making own yoghurt

Netherlands
August 31, 2011 7:41am CST
Is home made yoghurt more healthy as the one we can buy in the shop? Is a lot of work? And is there a big difference between the yoghurt machines you can buy? Probiotics are also in normal yoghurt and I do think it's cheaper and more healthy as yakult (lot of sugar is added to that). Anyone who can advice me in this?
1 person likes this
3 responses
@peavey (16936)
• United States
31 Aug 11
The product is only as good as its ingredients. If you can get organic milk and organic yogurt that has live culture in it, then, yes, it can be quite a bit healthier. If you don't use organic, it's best to buy a little organic yogurt as a starter because it should contain more live cultures. It's very easy to make and you don't need a yogurt maker. I often make mine in a thermos bottle. To do that, I warm about a quart of milk (not hot, just good and warm) and warm up the thermos. I put the milk in the thermos and put about three tablespoons of yogurt in it, cap it and leave it alone overnight. In the morning, I have yogurt.
• Netherlands
31 Aug 11
Hi peavey, I surely want the living cultures in it so I will find out here first which kind of organic yoghurts are available here. A thermos bottle I have so I try that first too. As I understand you only warm a part of the milk not everything? There is no need to warm it all first to a certain temp? They told me if the temp is too low there won't be much activity or it will grow too slow, if the temp of the milk is too high it will kill the living cultures. I assume I can use my home made yoghurt again to make new one?
• Netherlands
31 Aug 11
P.s. do you know how long I can save the yoghurt in the fridge?
@choybel (5042)
• Philippines
31 Aug 11
I think anything natural is better than the commercialized form but extra measures should be taken to make sure you are on the right path to making anything right. I don't really know how to make one but I heard that it isn't that difficult. Youless (above me) says that no yoghurt machine is necessary to make one, so I guess it's not that difficult.
• Netherlands
31 Aug 11
I will try Youless' way first before I buy a machine. If not necessary there is no reason to spend money on that.
@youless (112131)
• Guangzhou, China
31 Aug 11
It is not difficult to make your own yoghurt. I have a yoghurt machine at all. In fact it just keeps warm. Put the fresh milk and several spoons of yoghurt inside. After one night, the yoghurt is ready. It doesn't matter even if you don't have the yoghurt machine. You can just put the milk with yoghurt into a container. Then put the container inside the microwave oven. You don't have to do anything after that. The yoghurt can be finished after a night. I love China
• Netherlands
31 Aug 11
The way you do it, is way easier as told to me. They told me I have to cook the fresh milk first, then it has to cool down to a certain temp, adding the yoghurt (of choice), keep this 24 hours at the same temp after that into the fridge. After 24 hours the lactose sould be (nearly?) gone and the living cultures still there. They only gave two options: 1 to use the oven (I think it will be very expensive to keep my electric oven on for 24 hours unless I make yoghurt for the whole district) or two use a yoghurt machine.