Estimated reading time: 8 minutes

Introduction

• thermophilic ferments, heat seeking ferment.
• Need temmperatures around 50C, which is hot hot hot. Some exceptions abound.
• Yogurt, curd, differently, fermented milk in coagulated form,common in South Asian.
• Heat milk until it’s boiling, let it cool down until it’s just a little too hot to touch, add existing yogurt starter, put it in high temperature for 8-16 hours. Lactose converted into other sugars, so no worries about lactose intolerance.
• I put in the oven with the light turned on, overnight. Traditionally put in wooden buckets where the colonies of bacteria and yeast in the wood grains helped ferment, saw it in Nepal.
• Might have found other minor sources of ‘innovation’ to make the process less messy and possibly quicker. Less energy efficient.
• Eaten in smoothie, eaten with oatmeal, rice, as ingredient for baked goods, as a yogurt curry, can be used to make cheese, with rolled rice, highly respected in South Asia.
• The cultures found in the shops can’t be used as a starter for more than 3-4 generations as they’re not ‘natural’ ferments.
• Only a few perfect species are chosen for industrial purposes, they can be reused only so many times before they die out as they’re not as hardy as natural variants.
• Natural starters available to buy, more expensive. Or other traditional cultures found to. Other examples: Dahi in South Asia, Skyr in Nordics.
• Mostly similar transformation of milk into gel-like edible product, through different pathways and specific microbes.
• I produce too much yogurt for my consumption, love it much.
• At one time producing 2 gallon yogurt a week for many months, for family, now significantly lesser.
• Great with oat or with rice, but gets boring after a while, high in protein though.
• Can also be flavored, and if really really desired, added sugar and closed bottle can be used to make ‘fizzy’ yogurt, which is…a novel concept, might not be easily accepted.

Yogurt.

Yogurt ferments yogurt. It is fermented by thermophilic, or heat-seeking, microbes. To ferment yogurt, you need to maintain consistent temperatures around 50 degrees Celsius, or 130 Fahrenheit, which is hot, hot, hot. There are minor other yogurt cultures that don’t need as warm temperatures, but they’re more rare. It’s called yogurt in the Americas and Europe and South Asia. It’s also a fermented milk in coagulated form. It’s also called dahi, d-a-h-i. It supposedly uses different ecosystems of microbes to reach quite similar biochemical endpoints. Instructions: Heat milk until boiling. Be careful not to burn the bottom of your pot, so don’t set the hob too high. Keep stirring the milk so as not to let a layer, the bottom layer, burn. Once it’s boiling, let the milk cool down until it’s about 130 Fahrenheit, which is just a little too hot to touch for more than a couple of seconds. Add a couple of spoonfuls of existing yogurt culture. Put it around 50 C, or 130 F, for 8 to 16 hours. The lactose in the milk is converted into other sugars, so even if you are lactose intolerant, you will be able to safely drink the output yogurt. I often put the yogurt fermenter in the oven with the light turned on overnight.

Traditionally, for example, in Nepal, my grandmother used to put milk in wooden buckets. Existing colonies of bacteria and yeast in the wood grains, cultured and nurtured through hundreds of generations of milk processing, helped ferment the yogurt, I am told. The wood-fermented yogurt has a different flavor and better texture, though I have yet to compare side by side.

I might have found a minor source of innovation to make the process less messy and potentially quicker. It is also potentially less efficient. I have to test it out multiple times, but here’s what you do. You pour milk into the containers you want to store your yogurt in. Add a spoonful of yogurt and put those target containers on seedling heating pads, um, and covering the whole thing in blankets or another insulated container. In 8 to 16, potentially 20 hours, you will ideally have yogurt. The idea behind this is that you need to boil the milk to kill off potential pathogens in the milk that might compete with the yogurt starter culture. However, since store-bought milk is already pasteurized, there are no potential competitors in the form of other pathogens. They’re already killed by the pasteurization, so you don’t need to take it all the way to boiling temperature. You could save yourself the effort and the extra dishes and just do it in high, in room to medium-high temperature. However, that is a work in progress, and I cannot vouch for it working every single time.

Ah, yogurt is an ingredient in smoothies. It’s eaten with oatmeal. It’s eaten with rice. It’s an ingredient for baked goods. In Nepal, our yogurt curry is a common dish. The recipe is basically you curdle yogurt with basic spices and water on the hob. Um, you can add onion and garlic to taste and salt. It can be used to make cheese. It can be used as a snack with rolled rice, and two brackets, tura. It is a very common, popular dish in South Asia and is used for many Hindu religious rituals as well. The yogurt cultures found in the grocery stores, that is, the yogurt bought from the stores, can’t be used as a starter for more than three or four generations, as these yogurts use commercial batches, and those ecosystems are optimized for consistency and uniformity and not hardiness. They’re basically synthetic cultures and don’t thrive in nature under regular circumstances. Natural starters are available to buy. They are more expensive, but they will last you forever. And once you start a batch of milk, you can use it as a starter for dozens or hundreds of generations.

There are other similar traditional cultures found as well. In the olden days, the way people took the yogurt cultures to new lands was they would dehydrate yogurt and pack up the dried powder in a handkerchief or inside other items of clothing. And at their target destination, they would rehydrate the dried yogurt powder and use it to inoculate milk. People don’t do that much anymore. There are other kinds of yogurt traditions as well. For example, dahi in South Asia and skyr in the Nordics. These are all similar transformations of milk into a gel-like edible product with the breakdown of lactose into simple sugars through different biochemical pathways and different microbes.

I make about a gallon of yogurt at a time. It’s too much for my consumption, and it lasts me a week or two, but I really love it that much, and it’s way cheaper than buying it at the store. At one time, I was producing two gallons of yogurt a week for several months in a row. I was making it for friends and family, and the pace of yogurt fermentation has significantly slowed down now. The best way I like to eat yogurt is with fruits or with odor, rice. But it gets boring after a while, even though it’s quite high in protein content.

Yogurt is commercially often flavored, though I don’t prefer it that way. And if really, really desired, added sugar in closed bottles can be used to make fizzy yogurt, um, which is a novel concept, and people are probably not going to appreciate it that much. Um, in South Asia, often they make off-brand versions of sour milk by mixing yogurt with water and salt and drinking a salty yogurt drink.