Please look at the very current lengthy thread about this same subject..

Here is a link that might be useful: Yogurt thread..

You can make yogurt by buying one small cup of commercial yogurt, just by adding a tablespoon of it to the beginning mixture - milk that has been brought to boiling, to kill the enzyme that keeps it from solidifying. Allow the boiled mixture to cool before adding the tablespoon of commercial yogurt, then place in a warm place until it sets up.

After it is finished, keep out a tablespoon of the finished yogurt to add to the next batch - to make more. If you allow the culture to die out, then of course, that would require fresh mixings.

But I still don't understand expending $25.00 anyway.

Just my 2 c's.

Bejay

Here are the live cultures listed on the starter yogurts I used. Of course, neither lists quantities.

One of my containers lists: acidophilus & bifidus.

The other one lists: S. thormophilus, L. bulgaricus, L. acidophilus. L. caei, and bifidobacterium longum.

I know health foods also sell dry yogurt culture. It might be worth it to compare what you have with what they sell dry.

Thank you all for the replies. I went ahead and tried out my idea. I made two batches of yogurt one with a tablespoon of store yogurt as the starter culture and the other batch was made with one of the health food store Acidophilus capsules. The difference was very noticable. The store bought yogurt was a corse consistancy and had a very acidic taste though still better than the original store bought product. The Acidophilus capsule version had a very smooth consistancy and hardly any acid taste further it has a much fuller rounder taste.
The health food Acidophilus has a dozen different bacteria cultures and all at high levels (quantities). Why people pay $25.00 a month is because most of the bacteria does not make it past your gut so it becomes a numbers game to reach you intestines. A wide spectrum of bacteria also makes for a very health flora in your system. Now that I can make all the yogurt I want with all the best bacteria cultures I can have my cake and eat it too so to speak. Thanks again for posting information.
By the way I found an old plastic wide mouth 2 quart thermos bottle this morning. I cleaned it out and preheated it with boiling water while I brought to boil 2 quarts of whole milk which I then cooled down in the fridge to 115 F. I mixed in a table spoon of the Acidophilus cultured yogurt and poured the mix into the plastic thermos and sealed it and left it on the counter. That was at about 8 AM this morning. I just opened up the thermos at about 1:10 PM and I already have a thick smooth creamy batch of yogurt. I will try another batch in a week or so (I have lots of yogurt to eat) using milk that is only warmed up to 115 F rather than boiling and see if I can detect any differences. Wow I am impressed that this is so easy and healthy and inexpensive to make.

> The difference was very noticable. The store bought yogurt was a corse consistancy and had a very acidic taste though still better than the original store bought product. The Acidophilus capsule version had a very smooth consistancy and hardly any acid taste further it has a much fuller rounder taste.

Just speculation on my part, but I do have some experience with lactic acid bacteria even though have never cultured yogurt or the acidophilis capsules.

Let the acidophilis culture go for a few days and then test the pH. When it gets below 4 use it to innoculate milk in another trial. I expect it will work much quicker and give a much more acidic result in the same time frame.

Zabby,

I was just trying to say that using a fresh culture would work faster than a dehydrated powder version. The sourness depends on how long you let the inoculated milk age. It might take an extra 2 days for using dehydrated yogurt (or acidophilis) powder to accomplish the same thing as using fresh yogurt as a starter.

Wish that I had one of those acidophilis capsules to play with. It would be fun to compare milk inoculated with yogurt, sourdough, acidophilis or the culture that I use.

jt

It appears that we are duplicating efforts here. There is still another recent active yogurt thread, and anyone posting here, should probbaly stay within the one that was originally posted. Doesn't this make sense? Why start another thread for the same subject?

Hmm.....I definitely noticed a distinct difference in the two starters I used - although neither of mine were dry. The first with what appears to be less variations of cultures was watery and more sour. The second with 5 cultures, was very thick and creamy..and so sweet it did not need additional sweetening. Both we left in my yogurt maker that exact same time - 10 hrs.

Ken - I don't think this topic has been touched on in the other thread...the only thing in common is yogurt ;-) It's a little like making everyone post all of their questions about pickles in one thread ;-)

I see your point, but even for that, if the original poster had checked the recent threads, the yogurt subject was the basic part of the whole group of question and comments, and can go in many directions. Yogurt is a cultured dairy product, somewhat plain and simple. Pickling, on the other hand can be very different and will always have many ways to proceed. How about the many pages of 'What did you put up' threads.. Now thats one that has a LOT of interesting items that requires some serious reading. For the newcomer, its very tedious to read through all of these, but 'hopefully' the search engine here has been fixed, to give much more useful results. Who knows, maybe a nice database could be integrated and all his info could bring up many items we miss if we just scroll down. Do I see cross references anywhere?

Morayjames, re your idea of using acidophilus capsules as a starter.
I happened to have a jar of "Probioplus DDS" which is acidophilus and some others found in yogurt and kefir, and I whisked a single capsule into a qt of milk, set it by the wood stove over night, and Bingo!!

Really good yogurt.

So it works.

Bejay writes: > Could I make a passable cheese from this? It actually tasted quite good.

I think (but do not know) that 'passable' is probably the key word. Anyways, I think is worth trying. I expect will be like cottage cheese. Maybe not. My cultures are old and the mother grains grow in size with each feeding. Acidic, but at the same time they are sweet. Instructions for flavoring here under 'recipes': Yogourmet

For sure wouldn't buy one of those cotton bags. Cheesecloth would work just as well.

I see that the cheese starter does not have yeasts in it. Never tried it and still have 6 pkts of the starter & am willing to share 5 of them. Would really like to trade one for an acidophilus capsule as I'm not about to buy a whole jar of them. Going to buy some milk tomorrow and start one of the cheese starters. Still don't think heating the milk is necessary, but might do it.

jt

@morayjames

Would you care to share the type of Acidophilus capsules you are using. I would like to order some and would love a recommendation for a good one that has had success!

BOILING Water poured into PLASTIC????? You might consider asking Mr. Google if that adds some extremely unhealthy additives to your otherwise amazing yogurt! I use an inexpensive ceramic container intended as a quart size slow cooker. No heat-liberated toxins to leach into my yogurt.

Here is a link that might be useful: yogurt making questions