J.G.
When I was a kid my mom made yogurt. A bit of any plain yogurt will work. If you read the side of the label, active yogurt cultures. :)
i have a yogurt "maker"(in actuality it's an incubator for after getting all ingredients mixed) that i got from williams sonoma, i had bought a box of 20 "yogurt starter" packets and i'm about to run out. they are kind of pricey, and i have found some websites that sell the culture, but i wanted to make some tomorrow and kept forgetting to order - does anyone know if regular grocery stores carry stuff like this? what about sprouts or whole foods market? thanks for any tips :)
When I was a kid my mom made yogurt. A bit of any plain yogurt will work. If you read the side of the label, active yogurt cultures. :)
You do not need to buy any culture. The yogurt you make already contains live yogurt culture in it. You may need to experiment a little bit to find our how much you need (it may change depending on the volume of milk you are using and the temperature) but usually about 1-2 tablespoons of yogurt should be enough, if you are not making huge quantities. The yogurt you use as starter should be warmed to room temperature.
If you do not have any of the yogurt you made left:
You can also use any store-bought plain yogurt that says "contains live cultures" on it.
Here is a link that may be useful:
http://www.wikihow.com/Make-Yogurt
Any whole foods or health food store will sell yogurt starter in the refrigerator section. I would be leery about the dry ones on the shelf.
Or just mix in a big tablespoon of plain old fashioned unflavored yogurt. It has all you need to get started.
I don't believe Sprouts does. You could call Cupboard foods in Denton. They are a natural food store.
http://www.cupboardnaturalfoods.com/
If you order online in the future, Cultures For Health is great!! Use the code HH2011 and you'll get 10% off your order.
I dont think you have to have to keep restarting it. I worked for an Indian family that had the culture and just tended it to keep it alive. Sort of like sourdough. Once you have the starter, you just maintain it and it becomes a legacy type thing. People in San Fran tell you thier starter was given to them by thier grandmother. I would go to Whole Foods or your local organic health food store and ask.
I order it from King Arthur Flour Company website - I tried making it using live yogurt cultures and it always came out too watery, but the powder is great - it comes out just the right consistency every time.