In the intervening years I acquired the book One-Hour Cheese by Claudia Lucero, which showed me how to make my very first fresh cheese. (I highly recommend it for anyone new to cheesemaking). The workshop definitely expanded upon what I had already taught myself, but the biggest surprise was the yogurt.
Historically, I am not a lover of yogurt. Many years ago, I had a boyfriend who would eat yogurt like it was going out of style; he would buy a large tub every week. Under his influence, I decided to give yogurt another try, and bought a few containers of Yoplait. I found I could stomach the Whips! or the Thick and Creamy varieties -- nothing more yogurty than that. But if there's such a thing as a gateway yogurt, those sweet varieties of Yoplait must be it. I grew accustomed to the taste and eventually actually began to find the Whips! to be much too sweet. Lately, simple Yoplait Light has been my go-to, and I actually like it now; I'm not just forcing myself to eat it.
But the yogurt at Sarah's workshop! Oh my gosh! Delicious! And much like applesauce, salad dressing, or mashed potatoes, one wonders why we spend money on the prepared stuff. It's not difficult to make. You heat the milk to 185 degrees, hold it there (stirring occasionally) for 20 minutes, add culture, and... let it sit. That's where the yogurt-making appliances come in -- the milk has to stay warm for many hours while it sits around becoming yogurt. Sarah's workshop provided three different flavors to taste (each flavor resulted from using a different culture), and each one was pretty delicious. Much like Mikey in the beloved Life cereal commercial, I liked it.
And so, instead of coming home with cheesemaking supplies, I came home with a yogurt maker, complete with seven 6-oz glass jars with lids. The next morning, with a bottle of typical pasteurized milk, I made yogurt. When the timer on the yogurt maker beeped seven hours later, my husband and I peered cautiously into the jars. I tilted one. The white stuff didn't move. We sniffed. "It smells like yogurt!" we exclaimed happily. Quickly we screwed on the lids and put them in the fridge. Yogurt for a week! Yay!
A week later, I repeated the process -- this time being more careful to stir the milk occasionally on the stove (I admit I was lazy about that the first time). Either because of the stirring or because I was better this time at keeping the temperature constant, the yogurt in the second batch came out thicker and creamier. Total success.
Now, of course I want to crow to my friends about how I am making this awesome yogurt, and "it's so great, because I know exactly what I put in it!" which is what I usually say when I make something from scratch. But this time, that phrase gave me pause. What exactly did I put in it? A package of culture I bought from the Cheese Queen. Y5, they call it. But what in the heck is Y5? What, indeed, is a "culture"?
According to the National Yogurt Association's home page, the culture is actually a living organism -- well, two: Lactobacillus bulgaricus and Streptococcus thermophilus. The culture causes the milk to ferment, creating the thing we know as yogurt. I have of course heard all about "live and active cultures" in yogurt, and I know they are thought to have health benefits. But giving Latin names to the word "culture" still didn't really do it for me. What is this organism we named Lactobacillus bulgaricus? What about that organism's buddy, Streptococcus thermophilus? Sounds like a disease to me.
Fortunately, I'm a librarian and know how to figure these things out. The Encyclopedia Britannica explains: "Genus Lactobacillus, any of a group of rod-shaped, gram-positive, non-spore-forming bacteria." Further, "various species of Lactobacillus are used commercially during the production of sour milks, cheeses, and yogurt, and they have an important role in the manufacture of fermented vegetables (pickles and sauerkraut), beverages (wine and juices), sourdough breads, and some sausages." They didn't have as much to say about Streptococcus thermophilus, other than to note that it is partially responsible for the ripening of Swiss cheese. But I get the picture, and I imagine that slightly different bacterial strains are likely responsible for the differences in the yogurt flavors. We'll explore that topic more in a later post.
So how about that. I also recently developed an appreciation for fermented vegetables... maybe this is just a result of my taste buds changing as they age. Whatever the reason, I am super excited about my new yogurt-making adventures. I think I might buy the double-decker to our yogurt maker. Why just make seven jars when you can make 14?
"Lactobacillus." Encyclopaedia Britannica. Britannica Academic. Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2016. Web. 16 Jun. 2016. <http://academic.eb.com.libproxy.plymouth.edu/EBchecked/topic/327373/Lactobacillus>.
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