I guess I'll start here first but maybe posting in the Healing the Gut Tribe or Health and Healing Allergies would be better?
Anyway, I tried once to make yogurt from raw milk and a starter I got from (I think) Fermented Treasures. As far as I could tell, it was a big failure.
But now I have one ds that is allergic to any kind of cows milk, and neither of my kids liked the goats milk yogurt they've tasted, so I am really thinking of trying coconut milk yogurt in order to get some good probiotics going in their guts. I'm not using canned coconut milk. I've been using coconut cream concentrate from Tropical Traditions mixed w/filtered water. I have a dehydrator and have been reading that that's the best equipment for keeping the milk at warm temp (100-110 degrees F). But then I saw this page and got really confused. It says that since they're starters were cultured in dairy medium, they will not perpetuate in a non-dairy medium. It says, "Therefore you would need to maintain a small amount of yogurt made with cow or goat milk to use as a starter culture to make soy or coconut milk (the ratio is 1 tablespoon starter culture yogurt to 1 cup soy or coconut milk)." But then you go to a dairy-free yogurt starter,say, the GIProStart info page, and it says that the strains in the starter were cultured with "exposure to some dairy peptones (broken down molecular structures) during their fermentation" but then filtered so that the yogurt it makes is considered "dairy-free yogurt based on the standards established in the nutritional industry". So while I'm not too concerned about the absolute dairy-freeness of the GIProStart Yogurt culture, I wonder if those three strains that it contains (Lactobacillus bulgaricus, Streptococcus thermophilus, and L. CASEI) esp. the lactobacillus strains, will not really thrive in a non-dairy environment, and thus will need the method of propogation mentioned in the first link provided, or even worse, not really thrive at all in coconut milk. The coconut cream and the starter are just to expensive to do trial and error with. Also, that first page I linked to (http://www.culturesforhealth.com/Yog...er-FAQ-19.html) says that some of their starters are mesophilic (ie culture at room temp, so would be a mistake if I used my dehydrator) while others are thermophilic (so would need that dehydrator). Obviously, if the S. thermophilus is in the starter, it would need to be warm, but what if I chose another starter that didn't have the strain in it. And I've read where some people just throw in their probiotic pills, blend, let sit overnight and it comes out great!
Anyway, I tried once to make yogurt from raw milk and a starter I got from (I think) Fermented Treasures. As far as I could tell, it was a big failure.
But now I have one ds that is allergic to any kind of cows milk, and neither of my kids liked the goats milk yogurt they've tasted, so I am really thinking of trying coconut milk yogurt in order to get some good probiotics going in their guts. I'm not using canned coconut milk. I've been using coconut cream concentrate from Tropical Traditions mixed w/filtered water. I have a dehydrator and have been reading that that's the best equipment for keeping the milk at warm temp (100-110 degrees F). But then I saw this page and got really confused. It says that since they're starters were cultured in dairy medium, they will not perpetuate in a non-dairy medium. It says, "Therefore you would need to maintain a small amount of yogurt made with cow or goat milk to use as a starter culture to make soy or coconut milk (the ratio is 1 tablespoon starter culture yogurt to 1 cup soy or coconut milk)." But then you go to a dairy-free yogurt starter,say, the GIProStart info page, and it says that the strains in the starter were cultured with "exposure to some dairy peptones (broken down molecular structures) during their fermentation" but then filtered so that the yogurt it makes is considered "dairy-free yogurt based on the standards established in the nutritional industry". So while I'm not too concerned about the absolute dairy-freeness of the GIProStart Yogurt culture, I wonder if those three strains that it contains (Lactobacillus bulgaricus, Streptococcus thermophilus, and L. CASEI) esp. the lactobacillus strains, will not really thrive in a non-dairy environment, and thus will need the method of propogation mentioned in the first link provided, or even worse, not really thrive at all in coconut milk. The coconut cream and the starter are just to expensive to do trial and error with. Also, that first page I linked to (http://www.culturesforhealth.com/Yog...er-FAQ-19.html) says that some of their starters are mesophilic (ie culture at room temp, so would be a mistake if I used my dehydrator) while others are thermophilic (so would need that dehydrator). Obviously, if the S. thermophilus is in the starter, it would need to be warm, but what if I chose another starter that didn't have the strain in it. And I've read where some people just throw in their probiotic pills, blend, let sit overnight and it comes out great!
