Quick! Raw milk yogurt question!

[bigknitwit]

I started making yogurt this afternoon, intending to bring the milk to 180 to sterilize. I added some leftover milk from my son's lunch since it was going to be sterilized anways. Then shortly after starting, I changed my mind and decided to make raw milk yogurt, so I only heated to 110 and then placed in my starter culture and put it in the yogurt maker. I forgot that I'd added my ds' lunch milk cup to the mix! Will this still be safe to consume? Should the good bacteria in the milk be able to deal with whatever bacteria his mouth introduced to the milk? Help!

[lynchyk]

I can't answer your question, sorry, but I have one for you!! How come when you use raw milk you only heated until 110 but were going to do 180 otherwise? I've only made yogurt twice, both with raw milk, but I heated to 180. Is that wrong? It seemed like it turned out OK.

Thanks,
Kelly

[tbone]

Originally Posted by lynchyk

I can't answer your question, sorry, but I have one for you!! How come when you use raw milk you only heated until 110 but were going to do 180 otherwise? I've only made yogurt twice, both with raw milk, but I heated to 180. Is that wrong? It seemed like it turned out OK.

Thanks,
Kelly

Sorry, I don't know the answer to the original q either. But I think it should be okay as long as it looks and smells okay. However, that's my general thinking on most things!

As for the other q by lynchyk, the reason the temp is lower for raw milk is because if you heat it to too high of a temp (180), it starts to kill off the good bacteria and other nutrients that are in raw milk. HTH

[saratc]

Originally Posted by tbone

As for the other q by lynchyk, the reason the temp is lower for raw milk is because if you heat it to too high of a temp (180), it starts to kill off the good bacteria and other nutrients that are in raw milk. HTH

Also if the milk is clean enough to drink raw, it usually means that it's got a clean enough slate to start yogurt in. Raw milk also still have the natural good bacteria intact to inhibit bad bacterial growth. With pasteurized milk, you want to make sure you zap any baddies before making the yogurt.

In terms of the original question, it's hard to say, but I've heard you can start over, meaning you can reheat the milk to 180, let cool, and then add new starter to make sure it's clean. Although if what you have looks and tastes like yogurt, I don't think you should heat it again, and it's probably fine.

[lynchyk]

Sorry to hijack the thread, thanks for the responses.

So with raw milk I only need to heat to 110 then just add the starter and incubate?

thanks,
kelly

[Feb2003]

yes and no

It's supposed to work (mine didn't), but the raw milk yogurt will not be as thick and creamy in texture. It'll be more gloppy and thin. It's a trade-off.

[sedalbj]

I would say just make the milk and don't worry about the extra 'goodies' from your son's milk. But I am not a stickler with most things involving bacteria etc...

I make my raw milk w/o heating, i just put 3 cups cold milk, 1 cup yogurt in the mason jar, stir, put the lid on loosely and put in the yogurt maker thingy. i also tested the temp extensively the first few times to make sure it didn't get to hot or not hot enough, and decided that my salton yogurt maker made it way too hot w/ the lid on, so i pitched the lid. i put a towel over it for a few hours so it will heat faster, and leave it for 24 hrs. done. it isn't as thick as a traditional yogurt, but when i need thicker yogurt i just strain it thru a coffee filter for awhile in the fridge.

[corafan]

Originally Posted by lynchyk

So with raw milk I only need to heat to 110 then just add the starter and incubate?

It's a matter of taste. If you heat it to 180 degrees, it will kill off the bacteria already in there so that the bacteria from the starter culture can thrive.

If you heat it to only 110 degrees, the milk's bacteria will compete with the starter culture's bacteria for resources and you'll get a different taste and consistency.

Personally, I like to heat it to 180 and let the bacteria start from scratch after adding the starter culture, but you should try it both ways and see which one you prefer.