Anyone make their own yogurt?

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Alphaville
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Re: Anyone make their own yogurt?

Post by Alphaville »

white belt wrote:
Mon Feb 15, 2021 10:01 pm
I must know, have you tried making your own whey protein? My understanding is it's just a step further from what you've been doing with yogurt. I saw one video of someone making it from yogurt and another video of someone making it from ricotta cheese.

I think the only additional thing you will need is a food dehydrator to dry it into a powder, but I'm seeing that piece of equipment come up a lot in my homesteading research.

I wonder if it would be economical to do this compared to buying protein powder? I consume large quantities of casein (45 grams) and whey (25 grams) daily, so it might make sense for me. Even with bulk buying the cheapest options, I'm probably spending >$1 a day on just protein powders.
it's possible but it's impractical, i'll explain

there are 2 whey types: sweet and sour. sweet whey is a byproduct of cheesemaking and it's the stuff that gets powdered, flavors doritos, etc.

straining yogurt produces sour whey. the protein is the same but the sugars in the sour are reduced and you get lactic acid instead. this i think isnused tomfeed pigs but also often get tossed into the sewers?

i only get about... 1qt per week, max. so i just drink it or cook with it--bread, rice, pancakes, japancakes, oats, etc. also use it to semi-ferment cabbage instead of making full sauerkraut. dehydrating this would entail a lot of energy for a small amount of protein.

i've tried making ricotta too, and you get just a tiny amount.

but cheesemaking otoh is an industrial process, and the whey is a massive byproduct, and it's better tasting than sour whey, so that's where it makes sense to process because customers won't drink it. if there was a market for bottled whey they would just bottle it and call it... something.

ever try whey lemonade? tasty stuff.

you could just drink milk which has both whey and caseine and skip the industrial separation and dehydration. if lactose is an issue, or if you want the probiotics, just keep an ongoing ferment. a gallon of milk has... 123g protein? so if you drink 1/2 gal/ day it's the same as the powders.

if you prefer to dose and don't want to ferment you can separate by making paneer (add some acid to boiling milk)

whey powder is cheap but in my recollection caseine is expensive and tastes/smells pretty bad. you could either drink it as tasty milk or buy lowfat deli type mozzarella which is basically caseine without the whey or the fat or the lactose. (i prefer full fat mozz, but bodybuilders have their limits).

eta: about 80% of milk protein is caseine 20% is water-soluble globulins (whey) so you can do the math

eta2: in my keto days i ate a lot of part-skim low-moisture mozz and swiss cheese from walmart. i think swiss had even more protein per oz, check it out. the bigger the block (2+lb) the better the deal. i think it was cheaper casein than milk itself? been a while so not sure.
Last edited by Alphaville on Mon Feb 15, 2021 10:40 pm, edited 1 time in total.

white belt
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Re: Anyone make their own yogurt?

Post by white belt »

@Alphaville

Good info. So yogurt to whey doesn’t make sense, but maybe it is practical to turn a gallon of milk into separate whey and casein using a paneer?

I like whey in my workout shakes because it is fast absorbing and I like casein in my pre-bed meal because it is slow absorbing, which explains why I’d be interesting in separating milk protein into its components. Technically I only require the whey to be a powder and the casein I could keep in curd form.

The casein powder I use currently is unflavored with no additives and tastes fine to me but I mix it in a pudding with berries, almond butter, and honey.

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Alphaville
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Re: Anyone make their own yogurt?

Post by Alphaville »

yah im familiar with the protocol.

i was editing above, but the cheapest deal would prolly be stick to whey and then maybe a cheap cheese for casein? i cant price compare atm.

caseine powder kinda has a vile smell :lol: i used to buy gold standard, was like 30 bucks for a small can? my current whey is bn grass fed via amazon, right now comes to $36 for 5lb with subscription.

eta: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07CN5GM5N/

best price ive seen in a while for this quality, no sugar/no artificial sweeteners
Last edited by Alphaville on Mon Feb 15, 2021 10:58 pm, edited 1 time in total.

white belt
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Re: Anyone make their own yogurt?

Post by white belt »

@Alphaville

I just ran the numbers and it's pretty much a break even in price, so not worth the effort to turn a gallon of milk into whey and casein. Unless I somehow had access to milk that was way below market price (bulk, about to expire?), but I don't at the moment.

I might look into some cheap cheese as an alternative to casein powder (any recommendations?). Right now my casein powder costs me $.024 per gram which comes out to $1.09 per day. Whey powder is much cheaper as you mentioned.

Edit: Cottage cheese might be a winner for my uses. Walmart store brand would come out to $.88 a day to fulfill my casein requirement. Aldi may be even cheaper but I’ll have to check prices in person.
Last edited by white belt on Mon Feb 15, 2021 11:11 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Alphaville
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Re: Anyone make their own yogurt?

Post by Alphaville »

ah, at that price for the caseine cheese would not be cheaper, but at least it's an option for some days.

i used to buy a giant block of mozzarella with a green wrapper at walmart but they removed it and introduced their brand (great value) but at smaller sizes?. i think the lean one was 8g prot/oz, swiss is 9g prot/oz.

i'd just look at the biggest block available, and price compare. eg in walmart you can get 2lb blocks of stuff, costco.... i can't remember prices, but their generic cheeses are edible, near the milk not in the fancy cheese case.

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Alphaville
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Re: Anyone make their own yogurt?

Post by Alphaville »

this one gives you 5 doses for $7
https://www.walmart.com/ip/Great-Value- ... z/10452459

this unfortunately comes only in 1lb so it's about 3 doses for $4.22 (depends on location?)
https://www.walmart.com/ip/Great-Value- ... z/10452466

i'd look wholesale, at your rates. you do costco or sams?
https://www.samsclub.com/p/members-mark ... od21265175

white belt
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Re: Anyone make their own yogurt?

Post by white belt »

Well I just discovered BulkSupplements.com which should enable me to get my daily casein costs down to ~$.70 per day if I buy a 1+ year supply. I’ll probably do that in the next few months.

mooretrees
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Re: Anyone make their own yogurt?

Post by mooretrees »

I made yogurt some time ago from unpasteurized whole milk. It had a great flavor but a slightly stringy texture that was a bit off putting. Not sure why as it was a recipe I'd followed before, perhaps the whole milk? I'm thinking I'll give the instapot yogurt setting another shot.

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Alphaville
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Re: Anyone make their own yogurt?

Post by Alphaville »

mooretrees wrote:
Tue Feb 16, 2021 12:13 am
I made yogurt some time ago from unpasteurized whole milk. It had a great flavor but a slightly stringy texture that was a bit off putting. Not sure why as it was a recipe I'd followed before, perhaps the whole milk? I'm thinking I'll give the instapot yogurt setting another shot.
my experience is it turns gummy if you inoculate too much yogurt. 1 measuring tablespoon yogurt per quart of milk is all i use. 2tbsp per quart max. so 1/4 to 1/2 cup per gallon (i prefer less)

when you say unpasteurized do you mean raw milk? or do you mean you bought pasteurized but just didn't scald it pre-fermentation?
Last edited by Alphaville on Tue Feb 16, 2021 12:55 am, edited 1 time in total.

mooretrees
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Re: Anyone make their own yogurt?

Post by mooretrees »

Raw milk, but I did boil it before fermentation because of that. I'll try to use less yogurt next time.

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Lemur
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Re: Anyone make their own yogurt?

Post by Lemur »

Yeah that was the trick to actually get some thickness....boil first for 30 minutes. Let milk cool down. Then add Yogurt. This time I set timer to 12 hours as opposed to 16-24hrs.

With my instant pot, I discovered when you set the pot to boil on the Yogurt setting it will automatically get to temperature and then eventually end on its own about 30 minutes or so. At that point you could either let the milk cool down or do what I did and put it in a sink with some ice to hasten the cooling down process. I didn't have a thermometer but one trick is to stick your finger in it and if you can handle the heat for 20 seconds or so (Milk should be warm but not burning) then that should be an adequate temperature or close enough.

Image

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Alphaville
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Re: Anyone make their own yogurt?e

Post by Alphaville »

Lemur wrote:
Thu Feb 18, 2021 10:31 am
boil first for 30 minutes.
ah, i think this is a semantic problem.

chemically speaking, you don't need to boil-boil you just need to scald to denature the proteins

boiling temp is 100c/212f (at sea level)
scalding temp is a mere 83c/181f

see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scalded_milk

if you bring milk to a boil, it will overboil and spill unless you have a special unitasker (see: milk watcher https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milk_watcher )

the reason i originally stopped scalding milk was because i didn't have a milk watcher, milk would boil over, or i would heat up too fast and scorch the bottom... besides the waste, spilled sticky milk is hell to clean, scorched pot bottoms would require thorough scrubbing, etc. also, lifting the lid constantly to check for temp creates scum due to temperature differentials. these are reasons of constant attention that caused domestic workers to reside in the kitchen in previous eras.

the beauty of the instapot is that it heats up to the right temp and at the right rate of heat increase, and no more. punch a button and let it do its thing-- me, i literally go to sleep.

i get that a consumer device is not "resilient" in itself, but i have bigger fish to fry in the day. i can however go right back to primitive tech if circumstances call for it, and buy or make a milk watcher with a piece of safe metal, or quit scalding altogether as i did before--but no need for that currently.

so, instapot might take 30 minutes to get there, but i think it does it much like the action of a slow cooker in high setting. i dont believe it actually boils the milk, much less for that long. however the little letters on the digital display say "boil" because it's a clear common word with 4 characters, even though it's not physically/chemically precise. i hope this explanation makes sense? you just need to hit the target temp.

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Lemur
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Re: Anyone make their own yogurt?

Post by Lemur »

@Alphaville

You're correct with the details here.

I don't think my instantpot actually boiled the milk (I would have heard the bubbling). When I opened the lid at the end to check, the milk was just very hot and there were a few tiny bubbles but nothing that would require a milk watcher.

Laura Ingalls
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Re: Anyone make their own yogurt?

Post by Laura Ingalls »

I scored a rocking deal on heavy cream 2 quarts for $1. I made homemade butter with my stand mixer this morning. A quart of cream yielded a pint of buttermilk and ~one lb of butter.

Pretty easy but not economical viable in normal situations.

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Alphaville
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Re: Anyone make their own yogurt?

Post by Alphaville »

Laura Ingalls wrote:
Sat Feb 20, 2021 3:22 pm
I scored a rocking deal on heavy cream 2 quarts for $1. I made homemade butter with my stand mixer this morning. A quart of cream yielded a pint of buttermilk and ~one lb of butter.

Pretty easy but not economical viable in normal situations.
luckeeeeeeeeeee!

was this a one-off or could you do that again?

if repeatable, you could make crème fraîche / sour cream or piima or mascarpone....

i've made mascarpone, pretty easy, tasty, but cream is $$$.

Laura Ingalls
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Re: Anyone make their own yogurt?

Post by Laura Ingalls »

@alphaville I think it was probably a one off.

It was close dated and some brand that they don’t normally carry. I ended up with 5-6 quarts.

Frita
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Re: Anyone make their own yogurt?

Post by Frita »

@LI
Score! I have only made butter/buttermilk using kids for labor, just give each a small container to shake the heck out of it. Tagging onto @Alphavilke’s comments, make ice cream.

@Alphaville
That mascarpone would be delicious on the orange-black currant muffins I have in the oven. (I wish there was a scratch-and-sniff feature on here.)

Laura Ingalls
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Re: Anyone make their own yogurt?

Post by Laura Ingalls »

The downside is I get my cholesterol checked this week. :roll:

So far we have had chocolate mousse, butter, buttermilk pancakes, and I am working on a wild rice mushrooms soup that I will finish with a bit of cream. I will probably make another batch of butter/buttermilk as they will both freeze and be less pressure to eat right away.

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Alphaville
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Re: Anyone make their own yogurt?

Post by Alphaville »

Lemur wrote:
Thu Feb 18, 2021 3:23 pm
nothing that would require a milk watcher.
yup, that little machine is a great life saver. i'm starting to get invested into their system actually. recently got some spare silicon rings (one for milk, one for onions) after my last batch of lentils left a stong imprint :lol:
Laura Ingalls wrote:
Sun Feb 21, 2021 9:38 am
I ended up with 5-6 quarts.
hubba hubba :D
Frita wrote:
Sun Feb 21, 2021 11:52 am
That mascarpone would be delicious on the orange-black currant muffins I have in the oven. (I wish there was a scratch-and-sniff feature on here.)
ooooooh... wow.

plow_2
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Re: Anyone make their own yogurt?

Post by plow_2 »

For protein I use this site. https://us.myprotein.com/sports-nutriti ... 52500.html

You can buy bulk 11 lb bags for like $70 with ever present deals. (40% off right now).
It tastes delicious. I'm currently using the whey protein in chocolate brownie ( I add to my yogurt with some oats almost daily) and vanilla. Salted Carmel is my next one to try.

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