Curdled
Coagulated
Goopy
Occasionally known to explode when opened….
Yeah, I’ll admit yogurt really isn’t a food that I’ve ever been particularly drawn to. The consistency of yogurt when I was growing up was basically thick milk. And the flavors were all terrible and just slightly off of what they claimed to be. And don’t even get me started on that half-digested fruit on the bottom shit. But, I tried…again and again. When the Greek yogurt fad finally became mainstream I tried it. Previously, I had found luck with the whipped yogurts as they didn’t border on slimy and goopy. So, I tried Greek yogurt and loved it. Consistency was good. I loved the tang. Plain yogurt topped with raisins, pecans and honey was my morning slam for a good few months.
Then I started to get grossed out again. In general dairy was bothering me. I stopped eating meat because of moral reasons. But, I found that to still be a consumer of dairy was almost hypocritical of me. After all, the argument could be made that livestock kept specifically for dairy purposes often have a longer life full of more oppressive conditions. Thus began my downfall with yogurt yet again, though this time was not through any fault in taste or consistency. I just didn’t feel okay with it.
I decided to be brave and try some non-dairy yogurts. I went with soy first because the higher protein was important to me. It was one of the biggest reasons I had for starting to eat dairy yogurt in the first place. And I’ve tolerated soy milk and soy based products well in the past so…why not? BECAUSE IT’S GODDAMN TERRIBLE! That’s why not. So. Incredibly. Bad. I couldn’t even make it through half of one gritty, goopy, gross cup. My gag reflex is letting itself be known even now as I rehash the experience to you all.
My second choice was coconut milk based. I’m not a huge fan of coconut, the flavor can be ok if used sparingly. But actual bits of coconut are a huge NO. Anytime I needed a milk for mixing into drinks I had started using coconut milk so I felt pretty okay with a yogurt made from the same deal. And, I was totally right! It was actually really good. I didn’t try any flavors because I’m really just not interested in flavored and with the more ‘health conscious’ brands that make the alternatives the trend seems to be to go with the fruit chunks/fruit on the bottom for flavoring and, like I said earlier, no. NOPE. GTFO half digested, slimy, possibly strawberry chunk of goo. So, plain it was. Plain was good. Plain was…expensive.
I knew that making dairy based yogurts at home was totally feasible and purported to be relatively cheap. Certainly cheaper than store bought. Less trash waste, too. But I wasn’t sure if plant based yogurts used the same basic science. Turns out they do…ish.
They are still cultured, though they use different sets of bacteria than dairy milk does. They also can’t be used to propagate batch after batch. This is called Direct Set. It kinda bummed me out at first but the consistency in product you can achieve with direct set cultures for each batch is kinda worth it. Also, I don’t have to worry about keeping up a mother culture even if I’m not making a batch of yogurt for x amount of time. My dogs are plenty of responsibility. I don’t need to care for a bowl of bacteria as well.
Now, here was the biggest issue for me. There is practically no protein in plant based yogurt. I ended up making my own oat milk (super easy, I recommend it) in order to try and keep the protein amount as high as I could. That being said, it is still probably only around 4-5g of protein a serving. I may play around with my next batch and try adding wheat germ or flax to see if I can’t bump those numbers up. The taste and texture was pretty much the same as store bought. Delicious with my usual toppings, no weird or unwanted ingredients/sugars and overall a very satisfying accomplishment. It was almost foolproof and though it takes almost 9 hours to finish, it’s only about an hour of real work. It saves me money and gives me a huge piece of mind knowing exactly what I am eating. I highly recommend making your own yogurt, be it non-dairy or dairy based.
What you will need
- Starter culture (either new, or from a mother culture if going with dairy based)
- Milk of choice (Hemp, oat, almond, cashew….soy, if you’re into torturing yourself)
- Heat source that can hold a temperature of aprox. 100 deg. F for ~9 solid hours (Oven with just the light on, dedicated yogurt maker, cabinet with incandescent bulb…options abound!)
- Thickener (I used agar powder, but you could use pectin, guar gum, tapioca starch…)
- Jar(s) to culture and store the yogurt
- Strainer/cheese-cloth and blender only if making the oat milk
Making the Oat Milk
This is insanely simple. Soak some non-quick cooking oats, they can be steel cut or not…totally up to you. Soak for about 20 minutes, more for steel-cut. You just want them to soften up. I think I ended up using about 1.5 cups of oats and 3 cups of water.This is also kind of a personal preference point. My 3 cups of water and it yielded a thick-ish milk. You can use more or less depending on how thick you want your yogurt to be in the end. Also, if you have some left over you can add some vanilla and cinnamon for a kind of horchata-y drink. Or just use it as you would any other milk. Whatever. It will ultimately depend on the starter culture you use and how much yogurt you want to make as to how much milk you will need. Blend your oats with some water for 30 seconds or so. Just get a nice consistency and make sure those oats are being pulverized.
Right, so now you have a blender full of blended up oats in water. Yum? Not quite. Using your strainer lined in cheesecloth go ahead and strain those bits of oat out. You can do this once or as many times as you would like to get it super smooth. I did two rounds and didn’t notice any weird bits in the final product.
Making the Yogurt
This part ultimately depends on what starter you have chosen as they all have an optimum culture temperature and what thickener you are using. I used, and recommend, the Vegan Starter from Cultures for Health. Website here. Also, I chose to thicken with agar powder. Since it will vary I will just go through the basics of what happens from here on out:
- Boil your milk and add your thickening agent. Stir and boil for another 2 or so minutes to ensure it dissolves and mixes well.
- Remove the milk from heat. This is when you will add flavorings, if you want them. You can blend in fruits or just add some vanilla and/or sugar if you want it. I added nothing and it still came out well.
- Let the mix cool down for about an hour. Let it reach about 100 deg. F (Warm to touch without causing discomfort). This is super important because if you add your culture while it’s still too hot it will just kill the bacteria. That’s pretty much the opposite of what you want to accomplish here.
- Add your culture and mix well.
- Put your jar (or jars) in your dedicated warm spot. Keep the lid(s) off and cover with a towel. You want to keep the mix at around 100 degrees for the full 8-9 hours. My oven, with just the light on, kept steady at 91 degrees so I pushed the time to closer to 9 hours. If you can get your heat source to hold closer to 110 you can probably drop the time down to 8 hours. You could also just buy a yogurt maker. There are some nice ones that have an auto-off feature. I’ll stick with my oven and save my money for car parts.
- Once you are done culturing let it cool to room temp with the lid off and once the condensate appears to have mostly evaporated lid it up and stick it in the fridge. Mine kept for at least a week. I ate it before I could continue the experiment of exactly how long it can viable.
Overall I am very happy with how this all turned out. Usually my food experiments are a disaster for the first 2-3 times I try something new. The only thing I want to change is adding something to bulk up the amount of protein and dialing back on the agar. It was almost too thick. Other than that I’m excited to start experimenting with flavors.
Now, go forth and empower your domestic side!
The Finely-Tuned Machine 