Home-made Yoghurt

Yoghurt is probably one of the greatest inventions attributed to the Turkish. The original use was to preserve milk during travels where refrigeration is not available. The Turkish original is Yoğurt, which comes probably from "Yoğurmak" (to knead) and "Yoğun" (meaning dense or thick).


Yoghurt is basicly fermented milk, where 2 bacteria act together (L. bulgaricus and S. thermophilus) to produce lactic acid from lactose and convert milk proteins to make a sour and dense product.
Everybody likes yoghurt, although in different forms. In Turkey, the sour and dense original is preferred, it is used as a side dish in many meals. Ayran, a sour drink by simply adding salt and water to it, is still the most common soft drink.
In Europe, more sweet and softer versions are preferred and in Asia you can see more liquid and very sweet versions in bottles.
If you want to make your own yoghurt at home, all you need is a tablespoon of natural yoghurt and a litre of milk. I use organic milk to make yoghurt for our baby, but you can use any milk. I will tell more about it below.

Ingredients:
- One litre of milk
- 1 tablespoon natural yoghurt

Method:
- Boil the milk and let it cool to 40-45 degrees (you can measure with a thermometer, but you can also check with your hand)remove any foam or cream.
- Put one spoon of yoghurt in a small cup, and mix with a fort until smooth.
- Pour a glass of your lukewarm milk into the cup and mix the yoghurt slowly with this milk.
- Pour the mixture into the bowl and mix with the remaining milk
- If you don't have any yoghurt machine, cover the pan, cover it with a blanket and leave in a warm place in your house (in winter, it can be close to a heater, in summer it can be a place where it gets warm). You only want it to stay at almost the same temperature for 6-12 hours.
- After this time passes, put the pan in the fridge, let it cool down.
- Next time you want to make yoghurt, you can use one spoon from this one.

Some points:
- You can buy a yoghurt machine, or other similar product that can keep the temperature fixed over long time.
- If your yoghurt turns to be liquid, try doing it with more than 1 spoon or keeping it longer. You can adjust the density by playing with the amount of original yoghurt (more you put it will be denser) and the time it stays warm (the longer it stays, it will be denser)
- If you mix yoghurt into milk when it is still hot, you will kill all the bacteria, so the yoghurt cannot be made. It has to be around 40-45 degrees.
- If you use skim milk, you will have light yoghurt in the end.

Your yoghurt should be consumed within 1 week. Keep it refrigerated. You can mix icing sugar, small fruits to make yourselves some desserts... You can use it as baby food (after 10 months), you can use it in many dishes. Some recipes on this blog use yoghurt.

Try it, let me know if you have any questions.

Enjoy ;)