How to Make Your Own Yogurt at Home – You might be a lover of yogurt, however, you might probably be buying it from a supermarket.
What if I told you that you can actually make your own homemade yogurt and you can do this with some easy steps? These steps will be discussed in this article.
How to make yogurt at home step by step?
In order to make yogurt, you must ensure that all your equipment, including pots, spoons, and containers, are thoroughly cleaned and this is to avoid contamination. Go ahead and pour your milk into a pot and heat it to about 82°C. The reason why you have to boil the milk is to kill any unwanted bacteria and improve the yogurt’s texture.
After the boiling process, let the milk cool to around 43°C, and this is known to be the optimal temperature for adding the starter culture.
At this point, you are required to add the starter culture. Go ahead and stir in a small amount of the yogurt starter culture.
After adding the boiled milk and the starter culture, cover the mixture and keep it in a warm environment for 6-12 hours.
After the incubation period, check if the yogurt has set to your desired consistency. If everything is as desired, transfer the yogurt to the refrigerator to cool and thicken further. Store it in airtight containers for up to two weeks.
What are the main ingredients of yogurt?
The primary ingredient which is used to make yogurt is milk and it can be from various sources. The type of milk used influences the flavor and texture of the yogurt.
One other thing that is used to make yogurt is starter culture and this is a beneficial bacteria. Examples of such bacteria are Lactobacillus bulgaricus and Streptococcus thermophilus. They are widely known to ferment the milk. The cultures convert lactose into lactic acid, and this in turn thickens the milk and gives yogurt its characteristic tangy taste.
What is the best milk for homemade yogurt?
In fact, pasteurized milk is widely known to be an excellent choice of milk for making yogurt at home. Pasteurized milk is heated to about 72°C and held there for 15 seconds, which is ideal. If your bottle of milk is labeled pasteurized, then it has most likely been treated in this way.
This type of milk maintains the necessary proteins and sugars for yogurt-making while ensuring any harmful bacteria are eliminated, resulting in a safe and effective fermentation process.
Why boil milk before making yogurt?
There are some benefits that is derived when you boil your milk before making yogurt. It is widely known that boiling milk before making yogurt serves two main purposes.
Boiling the milk actually kills any competing bacteria and denatures the whey proteins to improve the yogurt’s texture and viscosity.
In order to ensure that the boiling process is achieved without any hitch, you are required to heat the milk to about 82°C in a double boiler. You must maintain this temperature for 10 minutes for a thinner yogurt or 20 minutes for a thicker consistency.
After the heating process, the milk should be cooled to the appropriate temperature before adding the yogurt starter culture.
Can I make yogurt without boiling milk?
Although it is required to heat milk intended for making yogurt, you can ignore boiling the milk. I found out that traditionally, making yogurt involves heating the milk to near boiling and this is intended to kill any unwanted bacteria.
One other thing that boiling the milk does is that it denatures the proteins, and this helps the yogurt set properly.
If you intend to make your yogurt without boiling the milk, it is called the cold start or no-boil method. With the cold start method, you can skip the time-consuming steps of boiling and then cooling the milk.
Instead, you use ultra-pasteurized or ultra-high-temperature processed milk. This type of milk has already been heated sufficiently during processing to kill bacteria and denature proteins.
How long does homemade yogurt last?
If you want your homemade yogurt to last, you must store it properly. If you store homemade yogurt properly in an airtight container, it should last about two weeks in the refrigerator.
You must ensure the container is sealed tightly to prevent contamination and also to maintain freshness. Over time, the yogurt may become tangier as the cultures continue to ferment, but it remains safe to eat within this period.
Source: thpttranhungdao.edu.vn/en/
Categories: News
Source: thpttranhungdao.edu.vn/en/
