11 ms·
The Yoghurt Mafia
- myfavoritedog 5y agoThere’s something really satisfying about making yogurt. I make it a gallon at a time in an instant pot. The family loves it.
- gnicholas 5y agoWhat was your original culture from, and how often do you start fresh? Do you strain? What do you store a gallon of yogurt in after you make it? I make 1/2 gallon at a time and strain with a cheesecloth for a couple hours. The output fits into a large round pyrex container.
- smnrchrds 5y agoI second these questions. I use the Greek yogourt from a local dairy shop as starter and the results are amazing, but I have never been able to use my yogourt as starter for the next batch, no matter how fresh it is.
- gnicholas 5y agoJust to clarify, I have been able to use one batch to start the next. I've used various yogurts from Whole Foods (2% or whole, but always plain/unflavored). My first culture lasted through about 15 cycles (8 mo) before developing a weird blue cheese odor/flavor. When I started again, I also noticed the first batch of the new yogurt was substantially thicker than the last batch of the old yogurt.
- savanu 5y agoDo you guys boil the milk before adding the culture?
- potatochup 5y agoYup. Boil, let cool to 115F, add culture or frozen cube of previous yoghurt, into the instant pot for 9 hours.
- smnrchrds 5y agoI don't boil it, but I heat to to 72°C/162°F for at least 15 seconds, i.e. the recommended temperature and duration for pasteurization.
- gnicholas 5y agoI just use the functions on my Instant Pot. The "Boil" function brings it to around 180°F. Then I let it cool to between 90-115°F before adding the yogurt. Then use the "More" function and it sets a timer for 12 hours ("Less" goes for 24, and I've never used it). All of these functions are available under the yogurt button on the Instant Pot. My understanding is it may be possible to skip the boiling if you are using ultrapasteurized milk (lactose-free milk often is) from a just-opened container.
- samatman 5y agoI used to scald milk (in an Instant Pot this is the yogurt "high" setting) before making yogurt, but no longer do so. Now I buy UHT pasteurized milk, which encompasses most organic milk, and simply run 18 hours of the Instant Pot "medium" setting. I start the instant pot, add two half gallons of milk, then pour in some Bulgarian yogurt as a starter and stir, then lid on and leave it alone until it beeps at me. I normally get around three gallons of yogurt out of a one quart jar of the Bulgarian, which comes in a conveniently Mason-threaded quart jar, where I hoard the leftovers for storing my own yogurt.
- koolba 5y ago18 hours?! I’ve never heard of that for making yogurt. Is that a low temp pasteurization? I’ve only done the usual 180F, followed by waiting for it to cool, finally add the starter and mix.
- 5y ago
- potatochup 5y agoThe trick I've used is that I freeze cubes of the first batch in an ice-cube tray. Then whenever I make more, I unfreeze a cube, so I'm always making a "second generation" batch. My first generation I make from packets you can find online for ~$1.
- smnrchrds 5y agoCould you please post a link to the starter you use? I would truly appreciate it.
- potatochup 5y agoI've used this stuff https://www.npselection.com/products/yogurt-starter-cultures-pack-of-5-freeze-dried-culture-sachets-for-balkan-style-plain-yogurt https://www.npselection.com/products/yogurt-starter-cultures... and also their Bulgarian style. Also available on amazon I believe. Balkan stuff is very neutral, rich. Bulgarian has a bit more tartness to it.
- smnrchrds 5y agoThank you.
- hoytech 5y agoYou might like to try kefir grains. They are very stable, I've had the same grains for 5+ years, and you can leave in the fridge for months if you like. I used to use dedicated yogurt culture, but "kefir yogurt" tastes exactly the same to me, so I use it for everything (yogurt, goat cheese, kefir-the-drink, obviously). Here's some more info: https://www.chelseagreen.com/2021/natural-yogurt/ https://www.chelseagreen.com/2021/natural-yogurt/
- smnrchrds 5y agoThank you for the recipe. I don't think I'll ever make it that way though. Stirring the milk non-stop until it reaches 185°F and then continuing to stir if for another hour is much more work than I'm willing to put in.
- danwills 5y agoMilk kefir usually doesn't require any temperature control, it just goes faster when the ambient temp is higher. I believe the idea is that the kefir 'team' is able to easily outcompete any weed microorganisms. For me it's as simple as: Strain in plastic colander, rinse jar, put grains and fresh milk in jar, then place in cupboard. If I want to delay then it can be placed in the fridge instead for months/years and still be able to be revived later.
- danwills 5y agoApologies, should have read the link.. which is indeed about following a yoghurt-like process using milk kefir grains! But you don't have to do it that way, it can be really easy!
- smnrchrds 5y agoThat's great. If you don't mind, I have two follow-up questions: 1. I believe kefir is usually the same consistency as buttermilk, not yogourt. How do you make them as thick as yogourt? 2. How do you keep your kefir grains alive? I don't use a huge amount of yogourt. Can you freeze grains between uses? How often do you need to make a new batch to keep the grains alive?
- vivekv 5y agoIf you know any Indian family ask them. Most Indian households make yogurt every day and the culture is months even years old. They will use latest generation to make the next batch.
- Avshalom 5y agoI've used Tillamook and brown cow as starters and they've been fine for a second batch at least. I don't strain mine, instead i chuck in like half a cup/gallon of dry milk. It's sort of the bass ackwards method. Then I part it up into quart Tupperware.
- nszceta 5y agoAny one dollar plain yogurt from the supermarket works fine Keep an eye out for faint orange "oil spills" on the surface or fizziness in the final product. Toss it if you encounter those and start over.
- lostlogin 5y ago> Any one dollar plain yogurt from the supermarket works fine A surprising number use additives to thicken them, and as I result I found I got better results from ones labeled Greek or acidophilus. I have no idea if there is any science behind this claim, so YMMV.
- cfn 5y agoI got a powder culture from Amazon because I am using raw milk and it would just not work with yogurt from the store. There are several different cultures available in 10 or 12 sachets and you might need a new one every 6 months or so. I tried a few different ones and I cannot feel the difference between them.
- magixx 5y agoI've had a lot of success with plain Kirkland greek yogurt but most should work. I also do 1 gallon at a time and microwave it to get it up to temperature. This takes about 20min from fridge to desired temperature. After fermenting in my instant pot, I pour it into a fine mesh strainer on top of a large food container and put it in the fridge. The container is for the whey to collect in. This turns it into Greek yogurt.
- bernawil 5y agoHere's my lazy technique. Get the biggest thermos flask you have. Get as much milk as it fits. Get any yogurt. So far literally anything has worked: flavored, with added sugar or even the cheap versions with lots of gelatin. Heat the milk around until it boils. Add sugar until it's slightly sweet but not too much (this will feed the culture. It won't be sweet after). Let it chill until 40c or slightly above body temperature. Now mix in the yogurt, you need like 6 teaspoons for a liter milk, but just pour the container you have for good measure. Pour the mix in the thermos flask and leave for aprox 4 hours, or until the whey separates. After that, the longer you wait the more acidic the yogurt gets. Now time to strain. I put a sheet of coffee filter paper on the bottom of a pasta colander and another container beneath to collect the liquid. Pour the yogurt there, leave overnight in the fridge and you get thick Greek yogurt.
- myfavoritedog 5y agoI normally use Siggi’s plain yogurt for a starter, but I’m not super-picky. I make about 2 batches every 3 weeks, sometimes just re-seeding each batch with the previous one (I save a pristine culture in a separate container after each batch is finished). I’ve re-used the same culture for as long as maybe 8 successive batches. It just depends on whether or not the wife has happened to pick up a small plain yogurt from the store recently. For a strainer, I have a couple I bought off Amazon. The gallon one is the “Hatrigo 1-gallon Greek yogur maker”. Works well. I much prefer a strainer I can re-use vs something disposable like cheese cloth.
- neonate 5y agohttps://archive.is/WVddI https://archive.is/WVddI
- potatochup 5y agoIs RNZ not available from outside New Zealand?
- neonate 5y agoNo idea. In this case I posted the link for those who, like me, dislike distracting multimedia tricks in what ought to be a straightforwardly scrollable news article.
- C19is20 5y agoI think I once got 'advised' to not post 'cold' links without a description, and also a reason. (And yes, at home, I safely clicked.
- 1vuio0pswjnm7 5y agoGratuitous multimedia tricks. Here is a text-only version. Links to images in all available sizes are provided. curl https://rnz.shorthandstories.com/yoghurt-mafia/embed.js \ |sed 's/<em>//g;s/<\/em>//g'|tr -cd '[ -~]'|grep -Eo '(<p c.{10}[^>]*>)|(https://[^ ]*.jpeg)' \ |uniq|sed '/^https.*jpeg$/s/.*/<li><a href=&>&<\/a><\/li>/g' >1.htm; firefox ./1.htm
- brigandish 5y agoMay I suggest a temp file? (and the other change is for a Mac) tmp=$(mktemp).htm; curl https://rnz.shorthandstories.com/yoghurt-mafia/embed.js \ | sed 's/<em>//g;s/<\/em>//g'| tr -cd '[ -~]'|grep -Eo '(<p c.{10}[^>]*>)|(https://[^ ]*.jpeg)' \ | uniq | sed '/^https.*jpeg$/s/.*/<li><a href=&>&<\/a><\/li>/g' > $tmp; open -a Firefox $tmp
- andylynch 5y ago
- dukeofdoom 5y agoReminds me of the Simpson's episode were the mafia had a racket selling rat milk. There's probably some symbolic double meaning to milking rats, that went over my head. The moment were the back room is revealed with the rats hooked up to milking machines, was gross and funny at the same time.
- shahar2k 5y agoMalk
- sdwr 5y agoMy bones are so brittle, but i always drink plenty of ... malk?
- canadianfella 5y agohttps://youtu.be/ty62YzGryU4 https://youtu.be/ty62YzGryU4
- barbecue_sauce 5y agoNow with Vitamin R.
- 11235813213455 5y agoDairy products reminds me of Djokovic who after stopping to eat dairy and gluten products became an exceptional player, without injuries. Or my own experience, for different reasons, switching to locally foraged or produced fruits and feeling better overall, more energized, sleeping better I wonder if that's the case for everyone, that we can eat dairy products, but it's just not optimal for us
- the_af 5y agoI know nutritionists claim we are not "meant" to consume milk after 1-2 years old, but it's not my life's goal to become an athlete and eating cheese is optimal for me, in the sense it makes me "optimally happy" because good cheese is one of life's pleasures.
- pmoriarty 5y ago"good cheese is one of life's pleasures" Unfortunately animals are usually harmed for this pleasure.
- the_af 5y agoThat's an example of moving the goalpost -- nothing about the comment I was replying to was about animal welfare. In any case, if you don't eat cheese, I'm sorry for your loss. A good cheese and some ham, along with some fine wine! Makes life worth living.
- AussieWog93 5y ago>nothing about the comment I was replying to was about animal welfare. Still doesn't invalidate his argument. Animals are harmed to produce dairy (Bobby calves), and this is a valid reason to avoid it.
- the_af 5y agoIt kind of does invalidate the argument in the sense of "it's irrelevant because it's not what we're discussing". Arguments are context sensitive, you have to actually make an argument about the thing being discussed, you cannot just react to some keyword in the text and go on a tangent. I take it you also don't enjoy a good cut of cheese with a fine wine? A shame.
- whynotkeithberg 5y agoThis was an extremely entertaining story. Thank you for sharing it... It also makes me want to try and make yogurt. I grew up on a cattle ranch and we always had a milk cow. Yet, we never made yogurt more than a few times. I recently moved back near where I grew up as I got the opportunity for remote work. I have access to tons of fresh milk and fruit, I will definitely have to try this again.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- publicola1990 5y agoOnly if the article merely reported the thing and had not descended into this narrative building.. They did not even offer a summary in the beginning.
- kaishiro 5y agoIt's a long form piece - it's not news. And there is a summary: "Locked up for their part in a drug ring, two inmates swapped manufacturing meth for manufacturing yoghurt. Eva Corlett finds out how they turned their product into a prison trading commodity so popular that yoghurt culture was smuggled between prisons." What else are you looking for exactly?
- gnat 5y agoThe TL;DR is two guys, in prison for making meth, learned how to make yogurt from prison-available ingredients, and it kept them going through the hard times in prison. Now they're out, they don't make yogurt but they are staying straight. It's a character story, not a business lesson with a three bullet-point redux. And, in fact, paragraph two is the summary you were after: > They don’t know it yet but that moment will change their lives. Not only will they go on to make yoghurt using heat from the radiator pipes running through their cells, they’ll turn yoghurt into a prison trading commodity so popular it will be smuggled between New Zealand jails. Wal and Dylan will become known as The Yoghurt Mafia, and their new obsession will give them a reason to carry on in a relentlessly bleak environment. I'm not sure where your "if only" came from, but it's unjustified. Back in your can, Oscar!
- DenverCode 5y agoOh, wow. You and I left that feeling two completely different ways. I loved every aspect about that story and how it was written.
- DenverCode 5y agoWow, that was an amazing read. >But if there was irony, there was also a metaphor in their switch from meth to yoghurt. Like yoghurt, if the conditions are right, if there is patience and there is care, people can change and a new kind of culture can survive.
- bruce_one 5y agoWe have an [Easiyo](https://easiyo.com/collections/frontpage/products/black-yogurt-maker https://easiyo.com/collections/frontpage/products/black-yogu...) that cost ~$20AUD, and we use one tablespoon of existing yogurt and ~150grams of milk powder (slightly more than suggested for milk, to make it thicker) to make 1 litre of yogurt at a time. (Just mix those bits; put boiling water in the Easiyo, put the container with the mixture in, wait 12 hours, done - no scolding, no temperature monitoring, super simple :-) ) It's incredibly easy, and now I search for more and more recipes that use yogurt to make different things (eg, flatbreads, cakes, pasta sauces, among lots of other things). It's super easy and really awesome having yogurt forever available :-)
- jbc1 5y agoI'm going to pick one of these up tomorrow and I'm trying to work out how your modification fits in with the instructions on their website: - Mix EasiYo Yogurt Sachet with room temperature drinking water (15-20°C) in the EasiYo Jar - Add boiling water to the Yogurt Maker and place jar inside. Leave to set for 8-12 hours - Refrigerate Yogurt until chilled. Enjoy Are you cutting the amount of yogurt mix you put in short and adding milk powder? mixing the milk powder with water to create milk and then adding yogurt mix with that?
- _frkl 5y agoI was wondering the same, and looked up "hack easiyo", lots of examples of people coming up with their own ways to use the system, without having to purchase the EasiYo printer ink, so to speak.
- bruce_one 5y agoWhen we first got it, I used one Easiyo sachet to make one container of yogurt. From then on, I've used 1 heaped tablespoon of the last batch of yogurt and then just milk powder. My steps: - Mix ~500ml tap water with 150g of milk powder (just put the lid on and shake vigorously, I always put the water in first as the mixing is much easier). - Add 1 heaped tablespoon of existing yogurt (the previous batch, or I've used Chobani successfully (I've heard some commercial yogurts work and some don't)). - Fill (leave 5mm gap at the top) the container with tap water. - Shake again to mix (less vigorously). - Add boiling water to maker. - Put jar in. - Generally I try to wait 12 hours, sometimes up to 18 when I'm not home. - Refrigerate and enjoy :-) I enjoy the yogurt straight, but I wouldn't expect everyone to (it may not be sweet enough) - my wife adds honey or jam and fruit when serving. (I now actually freeze one tablespoon of yogurt as soon as a batch is done, and use it for the next batch after thawing in the fridge (overnight).)
- aussieguy1234 5y agoI'd buy their yogurt, if they turned it into a business
- brigandish 5y ago500ml UHT + 1 tbsp of yoghurt + mid 20's (celcius) temp + 24-48 hours == 500ml of yoghurt. I'd say it's as easy as pie but pie is far more of a challenge.
- stephanreynolds 5y agoGood article but I like Turkish yoghurt