Home Made Yoghurt

[koots]

Holy ****! The link above to a Villi culture just made my dreams come true. I travelled Iceland for a while and ate a whole of a product calld 'Skyr' while I was there. Myself and friends were addicted to it, bought it everywheree we could. I searched long and hard for a recipe to make it or for a similar product and came up with nothing and low and behold, a link to a product that will create a similar product. Thankyou TimT! To make things even better it cultures at room temperature apparently so I don't even have to do anything really haha. Absolutely stoked!!!

 

[TimT]

I've been looking for Skyr culture too!

My villi culture is probably lab synthesised too actually, not an authentic original strain. I *still* want to get a heirloom culture that has been passed down through many generations - it's possible there may be some in Australia, in fact I'm almost certain that somehow, somewhere, someone has brought in a jar of skyr or villi from Iceland or Finland.

Originally many villis were a symbiosis of yeast and bacterial culture. (Mine's just a bacterial culture).

The subject of heirloom cultures is a long and fascinating one.

Have a look round on that website, that manufacturer - 'Cultures for Life' - sell several strains of yoghurt, both mesophilic (room-temp loving) and thermophilic (heat-loving) cultures. I love my villi culture. One year and still going strong!

 

[koots]

Well it appears I need to do some more reading, I've only had a quick skim over this thread prior to today. One of the fellas I went to Iceland with might be going back later in the year, I wonder how he could get Skyr back to me? haha perhaps ship a solid block of ice express somehow with Skyr in the middle?

 

[TimT]

I have heard it said 'the only way to make skyr is with another bunch of skyr' but that's probably not wholly true, unless it really does contain unique lacto-bacilli that are not found in other cheeses and yoghurts around the world. Then again almost undoubtedly it contains a unique combination of existing strains of lacto-bacilli. Geeze, I make it sound so romantic and magical don't I!

Love to hear if you do get some skyr from the home country; I'd definitely want to culture some for myself. In the meantime those 'Cultures for Life' products are a good substitute/starter.

 

[koots]

How is the culture effected if Skyr were to be posted here? Obviously the yogurt would be rank but what actually happens when it goes off? As it's sealed it can't get infected with other things is it just the bugs take over?

 

[TimT]

I pretty much don't know! Making an educated guess, I'd say as long as it's sealed you could use it as a starter.

Like a sourdough culture, it might be affected by changes in temperature, so, cool = better for the bacteria, warm = better for the yeast. That is, as long as it's a stable culture, the bugs might adjust themselves to the conditions. As soon as you get it I'd feed it or reculture it - the longer between batches, the more likely something will go wrong.

 

[hoppy2B]

I've been looking for Skyr culture too!

My villi culture is probably lab synthesised too actually, not an authentic original strain. I *still* want to get a heirloom culture that has been passed down through many generations - it's possible there may be some in Australia, in fact I'm almost certain that somehow, somewhere, someone has brought in a jar of skyr or villi from Iceland or Finland.

Originally many villis were a symbiosis of yeast and bacterial culture. (Mine's just a bacterial culture).

The subject of heirloom cultures is a long and fascinating one.

Have a look round on that website, that manufacturer - 'Cultures for Life' - sell several strains of yoghurt, both mesophilic (room-temp loving) and thermophilic (heat-loving) cultures. I love my villi culture. One year and still going strong!

Hi Tim,

What is the flavour like of your villi culture? I had a good look at that website and after checking all the cultures came up with the conclusion that the viili was the one I would most like to purchase. I read one report that it can be a bit sour. Cheers.

 

[TimT]

I find the flavour of the villi to be not so intense as other yoghurts out there. I'd definitely give it a go.

The flavour does vary. When we first got it, for the first two/three runs it had a yoghurty sourness as well as a kind of metallic flavour. (Normal - some cultures do have this). However, that may have been partly because it was cultured for about three days on the first run as per recommendations.

If you leave the villi out to culture longer the yoghurty sour-bitterness will intensify; basically the lacto-bacilli will keep on working and producing more lactic acid. But, as a bonus, the yoghurt will continue to curdle and go from a kind of buttermilky consistency to a cheese-curdy consistency. So there's a bit of a pay off.

The variety of milk you use will also affect it (it loves the cream at the top of unhomogenised mlk, but then, so do I, so we have to fight it out). So be prepared to try different varieties of milk.

You can always backsweeten/flavour with fruits/whatever!

 

[hoppy2B]

Thanks for that Tim. Some interesting comments there.

After some searching on yogurt making and various different cultures, I found myself on the website of the company that makes the product you linked to about 10 posts ago and I noticed they have a buttermilk/sour cream culture that contains almost the same cultural species as the viili with the addition of an extra Lacto. Is there any dairy product available in the supermarket that you have tried that you think may taste similar to the viili?

I'm wondering if there is anything available locally that I could use as a starter, like buttermilk for example or sour cream. To that I would perhaps add some some cheese culture. Bit hit and miss I suppose.

 

[TimT]

Unsalted buttermilk is probably the closest product in the stores (though less sour.... wouldn't want to offend the punters). You could try using supermarket products as starters, they would work at a pinch though they wouldn't be heirloom varieties.

You could also try getting a wild lacto culture. The bacteria live naturally on a lot of fruit and veg, and of course you would find them in unpasteurised milk....

 

[hoppy2B]

OK that's cool, thanks for that. I might try buttermilk with some soft curd cheese just to see what happens. Hopefully it will do its thing at room temp. I might have to do them separately first to make sure each is working.

Failing that, my mother told me earlier today that they have better yoghurts in Europe, so maybe I can get one of the relatives to send over a sample after they have done some testing to find a good one with the necessary attributes.

 

[Bribie G]

Heads up for NSW ...

Country Brewer franchises stock a wide range of Yogurt and Kefir cultures. I'll be picking some up tomorrow from Maitland with my brew requirements.

 

[hoppy2B]

Thanks for the tip Bribie G.

I picked up some Kefir starter and a few others this arvo down here in S.A. from Country Brewer. Mother dear asked me the other day if I could get any Kefir.

All this talk of Skyr 'yoghurt' over the past few days has had me doing a lot of research online, mostly regarding cheese making. I've also asked my mother about her experiences as a child because she mentioned a cottage cheese they ate back home that formed in the bottom of the milk container in summer when it was put aside for the cream to rise.

I've come up with a few conclusions and I believe that Skyr probably wasn't necessarily cultured over many generations and most likely formed naturally in milk. Skyr historically is mostly likely just a cottage cheese.

That's not to say that Skyr isn't cultured in this day and age, because it most likely is. Its possible that some people cultured it, but if you let milk stand it will naturally curdle and form cottage cheese. And that's all people did back in those days.

Edt : spelling

 

[Bribie G]

That really brought it back to me, when I lived in Turkey for a year in the 1970s there was a market in the little town a couple of times a week and old ladies would turn up with a goat skin full of yogurt and a set of scales.



You provide your own container and she removes the plug from the neck hole and pours yogurt.

Apparently Kefir was made that way, just fill up the late goat with fresh milk from the surviving goats or sheep, and hang it up for a day or so, culture is already inside the skin from previous brews.

According to a couple of sites I've read it was customary to hang the goat next to the door so visitors would punch the skin on the way in and out to keep the contents working and fermenting.

 

[TimT]

Kefir is weird. Since the little yeast-bacteria things that form are referred to as 'grains' I used to think that there was a plant that grew somewhere - the kefir plant - that had these seeds which typically contained a thriving yeast-bacterial colony. Nope. They just formed spontaneously, at some point in history, and spread when Mum and Dad would hand them on to the kids. "Here kids! You get this yurt, the goat, and these.... little blobby alien freakazoid things. No need to thank me! I'll be dead in a second anyway!"

I remember reading a while ago about an experiment in which scientists were doing things to raw goat milk - probably weird, unnatural, perverted things, knowing those scientists - and, for no apparent reason at all, kefir started forming. "The aliens are attacking again! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" "Oh no, we'll just send it off to a organics shop and say it's probiotic, those hippies will buy anything if it's called that."

Er, pardon me. As you were.

 

[Mardoo]

Love my kefir! I just got a culture again after a few years without. The occasional agitation, as with the skinful you mentioned BribieG, makes a noticeable difference AFAIC.

 

[Bribie G]

Guys, got my Kefir culture home safely today and going to make a batch overnight.

When making Kefir on supermarket pasteurised milk, should it (as with yogurt) be heated up to near boiling first then cooled, inoculated and fermented at the recommended temperature, or just heat the milk up to recommended (about 30 ish) then inoculate?

 

[TimT]

I wouldn't ever do heat milk up to near boiling, as in my induction into cheesemaking I have been taught to fear that. Others might.

 

[Mardoo]

Bribie, are you starting from a packaged culture or have you gotten one from a friend? I can't offer any advice about getting packaged cultures up and running as I've only gotten them from friends.

I've never incubated my kefir at any particular temperature or heated the milk in any way. I just bung it in a non-airtight vessel, add the milk straight from the fridge and put the vessel on a shelf. I gently stir it at least every 12 hours or agitate it gently, preferably more often (tastes better). I do this because I read that traditionally kefir was hung by the door in a skin bag so that people would bump it whenever they went in and out the door. So I reckoned occasional agitation would be good for it.

I tend to harvest at around the 36 hour mark. I like it slightly yeasty, but find I get the runs sometimes from drinking it at that phase, so I wait until it's passed the yeast-dominant phase and gone into the bacterial-dominant phase and starts to get a noticeable sour. By the way those phases are by my reckoning and not scientifically verified. When the colony gets too big just pass your extra onto a friend, or some people eat them for an extra probiotic boost. You'll almost certainly run out of friends who want it, as it grows pretty quickly, so eating your own young becomes an option.

 

[Bribie G]

Thanks.

I've got the powdered culture bought through Country Brewer. It lists a heap of microorganisms I've never heard of, and hoping that as I ferment it, the "grains" may possibly develop. That would be excellent.
Do you get a sediment of "grains" that sink to the bottom, or something, or do they just float in the mixture?

Won't be able to pass it on to grandchildren unless my son and his husband decide to adopt.