Re: making yogurt, another question

[Guest guest]

> I heated the milk up in a large saucepan. I was going to try to get it to

> ninety degrees, but the themometer I was using wouldn't work in it for

some

> reason. I was using the themometer I use in my mouth because my meat

> themometer doesn't go low enough. I put it under boiling water first,

which

> I also rinsed out my sauce pan with, to kill any germs.

If you put the thermometer under boiling water you probably broke it. I

always wash my thermometer with soap and cold water after taking my

temperature.

> Anyway, I heated up the milk till it was warm, keeping in mind if it burns

to

> the touch it is at enzyme-destruction point. The milk was distinctively

> warmer than room temperature, which I think is considered to be around 70,

> but I don't know how warm it is. I imagine if it was warm to the touch,

not

> lukewarm, it must be a good 80 or more, by my guess.

>

> My question is, if I got the milk up to, say 80, but not 90, will that

harm

> my culture? Does heating it up to the right temperature just make things

> more efficient, or will it not work if I didn't reach the right temp?

No harm to the culture, it just slows down the culturing process if the temp

is too cold. The old fashioned way to test if babies milk is not too hot is

to put a couple drops on the inside of your wrist, whcih is quite sensitive

to heat.

Kris

[Guest guest]

In a message dated 8/31/02 11:14:42 PM Eastern Daylight Time,

kris.johnson@... writes:

> If you put the thermometer under boiling water you probably broke it. I

> always wash my thermometer with soap and cold water after taking my

> temperature.

Well, I think what happened is that the themometer won't register anything

under a certain temp, which is about 90 degrees. After 8 hours, when I found

that next to nothing had happened to it, I put the whole thing in the oven at

150 degrees, with the door cracked most of the time, and checked it

periodically. After it started to get warm, the themometer worked,

registering at 96 or so. I thought, just to be safe, maybe I should get it

up to 110. I got to 105.8 and left it in longer, but then I realized that

the themometer was saying the same thing and not getting hotter because it

doesn't register above that temp. So I put the meat themometer in, which

starts at 130, but has some unlabelled space, and by estimation it was no

more than 120, but probably more than 110. Hopefully I didn't destroy to many

enzymes-- it probably was only over 110 for 15 minutes. At that point it

seemed like you could almost call it yogurt already, so I wrapped it up again

until the morning. It looks like it worked, but its chunky and suspended in

watery stuff rather than creamy-- looks kind of gross. I later realized I

need to strain out the whey, hopefully it will look more appetizing after

that.

Does the fact that I didn't put pectin in it account for the lack of

creaminess?

Chris

____

" What can one say of a soul, of a heart, filled with compassion? It is a

heart which burns with love for every creature: for human beings, birds, and

animals, for serpents and for demons. The thought of them and the sight of

them make the tears of the saint flow. And this immense and intense

compassion, which flows from the heart of the saints, makes them unable to

bear the sight of the smallest, most insignificant wound in any creature.

Thus they pray ceaselessly, with tears, even for animals, for enemies of the

truth, and for those who do them wrong. "

--Saint Isaac the Syrian

[Guest guest]

In a message dated 9/1/02 1:57:48 PM Eastern Daylight Time,

ChrisMasterjohn@... writes:

> > If you put the thermometer under boiling water you probably broke it.

Oh, and just to be clear, I took the water off the heat first, and didn't put

the whole themometer in, just dipped the dipping part in for a minute, or

less.

Chris

____

" What can one say of a soul, of a heart, filled with compassion? It is a

heart which burns with love for every creature: for human beings, birds, and

animals, for serpents and for demons. The thought of them and the sight of

them make the tears of the saint flow. And this immense and intense

compassion, which flows from the heart of the saints, makes them unable to

bear the sight of the smallest, most insignificant wound in any creature.

Thus they pray ceaselessly, with tears, even for animals, for enemies of the

truth, and for those who do them wrong. "

--Saint Isaac the Syrian

[Guest guest]

wrote:

>At that point it

seemed like you could almost call it yogurt already, so I wrapped it up

again

until the morning. It looks like it worked, but its chunky and suspended in

watery stuff rather than creamy-- looks kind of gross. I later realized I

need to strain out the whey, hopefully it will look more appetizing after

that.>

It's the natural tendancy of yogurt to separate in to curds and whey if it

sits too long. The pectin would tend to limit that separation, but even

yogurt made with pectin will tend to separate when you disturb it (spoon out

some). So if you don't want to have some curds and whey, I'd try stirring it

up again.

Peace,

Kris , gardening in harmony with nature in northwest Ohio

If you want to hear the good news about butter check out this website:

http://www.westonaprice.org/know_your_fats/know_your_fats.html