Do you eat yogurt regularly?  If not, you should!  It has a host of valuable properties, and what’s more it can be mixed well with a wide variety of food, especially fruit.  Some of these valuable properties include being probiotic and being a great source of protein (and in many cases, it is low in fat or fat free)!  The probiotic properties are actually among the most important – if you take antibiotics it is absolutely essential to refortify yourself with digestive bacteria.  If you don’t you can have digestive issues – and can actually leave you totally lactose intolerant (which is no fun, let me tell you).

So how do you go about making your own yogurt?  Well, first you have to understand what yogurt is – the end product of a certain bacteria’s digestion of milk products.  It takes the sugars in milk and converts them down into lactic acid (it makes unhealthy environment for many other bacteria).  So what does this mean to you?  You need a starter – that is, a colony of bacteria which is used to make each batch of yogurt in succession.  It’ll grow and evolve as you make batch after batch.  The structure it creates is actually very fragile – as it grows and collapses it generates a waste watery liquid.  It’s overall a fascinating process.  SO how do you start your starter?  Well, if you don’t have a batch of bacteria for this purpose already, then what you can do is take a little of your favorite commercial brand!  These have a relatively high concentration of bacteria which create longer strains, which means less watery waste.  The bacteria is also bred to be very active (which means less is more with regards to production) so you’ll get more yogurt in less time.  Some bacteria like this can create very thick yogurt popular in Finland, which you actually have to eat by cutting.

Next you must choose your milk.  Whole milk works best, since there is milk fat to provide structure to the yogurt complex.  I encourage you to experiment with different milks though (you might even want to try soy), but be sure to keep you starter safe.  If you don’t you might have to start again from scratch – a hostile environment can kill off all your little pet bacteria!  So what you want to do to prepare the milk for the starter is to heat it to almost 200 degrees – stop when it’s steaming and beginning to form bubbles.  As it cools a little, mix a little milk with your starter yogurt to thin it out.  For each quart you are warming, thin about two tablespoons.  Once the milk is just a little about 100 degrees (between very warm and hot) you can add in the yogurt.  Now you need to keep this still and warm until it thickens and sets – I recommend an insulated bottle in a nice secluded place.  This takes about four hours, after which you need to refrigerate it (otherwise the acid production will continue and you might end up with cheese).  At this you can eat it, process it, or save it as your starter!

Now that you have yogurt you can substitute it for milk in many recipes, lending a lighter texture to many bread products you might make.  You can process the yogurt to make a variety of probiotic products, including straining the yogurt for its fluid (which is apparently great for you).  So play around with ways to make the yogurt, and you can customize the style to your liking!  Happy experimenting!

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