homemade yogurt--help please

[tesslouise]

We've been making homemade yogurt in the crockpot. We use "skinny" (partially skimmed) raw milk and 1/2 cup of plain yogurt for a culture. No gelatin, powdered milk, etc. We've made three batches so far. The yogurt sets up fine (but soft--we drain it for an hour or so) and tastes fine, but it has a grainy texture. Why?

[tesslouise]

Bump--anyone?

[ariannasmommy22]

Hmmm...is your milk fresh or coming out of the freezer? My raw milk out of the freezer is really grainy...still good though. How much milk do you mix with your yogurt? You only need 2 TB of culture per quart.

[ariannasmommy22]

Oh and how high are you heating the milk?

[Addiesgottaclothbutt]

Try getting a freezed dried culture to start your batch. Then use your own yogurt for the next batch. I usually do that for a month and then start with another fresh frezze dried culture helps to keep the bacteria levels up
and contamination down.

[tesslouise]

Originally Posted by ariannasmommy22 Hmmm...is your milk fresh or coming out of the freezer? My raw milk out of the freezer is really grainy...still good though. How much milk do you mix with your yogurt? You only need 2 TB of culture per quart.

The milk is fresh. We've been following the recipe from the Crockpot 365 website, which calls for 1/2 cup of yogurt as culture for 8 cups of milk--so yeah, 2 tablespoons per quart. We used commercial yogurt the first time and our own yogurt as culture for the 2nd and 3rd batches. I've read that we'll need to start over with commercial culture after about six batches, but we're not there yet.

[tesslouise]

Originally Posted by ariannasmommy22 Oh and how high are you heating the milk?

I don't know--2.5 hours in the crockpot on low, then three hours to cool off before stirring in the culture. If I get out the thermometer, what temperature do I want it to be? Is it likely that I'm getting it too hot, or not hot enough?

[tesslouise]

Originally Posted by Addiesgottaclothbutt Try getting a freezed dried culture to start your batch. Then use your own yogurt for the next batch. I usually do that for a month and then start with another fresh frezze dried culture helps to keep the bacteria levels up and contamination down.

So freeze-dried culture works better than commercial yogurt? I think I've seen it at the health food store.

[ariannasmommy22]

Originally Posted by tesslouise So freeze-dried culture works better than commercial yogurt? I think I've seen it at the health food store.

I've only used the freeze dried culture but I would think if you were buying a GOOD quality, organic yogurt...it should work just fine. You want the best quality to use as a starter Also, not mixing it well in the beginning could be the culprit. Make sure you blend it in very good, but don't whisk! I know alot of people who use the crockpot, but I'm scared to try it in mine cause I don't know what the temperature is. When you heat it up you kill alot of good bacteria that is in it...Alton Brown even did an episode on making yogurt and said never to go above 120degrees.

http://www.goodeatsfanpage.com/Season6/EA1F04.htm

[kannondicarpo]

Don't know but thought I'd weigh in.

I use the same recipe only with 4 cups 2% milk and a whole (small) container of yogurt and ours turns out very smooth.

Hope you figure it out.