Yogurt
Notes from the trials of making homemade yogurt.
Default process:
- Heat milk to 180 degrees F (denatures proteins)
- Hold in oven for 30 minutes at 180F (should increase thickness)
- Cool to 115F in water bath
- Incubate at 110F for 8 hours in food dehydrator (allows bacteria to grow)
- Heat milk to 180 degrees F (denatures proteins)
- Hold in oven for 30 minutes at 180F (should increase thickness)
- Incubate at 110F for 8 hours in food dehydrator (allows bacteria to grow)
The problem is that we’re still getting grainy yogurt. This link says we should try to decrease the incubation temperature.
2020/01/12:
- Heat milk, hold at 195 for 10 minutes
- Microwave
- Cool to 115F
- Add starter
- Ferment at 120F for 1 hour
- Ferment at 90F? for 8 hours or overnight
Heating and cooling tables:
1 quart in our microwave at full power takes 8 minutes and 30 seconds to get to 195F. Then cool in water bath for 10 minutes to get to 115F.
For a 1 quart and a pint in the microwave, heat for 10 minutes to get the pint to 195F , and then do the quart an additional 2.5 minutes to get the quart to 195F. Cool in water bath for 5 minutes to get pint to 115F.
Notes & Sources:
“On food and cooking” by Harold McGee recommends cooking the milk at 185F for 30 minutes to denature the whey protein lactoglobulin, allowing the casein particles to bond to multiple others, making a more fine matrix, and retaining liquid better. There’s no comment on the heating speed. 195F for 10 minutes should also work!
Fermentation: Rapid (104-113F) fermentation allows the bacteria to grow quickly (2-3 hours). At 86F, it could take 18 hours. Rapid gelling produces coarse protein networks which can leak whey. Slow gelling makes finer, more delicate networks that can retain whey better.