Yogurt conspiracy

[lph]

Ok, so sorry if I'm being a bit slow here, but why make your own yoghurt when you have to buy some store-bought yoghurt anyway to do so? Is it cheaper, or is it hard to get hold of plain non-sweetened yoghurt? Just curious. I'm all for making your own stuff, but when you have to buy milk and starter yoghurt anyway I'm wondering.

[OakLeaf]

If you're super careful, the way Smilingcat recommends, and if you make a new batch every week or so, you only have to buy your culture once. If you're like most people, you can keep a culture going for five to seven batches before it starts getting weak. It's just like gardening, except in the kitchen. Worst case, even if you only make yogurt every now and then (longer than a culture will usually stay good in the fridge), and even if you can't get the powdered starter that keeps for a year or two, you can buy a 6-oz cup of yogurt and use it to make a gallon of new.

And buying milk, as you mention, is the other part of the equation - lots of small dairies don't even sell yogurt, never mind "your neighbor with a goat," so if you want to have yogurt from the best and freshest milk, you might have to make your own.

It's fun to experiment with different cultures, too. Every one has a different flavor. Sometimes I'll open up probiotic capsules meant to be swallowed, and culture yogurt with those.


I still buy most of my garden seeds, which is basically the same thing.

[lph]

Ah, ok, thanks.

[Crankin]

Ha, ha, Oak, you hit the nail on the head for me, when you said, "It's just like gardening."
I hate gardening. I like the *idea* of it, but not the work. Thankfully, we have many small, local farms around here, and a couple of bigger ones, and I gladly pay the money for them to do the work. I know I'm lucky I can afford to do this, as well as the fact i have a choice of at least 5-8 farms to buy from within 10 miles.
I am not much for "non-fat," in most cases, as like Zoom Zoom said, they cut the fat and add sugar. But, I don't drink regular milk and the almond milk I buy is pretty low fat with no sugar. I don't like the taste of whole milk Greek yogurt. I put some fresh fruit in the plain skim non-fat Greek and it's fine for me.

[ZoneFive]

I usually make my yogurt (Greek or regular) with local organic low-fat or non-fat milk, and I add a quarter to third of a cup of powdered skim milk to thicken it. It thickens nicely and adds back a little more protein and calcium.