The Process of Making Yoghurt
Yoghurt is a milk product produced from the natural process of fermenting milk’s lactic acid. This articles describes the process required to make yogurt at home.
Step 1:
- Heat (Boil) the milk to about 80-85C(185F) to eliminate a number of organisms in the raw milk to make the fermentation process reliable and predictable, by creating a double boiler (you can use two containers fitting into one another to achieve that) in order to prevent the milk from burning. Alternatively heat the milk directly while stirring it till it starts to froth which is an indication that the temperature has reached the required 85C.
Step 2:
- Cool the milk to about 43C (110F) using a cold water bath so that the temperature of the milk is lowered homogeneously and very fast. Stir the milk just occasionally unless the cooling process is at the room temperature in which case stirring should be consistent. Be keen to avoid the milk from going below 49C since 43C is the optimal temperature targeted here.
Step 3:
- Warm the starter by letting starter yoghurt sit at room temperature while you are waiting the milk to cool to avoid it being too cold when you add it in.
Step 4:
- Add non fat dry milk that is if necessary with the aim of increasing the nutritional content of the yogurt and makes it thicken easily especially when using nonfat milk.
Step 5:
- Add the starter. Add around 3 teaspoon of the existing yoghurt prepared earlier.
Step 6:
- Put the mixture in a container. It could be one or more and then tightly cover then with a lid or polythene wrap (plastic wrap).
Step 7:
- Allow the Bacteria in the yoghurt to incubate. While keeping the temperature at around 38C, keep the yoghurt warm and still to encourage the growth of bacteria. After some hours (around 6) you will have a thick texture, cheesy aroma and of course a greenish on top. Perfect! The longer you let it stay beyond six hours, the tastier and thicker it will become.
Step 8:
- Refrigerate your yoghurt for many hours before eating or serving it within a period of around two weeks. In case of feeling that you want to use some of it as a starter, do it between 4-8 days since the bacteria could have grown stronger hence effective. You can pour off the thin layer that forms on the top or stir it before eating it.
Step 9:
- Flavor your tasty yoghurt if you choose to in order to achieve the taste you like. Then lastly preserve part of this yoghurt you have made for your future starter needs.
CONCLUSION
After carefully following through these procedures, you will notice that your first batch will be the most difficult to produce! The advantage of yoghurt making is that you can use any kind of milk (raw, whole milk, diluted, homogenized, cow, goat, soybean, dry powdered etc) and you may opt for freeze-dried bacteria cultures instead of starters. There are different types of yoghurt depending on the process adopted i.e. frozen, concentrated, drinking or flavored and there quality can be altered by; milk quality, used starter culture, fat level in the milk and bacteriophages.
