A Qualified Success

Yesterday I tried to make yogurt. I was inspired by this article on Salon. It sounds amazing: "smoother, softer, clear-tasting, stabilizer and gunk-free, with a level of tang that you can control." I was particularly interested in this last bit. I really don't like the tanginess of yogurt, especially in plain yogurt. So I skipped off to the grocery store to get some milk and plain yogurt to use as a starter. And so the experiment began...


First you are supposed to warm the milk until it has bubbles on the surface and is steaming. Well, it turns out the length of time between that and boiling over is about 3 nanoseconds. I had been watching and stirring quite diligently, noticed the bubbles and the steam, and as I was reaching out my hand to turn off the burner it boiled over and covered my entire stove in a fine layer of hot milk that immediately solidified because the surface was hot. 


Then you cool it a bit, stir in some starter, put it in a warm spot and wait. Our apartment is usually around 75*F because we have no control over the radiators. I put the covered bowl wrapped in a towel on our milk-crusted stove and waited the recommended four hours. When time was up I excitedly uncovered the bowl hoping to experience some cultured euphoria. "Tender like the softest custard, it's sweet, creamy, eternally round milk, leaving you with the aftertaste of a soothing, buttery sip." Instead, I just got warm milk. But not warm enough so that I thought "Mmmm.... warm milk." It was more like yucky, tepid room-temperature milk with no trace of yogurtification. Fail. 


I added some more yogurt and moved it over to directly on top of the radiator and waited some more. Then the magic began. It definitely needed to be warmer than I originally had it. After a few hours it started to thicken and get more yogurty. It was just beginning to get a little of the tang, so I put it in the fridge to solidify a bit more. In then end, I had a soupy, mild tasting yogurt not unlike Kefir. It would be delicious on cereal or fruit. I might try to make frozen yogurt out of mine. 


Overall, it was a success in that I now have a yogurt type substance in my fridge. Was it worth the effort? Not really. I'm not really a big yogurt fan and I thought this might make me one. It did not. I will happily consume what I made and I think I will give it one more try with keeping it very warm from the start to see if that makes any difference.