Homemade Yogurt **Updated** Cheese and Buttermilk

[steffpeck]

Quote:
I would love your recipes for your cheeses!! Sounds so yummy!

 

[globalgal]

My first post, just found this site. I grew up on a small farm in South Texas with a whole mess of free range chickens (they used to live in a coop, but one day a coyote or dog busted in and after that they'd never go back inside). Hunting eggs was a daily chore.

Now I live in a small city in China and I want to make my own yogurt. I can buy yogurt here, but it is all of the sugar-added, flavored variety. This will sound weird, but I cannot find any plain, no sugar-added yogurt. (I'm sure in Shanghai or Beijing it is easy to find, but I live in the boonies.) SO, if I want to make my own, what do I use for starter? The sugar-added, flavored varieties do have live cultures. What would happen if I used them?

Love this forum already!!

 

[Mrs MIA]

I use Nancy's Natural Plain non-fat yogurt as a starter... just the little cup-sized container does several batches of yogurt, and there's nothing artificial in there!

 

[globalgal]

Forgot to mention that in addition to having no plain, no-sugar added yogurt here, the milk is also all uhp - the kind that can stay on the shelf in a tetra-brick for months at a time - will that affect the yogurt?

 

[MissPrissy]

Globalgal, You need to find you a farmer who is milking a cow or a goat. Ultrapasturized will not make cheese and it makes poor quality yogurt. As far as making yogurt as long it doesn't have fruit in it I think it will work. If not look for starter in the dry powdered form. If you can't find where you are you can order it online.

steffpeck, if you look back through the posts in this thread there are a couple cheeses here.

Glad you all found us!

Welcome to BYC.

 

[globalgal]

Thanks for the info, MissPrissy, I really have no idea how to go about finding a cow or goat around here, but I'll give it a go. Could be hilarious. I'm sure the local farmers would just flip if they knew an American girl wants to buy milk from them. I'll be back in the US for a few weeks this summer, so maybe I'll try to bring back some of that powdered culture.

I hope you all in the US realize how easy you have it, with your organic health food stores, big ovens, cheese, etc.

BTW - The DH informs me the milk here is UHT, not UHP as I wrote it. My friends here from New Zealand refuse to drink it, they say it is horrid compared to their fresh milk back home.

 

[MissPrissy]

I would have to agree with the fresh milk. Once you get used to drinking fresh raw milk everything else tastes very watery and different. Pasturizing does change the flavor - especially goat milk.

 

[ozark hen]

I just want to welcome globalgal and to tell her I would gladly mail her the powdered form of starter if she can find the milk there. You are lucky to be able to see/go places others of us will never see.

 

[Lunachick]

OK here's another dumb Q - can I use a styrofoam cooler? I really want to do this Saturday, the other cooler I have is disgusting....

 

[MissPrissy]

You can use anything you have to insulate the jars. It is keeping the jars warm that let the cultures grow and in turn make the milk into yogurt.