yoghurt, yogurt -- buying, making

[TheLostSwede]

Problem with the EasiYo is the cost, not the taste or the quality.
I bought the greek yogurt and it came out really good, despite making it in my plug-in yogurt maker.
The prices it's sold for here is about the same as in other parts of the world though, but I've only found Jason's to stock the mixture. I guess you save money on milk, but you can get a lot of milk for NT$200+. They have some other interesting flavours etc which I haven't tried apart from the vanilla, but I'm happy with plain yogurt and considering I eat about 250ml a day with muesli, doing it from some kind of a starter works out much cheaper for me.

[divea]

OK....found the perfect yogurt. Believe me, it fits Indian standards LOL. It costs 30 NTd, found it in RT Mart near the butter/cheese section and it is called Nature yogurt from AUCHUAN. Yipee!! Made myself a batch.

Will edit nd attach fotos later.

Hmm... that's a French import brand, not seen that in the RT Mart in Xindian, but it seems like Taiwan is starting to get a lot more real yogurt rather than those artificial crap things that they call yogurt drinks here.

This was yesterday so its pretty new!!

[TheLostSwede]

Hmm.. not sure that can be used as a starter as it's fat free, but it also seems to be plain yogurt. You tried to use it as a starter?

[Dragonbones]

Well, I just made my first yogurt, and it's PERFECT.
I used low-fat milk, adding a half cup of milk powder to thicken it a bit, scalded the mix, cooled it to 40C, added 75ml AB Yogurt, covered it and left it atop the hot water heater, where the temp gradually rose, over a couple hours, to 50C. It sat like that for 7 hours, and was firmly set, and slightly sour. Perfect.

[divea]

Hmm.. not sure that can be used as a starter as it's fat free, but it also seems to be plain yogurt. You tried to use it as a starter?

Yes yes.......yes I did. Turned out great!! and then made another pot with the one I previously made.

I like plain yogurt....it gave me a sour yogurt which tasted like home and I let it be for an extra couple of hours to sour it further and made kadhi.....which I haven't had in ages....super duper delicious.

http://www.sanjeevkapoor.com/Recipe.aspx?RecipeId=2091&Header=Searched%20Recipe&MenuId=0

[TheLostSwede]

Right, will have to check it out next time I got to RTMart (been a while now).
The flying cow yogurt is on sale in mitsukoshi's supermarket until the end of this month for NT$29 each and I found that it makes really nice thick creamy yogurt if you use it started and mix it with the hokkaido milk (brown bottles and cartons). I guess this is kinda "fatty" milk, but it makes for really great eating yogurt.

[divea]

I guess this is kinda "fatty" milk, but it makes for really great eating yogurt

I think fatty milk is best used for yogurt..atleast for the first few cultures and when you finally have a good, solid, and no fail starter, you can skip to low fat.

My problem, is that some times I don't make yogurt for weeks because kids have colds and coughs etc. and the weather is damp and dingy and not conducive, and my starters become mold and and I have to reinvent the wheel. Just venting.

[TheLostSwede]

Hehehe, well, maybe you can help me with a problem I run into at times, I get these lumps in the yogurt, is that normal?
I don't actually bother scalding the milk first, maybe this is the problem?
But it always sets in the yogurt maker, although sometimes it doesn't get as nice as other times, but this seems to be more dependant on the milk than anything else.
I eat yogurt for breakfast with cereal, so I guess I don't have your problem with not using it up quickly enough.

[divea]

lumpy yogurt??? never heard of it. Sounds like pockets of bacteria (I can be very wrong though) scalding or at least warming the milk will help bacteria to blend in evenly. I don't use a yogurt maker but if the instructions call for turning the heat on...then you should do it.

[TheLostSwede]

Didn't get any instructions with it, but the yogurt maker warms the milk up to 40 something degrees.
I've just read elsewhere that you should scald the milk first and then leave it to cool down.
I only get very small lumps in it, I'll try to take a picture at some stage and show you.