Yogurt- by Abigail Courtenay RD(SA)

This is a bit of a follow up article on my previous on (remember the one on Kefir?) Once I started fermenting milk with the kefir grains, it got me thinking...

Why shouldn’t I make my own yogurt as well? Making your own yogurt is not only fun, but healthy and can save you a lot of money! Especially if you enjoy it every day, like I do! I was on a roll and it was very exciting!

The origins of yogurt are unfortunately unknown, but it is believed that the bacteria that are originally thought to culture the first yogurt may have originated on the surface of a plant.Milk may have become spontaneously and unintentionally infected through contact with plants, or bacteria may have been transferred via the udder of domestic milk-producing animals, like a cow.

Yogurt has a host of nutritional benefits, not only is it rich in protein, calcium and B-vitamins (riboflavin, vitamin B6 and vitamin B12) but it also has nutritional benefits beyond those of the milk from which it is made. People who are lactose intolerant can sometimes tolerate yogurt better than other dairy products, because the lactose in the milk is ‘digested’ by the bacteria that fermented the yogurt (similar to the process described in my previous article on kefir).

When you read ‘live culture’ on your yogurt label, this means that the yogurt was made using live bacteria that fed off the lactose in the milk to create a thickened fermented yogurt. If there are sufficient quantities of these live cultures then they can be referred to as probiotics. The term probiotic is a relatively new word meaning “for life” and it is currently used to name bacteria associated with beneficial effects for humans and animals. The health benefits of food with added live cultures/ probiotics on human health, and in particular of milk products, like yogurt, on children and other high-risk populations, are being increasingly promoted by health professionals. Probiotics assist in strengthening and protecting the immune, digestive and respiratory systems.

Depending on the milk and method you use, your yogurt may have a variety of physical properties:

• If you use low fat/ skimmed milk, your yogurt will be slightly thinner than if using full cream milk.
• If you add milk powder to your milk before fermentation (1Tbsp/ litre works well) it will also produce a thicker yogurt.
• If you strain the whey from your yogurt using a cheese-cloth, it will produce a very thick/ Greek style yogurt.

I decided to try culture my own yogurt using a capsule of live probiotics and some plain Bulgarian yogurt. By using the capsule of live probiotics, I was controlling the type of bacteria/ probiotics present in my yogurt and by using the Bulgarian yogurt I was controlling the way the yogurt will taste.

My results were great! I have since been making my own yogurt almost every week, using some of the ‘old’ yogurt as a starter for each new batch…

If you are interested in making your own yogurt, please feel free to check out our Chefy page where I explain the process step by step… J

References:

1. Wikipedia. 2014. Yogurt. [online] Available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yogurt [Accessed: 9 Mar 2014].

2. Morelli, L. and Capurso, L. 2012. FAO/WHO guidelines on probiotics: 10 years later. Journal of clinical gastroenterology, 46 pp. 1--2.

3. Lopez-Mchugh, N. 2014. How To Make Homemade Greek Yogurt | Easy Homemade Thick Greek Yogurt. [online] Available at: http://www.spiciefoodie.com/2012/08/01/how-to-make-homemade-greek-yogurt/ [Accessed: 9 Mar 2014].