Need Help: Making Yogurt

[Guest guest]

Dear Sharon and ,

I recently got the following information from Pacific Foods,

" Our food technology department came up with this information, I hope

it will work for you and your family: Unlike milk, soymilk won't set

up firmly after being cultured, so you have to add something to

increase the solids and thicken the soymilk base before culturing. So

that is the reason for the starch in this recipe:

1 Cup Pacific Ultra Soy Beverage

1 Tablespoon plus 1 Teaspoon tapioca starch

1 Tablespoon sugar

Mix the ingredients together and cook (with stirring) in the

microwave or on top of the stove until mixture thickens and starts to

boil. Cool to 80 F or so (set container in an ice water bath and stir

gently to avoid skin forming on top), and add cultures. Cover

container and hold at this temperature for 4 hours (or follow

instructions for yogurt fermenter).

You can experiment with different sweeteners or different gluten-free

starches. You can also use Pacific Unsweetened Soymilk and add closer

to 3 Tablespoons sugar per cup of soymilk.

Your ideas for cultures to use would be my suggestions also, so I

don't have anything new to add on that point....Let me know how this

works for you, Martha.

Sincerely,Peggy Carpenter, Customer Service Representative, (503) 692-

9666 "

I have not gotten to try this yet, but I had planned to try

several different combinations as my yogurt maker has 5 cups to work

with. I have not been able to find a commercial dairy-free starter,

so I was going to use some commercial dairy-free yogurt that is

supposed to have active cultures. But from pre-diet experience with

dairy yogurt, different brands and different batches may have varied

levels of activity. Does anyone know of a commercial dairy-free

starter? Good luck. Let me know how it goes. Once we've got the

basic process worked out, then we can worry about flavors.

Martha Ross