

When exposed to an uncomfortable environment, too cold or too hot, or when there are sudden changes in temperature, bacteria begin to “defend themselves.” They produce mucous substances, polysaccharides. Thanks to these mucous substances, the consistency of yogurt becomes more viscous, even slimy. By themselves, these substances are safe, and “slippery” yoghurts can be eaten. Although this is of course a matter of individual taste preferences.

Most often you encounter such a “defensive” reaction when you prepare yogurt directly from dry bacterial cultures. Coming out of lyophilized form (anabiosis), the bacteria appear to be particularly sensitive to the environment.

To combat viscousness, you should add the starter into milk heated to the fermentation temperature (if you previously boiled the milk, wait patiently until it cools before mixing with the starter, stir the milk so that the entire volume has the same temperature).

Another precaution is to remove the bag of starter from the refrigerator in advance to avoid sudden temperature changes.

Another option is to prepare the so-called “mother starter” from the starter (a packet of starter for a standard yogurt cup of warm milk, ferment for 8-12 hours), and then from it the main batch of yogurt. With this option, a slimy consistency is much less common.

Yogurt curdled, why?

It happens that the yogurt curdles. There may be several reasons:

• Stale, sour milk. In a yogurt maker, yogurts ferment well, even if the milk is not preheated. But it happens that milk, even store-bought milk with a normal shelf life, turns out to be of poor quality. If you try to boil such milk, it will curdle. Yogurts do not come out of such “raw materials” either.
• Acids. If you ferment yogurt with fresh fruit, the presence of fruit acids may cause the milk to curdle before the fermentation process is complete, and the yogurt will not turn out. Add fruit to already prepared yogurt.

Yogurt doesn't turn out, doesn't ferment?

Yogurt may not ferment for a number of reasons:

• Milk. If the milk contains antibiotics that inhibit bacterial growth, the yogurt will not ferment. It turns out that the starter is a kind of indicator of the quality of milk. If the yogurt doesn't work, try changing the brand of milk or choosing a product from a different manufacturer. The most stable results are obtained from ultra-pasteurized milk. For homemade fermented milk, this is the safest raw material. It happens that village milk fails, of course, it’s unpleasant, but it can also contain antibiotics, for example, if they are added to animal feed. Fresh milk will not ferment. During the first few hours after milking, milk contains substances that suppress the development of any microflora.
• Temperature. This reason is relevant mainly if you prepare yogurt without a yogurt maker. If the thermos or other container you use does not hold heat, or the place where you put the yogurt for fermentation is exposed to drafts, then the temperature of the yogurt quickly drops. Yogurt may not ferment.
• Hot milk. Yogurt bacteria die already at a temperature of 50 o C. If you previously boiled the milk, but did not wait for it to cool to the desired temperature (36-42 o C), then when mixed with the starter, most of the bacteria could die and, accordingly, the yogurt will not ferment. If you are using a yogurt maker, run the fermentation cycle again, sometimes this helps.
• Time. Depending on the conditions (mainly keeping warm), the yogurt requires 6 to 12 hours. If too little time has passed, the yogurt may not have had time to ferment.
• "Non-living" sourdough. A starter that does not contain “live” bacteria will not produce yogurt. If you use industrial yogurt as a starter, pay attention to the packaging. A very long shelf life or information that the product is pasteurized, that is, it has undergone heat treatment after preparation, indicates that there are probably no “live” bacteria in it.
  If you use dry sourdough, then the expiration date and storage conditions are also important (usually, bags of sourdough should be stored at a temperature no higher than 20 o C).

How to calculate the fat and calorie content of yogurt?

The fat and calorie content of yogurt is calculated based on the products from which the yogurt is made (For ease of calculation, we will assume that 1 ml of milk/cream = 1 g of product).
For example, if you use 1 liter of milk with 3.5% fat content (calorie content 61 kcal per 100 ml or 610 kcal per 1 liter), dry sourdough (calorie content can be taken as 0) and nothing else, then the calorie content of your yogurt will be 61 kcal per 100 ml: 610(kcal)/1000(ml)*100(ml).
If you replace 200 ml of milk with cream 20% fat (calorie content 206 kcal per 100 ml), then the calorie content of your yogurt will be equal to 90 kcal per 100 ml: (0.61 (kcal) * 800 (ml milk) + 2.06 (kcal)*200(ml cream))/1000 (ml mixture of milk and yogurt)*100(ml product).

The same principle applies to fat content. If you use milk with 3.5% fat content, that is, 100 ml of milk contains 3.5 g of fat, then the fat content of yogurt will be 3.5%.
If you replace 200 ml of milk with 20% cream, then the fat content of the yogurt will be approximately 6.8%: (0.035 (g fat) * 800 (ml milk) + 0.2 (g fat) * 200 (ml cream)) /1000(ml of a mixture of milk and cream)*100(ml of product).

How to choose a yogurt maker?

Yogurt makers are produced by both Western and domestic manufacturers. The price of the device largely depends on the brand and built-in bells and whistles, although in fact the essence of all models is the same, and most of them, if not all, are made in China, that is, made in China.

Hence the conclusion that it makes no sense to buy the most expensive model. When choosing a yogurt maker, you can focus on several factors:

• There are yogurt makers that are a single container, usually designed for 1 liter. In my opinion, such yogurt makers can be successfully replaced with a thermos. Yogurt makers that come with portioned jars seem more practical to me.
• The presence of a timer is of course a convenient function, but in practice it is not at all necessary. The sound signal itself only reminds you that the time you have chosen has ended. But if you did not hear the signal and did not put the yoghurts in the refrigerator, the fermentation process will continue even at room temperature. It is much more important that the yogurt maker has an automatic shut-off function, which makes the device safer and energy-saving. It’s even better if the yogurt maker works on the principle of a thermos, that is, it heats up for some time from the mains, and then automatically turns off, while the desired temperature is maintained for another 8-10 hours.
• The jars that come with yogurt makers come in glass and plastic. Glass ones are more hygienic and can be sterilized. Plastic ones practically do not break. Another convenience, although not mandatory, is the ability to set the manufacturing date on some lids. By the way, yogurts can also be fermented in ordinary glass glasses or small wine glasses, the main thing is that they fit into the yogurt maker without breaking the seal when closing the lid.
• Pay attention to the dimensions and stability of the model. During the fermentation process, it is very important that the yogurt maker is completely at rest, so the model must fit well into the place chosen for it.
• There are also models that, in addition to yoghurt, allow you to cook, for example, homemade cottage cheese in the device, but such yoghurt makers are somewhat more expensive. Separately, I would like to note the yogurt makers, with the ability to select the fermentation temperature - this is a very useful function, especially if you prepare not only classic yogurts (for which a temperature of 42 degrees is great), but also kefir, acidophilus products, sour cream, symbilact, bifivit - for these For starters, other temperature conditions are optimal (30, 36 °C). This does not mean that these products will not ferment in your regular yogurt maker; it’s just that the temperature regime appropriate for these types of bacteria allows the microorganisms to develop most correctly and intensively, which makes your products even more tasty and healthy. To date, I know only one such yogurt maker - VIVO ThermoMaster, designed specifically for VIVO bacterial starter cultures. If you don’t have such a device in your arsenal - it’s not a frustrating device, you can use, for example, a thermos, preheating the milk to a lower temperature than yogurt.

Ask your question in the comments or blog social group topic.

2649 3

Recipe for making homemade yogurt using a yogurt maker

Ingredients:

• 1 liter of pasteurized milk, 3.5% fat
• 125 ml natural yogurt

Cooking method: Combine yogurt and milk. Immediately after combining the components, the mixture is distributed into containers and placed inside the device, the yogurt maker is closed with a lid and plugged in. Typically, the ripening process takes 6 to 10 hours, depending on the brand of machine and the final result. The yogurt maker must not be pushed, dropped or moved during operation. After the set period has expired, the glass (or glasses) are removed (they heat up slightly, and condensation forms on the lid of the device), cover with lids and place in the refrigerator. After an hour, the yogurt is ready to eat. Prepared yogurt can be used as a starter. To improve the taste, you can add fruit puree, pieces of whole fruit, muesli, chocolate, etc. to the finished yogurt.

Yogurt is called a gift from heaven. To prepare yogurt, a starter is used, consisting of pure cultures of thermophilic streptococcus and Bulgarian bacillus (half and half). If this ratio is violated, the product may have a sharply sour taste, a grainy structure, or quickly release whey. The starting product for yogurt is either milk or a mixture of milk and cream with a fat content of 6%. The mixture is pasteurized at 60-70 °C for 30 minutes, and then cooled to 45 °C and starter is added in an amount of 2-3% (and in yogurt - 5%). Fermented milk is poured into a container (usually glass), where it is fermented. It must be borne in mind that with active fermentation - and a temperature of 42-45 ° C for 2-3 hours there is a rapid increase in acidity. To prevent the yogurt from becoming too sour, it is quickly cooled after active fermentation.
Properly prepared yogurt has a pleasant lactic acid taste and aroma, a uniform structure and a fairly dense consistency.
Yogurt quickly relieves hunger and quenches thirst. Recommended for people of all ages, especially the elderly, as well as pregnant and nursing mothers.
Yogurt has become widespread in many countries around the world. By the way, this type of curdled milk is no different from the curdled milk produced under different names from buffalo and sheep milk in Transcaucasia, where yogurt from these types of milk has been produced since ancient times, although the origin of the starter is still unknown. Local residents considered this fermented milk product a gift from heaven. The yogurt kept for a very long time, it became more and more sour, but it never spoiled. Caucasians stored dry yogurt in bags and used it as a starter. Sometimes dry yogurt was diluted with water and immediately drunk as a refreshing drink. The now extremely popular yogurt is also made from cow's milk, although cream and skim milk powder are added to it. In the Balkans, liquid yogurt is traditionally made and consumed as a beverage. In other countries, it has the consistency of jelly or ice cream.
Yogurt can be used as a tenderizing marinade for meat and poultry, thickening and to enhance the flavor of casseroles, stews and some soups, and as a sauce for hot vegetable dishes. Natural yogurt, containing beneficial bacteria (acidophilus and bifidobacteria), improves the functioning of the digestive system, replenishing the lack of natural bacteria in the body.

Recipe for making homemade thick creamy yogurt without using a yogurt maker:

Combine 2 3/4 cups milk with 1/3 cup whole milk powder in a saucepan and gradually heat until boiling and foaming. Reduce heat and simmer gently over low heat for 20 minutes. Remove from heat and cool to 45 degrees. Skim the milk and remove the foam, then carefully add 1/3 cup of natural yogurt mixed with 1/4 cup of milk and stir. Pour the mixture into sterilized jars and close. Place the jars in a saucepan and fill it with hot tap water. Wrap the pan in a blanket and keep warm for at least 6 hours. Before using, cool the yogurt well for 3-4 hours. Yogurt can be stored in the refrigerator for a week. Makes 2 glasses.