A Spot of Culture

Last Sunday I got a call from Reg, one of my neighbors. His cow had calved recently and was producing far more milk than the calf and the entire family could consume. In fact she was producing so much the family had run out of containers and fridge space. Did I want some?

I took along four empty plastic apple juice bottles I had been saving to use as fly traps and brought home 3 two litre coke bottles of milk. The milk caused some consternation in the family. The others hadn't seen natural, unhomogenised milk before. The slight green tinge put them off and the fact the cream separated out clinched the issue. They were not going to drink it.

OK, So I had 6 litres of milk all to myself. No way could I drink all of it before it went off. But what an opportunity.

I looked around the room and spotted my son's water bottle. Its a 2 litre insulated plastic Coolibah water flask he takes to work each day. It has a wide screw top lid. Perfect for what I had in mind.

Then I looked in the fridge. There was a tub of Vaalia natural yoghurt in there, not much left but more than enough to do the trick. Vaalia yoghurt is free from artificial sweeteners and flavours. A family favourite. The important part for me however is that it is guaranteed to contain live Lactobaccilus Acidophilus and Lactobacillus Bifidus. It also contains Lactobacillus GG, a proprietary species unique to Vaalia, but that was incidental.

Now I had what I needed I shook one of the 2 litre coke bottles of milk to mix in the cream and poured it into a big saucepan. I put the pan on the stove to heat. While I was waiting I filled the water flask with hot water from the tap. I heated the milk until I could only just stand sticking a finger into it, then removed the pan from the stove.

Before the milk had time to cool I scooped a tablespoon full of the Vaalia yoghurt and stirred it into the hot full cream milk. Then I tipped the hot water out of the flask and poured in the innoculated hot milk. I screwed the lid on the flask, wrapped it in a tea towel for extra insulation and set it on a wooden cutting board.

I left it there overnight.

Next morning the grand opening took place. Inside the flask was a thin brown liquid, the whey. Beneath the whey was the delicate white curd. Success! But how to separate the curd from the whey?

I placed a chux super wipe cloth over the mouth of the flask and held it in place with a rubber band. I poured the whey through the cloth and down the drain in the kitchen sink. (I might be into self sufficiency and recycling, but I'm not a fanatic). This left the soft curd in the flask.

The tasting confirmed the success. I now had 2 litres of very runny yoghurt that tasted just like the bought stuff.

The family would not try it. They gave me funny looks when I offered them a taste.

The result was much too runny for practical use however. Even after 24 hours in the fridge it was a thick drink, not something that could be eaten with a spoon. More research was needed. After half an hour of reviewing the Google results, including browsing the yoghurt section of Microorganisms and Biotechnology by Jane Taylor, I decided some artificial thickener was needed. Gelatine.

As luck would have it I had a a packet of gelatine in the cupboard left over from making hot cross buns at easter time. I mixed 4 teaspoons of gelatine in some cold water and microwaved it until it was really runny. Then I quickly stirred it into the chilled yoghurt. A couple of hours later things had improved markedly. 12 hours later the consistency was perfect. Just like the bought stuff.

So now I have 2 litres of great tasting yoghurt in the fridge. The family still won't even try it, but I'm marking it down as a complete success.