I've never tried the rennet, but my yogurt comes out thicker if I heat the milk to 180 degrees and let it cool (below 110 degrees) before adding the starter. If you don't like the idea of heating your milk, you can also add unflavored gelatin to make it as thick as you want. I'm curious to see if anyone has experience with rennet as well.

 

I have used rennet to thicken yogurt, but I didnt like how it turned out. It was jelly like, and wobbly rather than thick, like stand a spoon up in it thick. The only reliable way I have found to get yogurt really thick, is to heat it up tp around 180. I do this with my raw milk and boiling or scalding milk is NOT the same as pasturisation. It is no where near as damaging, and besides you are starting with a superior product, and if thats the compromise for thick yummy yogurt every time, then thats fine by me

 

Sita, scalding milk at 180 definitely is the same as pasteurizing: batch pasteurization happens at only 155 degrees.

However, I'm on the fence about raw yogurt. Not that I think it's dangerous, but that I'm torn about it's value and it's tradition. From the research I've done, it doesn't seem that raw yogurt is in fact traditional. Further, my own experience is that it's very difficult to keep a culture uncontaminated when using raw milk. The entire objective of culturing milk is to preserve it without refrigeration - and scalding it first definitely helps to achieve that. Culturing it returns many of the healthful properties that were damaged during scalding.

Personally, I usually make my yogurt raw because I'm lazy. It takes forever to heat it gently, then let it cool before innoculating it. I much prefer just to warm it a little, then move it straight into my incubator

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I never used rennet either. I have no idea where I would even buy rennet around here

When i make yogurt, I do it like the ladies above do, heat it, let it cool, add starter. I put it on a heating pad on low in a quart jar. I cover the jar with a tea towel, and put a pot over the whole deal. I follow the tightwad gazette recipe. The yogurt is usually nice and thick. If it turns out too thin, I make it into dressing, marinade for tandori chicken, yogurt smoothies or freezer pops.

 

Commercially prepared plain yogurt is also thickened with pectin. I have no idea how however - I even asked here some time back.

Would love to find out though.

And I'm a lazy yogurt maker too - just put it all together and in the yogurt maker.

(though we've pretty much switched to kefir)

 

I buy Strauss

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Too many things fermentin' in my kitchen now as it is. I can barely keep up

: I think kefir is better anyway, so we mostly do that.I mean, between the dishes, and the kombucha, the grains........

I'm just getting up to speed on grain soaking

I am interested though.

:

 

I haven't made yogurt (yet) but a quick way to make it thicker is to strain it through cheesecloth. This is how to make yogurt cheese - but I imagine that you could just strain it briefly to reduce the amt of liquid.

 

Quote:

Originally Posted by tboroson Sita, scalding milk at 180 definitely is the same as pasteurizing: batch pasteurization happens at only 155 degrees.

This is from another thread that adressed this (I cant find that actual thread, this is the just the text that I saved)

"Pasteurization is an incomplete cooking of the proteins, which makes
them very difficult to digest. Boiling breaks them down completely and
makes them digestible. Pasteurization is either done at a very low
temp for a while or at an ultra-high temp for a few seconds. Neither
is the same as boiling."

From the 'Garden of Eating' book.

"Boiling completely sterilizes milk while reducing its protein to very
easily digested peptides and amino acids, but it must be done in small
batches (1 gallon or less) and quickly cooled...oiled milk may be
as beneficial as raw without the risk of bacterial infection.
According to Dr. Rudolph Ballentine, M.D., a specialist in Ayurvedic
medicine and author of Diet & Nutrition: A Holistic Approach...in
India where people have used milk for thousands of years, it is always
boiled first, in spite of the fact that cows are cared for personally.
Dr. Ballentine also says that although the famous Swiss Bircher-Benner
Clinic stresses a largely raw-foods diet, it nevertheless serves
patients boiled milk products."

The bottom line is that while boiling or scalding milk lowers the availability of the vitamins and kills the enzymes, its not as damaging to the milk proteins as pasturization is. This is what I was referring to.

 

Quote:

Originally Posted by Leilalu I buy Strauss : Too many things fermentin' in my kitchen now as it is. I can barely keep up : I think kefir is better anyway, so we mostly do that.I mean, between the dishes, and the kombucha, the grains........ I'm just getting up to speed on grain soaking I am interested though. :

I don't mame my own either. From time to time I do, but it's just not worth it to me anymore because we eat it so much and I have to pick what I do, what I just buy. I make kefir but from the packs of starter because it's just so easy....that and I dno't have any grains.

And I really don't think that scalding milk is the same as pasturizing it for a long period of time at that high temp. But whatever, everyone has their own

 

It sounds like rennet isn't what I need unless I want to make cheese out of it. I didn't think using rennet made much sense, but hey, you never know. So has anyone tried gelatin and if so, how much? I'm not sure I'd want to use pectin as it has, uh, shall we say, digestive tract binding qualities and ds1 doesn't need any help in that department. I'm glad to know that scalding the milk doesn't ruin it like pasturization. Even happier to know that the scalding/cooling process breaks down the proteins. If I get up the courage I might try some myself and see if my bfing dairy intolerant ds2 can handle it.

 

I just add some dry milk powder to my yogurt to thicken it up. Approx one Tbsp of dry milk for each cup of yogurt and it gets nice and thick.

 

Quote:

Originally Posted by Teakafrog I just add some dry milk powder to my yogurt to thicken it up. Approx one Tbsp of dry milk for each cup of yogurt and it gets nice and thick.

I've done this before, too, but I don't have a good source for good quality powdered milk (does one exist?) It does work, though, to thicken up your yogurt.

Have you tried letting it sit for longer? I find that if I just let it warm overnight it is thinner than if I let it go 24 hours or so. I actually don't really keep track anymore, so sometimes it's thicker than others.