Making Yogurt Mother

Huh?  You are making what?  I'm making Yogurt Mother. Well, really I'm replenishing my villi yogurt mother, which is the culture I use for my raw milk yogurt.  Like any good culture, it needs to be fed -- usually every week. 

What do you feed a yogurt mother culture, you might be asking?

You need to feed it milk & cream that has been heated to 180 degrees -- the best milk you can get -- though it doesn't need to be raw cause you're going to heat it anyway.  Straus Family Dairy's milk and cream is grass-fed pasturized milk here in California.  Feeling cows grass instead of keeping them confined in a confined feeding system provides much healtheir milk, though in my opinion the best milk is raw milk.  I grew up on raw milk from our jersey cow until I was about 11.  When we sold the cow and Mom brought home milk from the store I wouldn't touch it.  Ah, but I am on a tangent.  Back to my subject.  You want milk from the best raised, most compassionately treated cows.  So in your area you may need to do some research. 

The ratio of milk to mother is 3 to 1.  I heat the 3 cups of milk and cream to 180 degrees and then let it cool to about 78 degrees. You can put it in an ice bath to cool it faster.  I'm usually doing a lot of different things, so I often just let it cool by itself.  Though, it's been warm here this week, over 80 today, so I may need to help it along.

Once it's cooled to below 80, I add a cup of mother to the 3 cups of milk (usually 1 cup cream and 2 cups milk) and after about 18 hours that yields 4 cups of newly fed mother that is raring to go to make some amazing yogurt. 

I'll talk more about making the Yogurt tomorrow.  Briefly though, if I use 2 cups mother to 6 cups of raw milk & cream to make yogurt, I'll have 8 cups of raw milk yogurt (after another 18 to 20 hours). and a couple of cups of mother to make either more yogurt or replenish my mother.  Even cooler is that you don't need a yogurt maker or some heating device. 

Remember, you always want to keep a cup of mother that you can use to replenish your mother supply. without feeding your mother weakens after about a week and doesn't make yogurt that is as good. 

Where can you get the Viili culture? Well if you are in the Southern CA area you can become a member of Culture Club 101 here in Pasadena and purchase one or you might talk with Real Food Devotee, Monica.  Or you can order the culture from Cultures for Health. 

Comments

[Charlotte Rains Dixon]

I have an electric yogurt maker that I need to pull out and use again, though maybe you don't approve of such an appliance? I wish we lived next door to each other so you could show me all this stuff. In the meantime, I'm glad I have your blog to read--I love reading about all your food adventures.

[Suzanne Peters]

I wish we lived next door to each other, too. About yogurt makers. Sometimes they heat the milk too high. If it's pasturized milk and a culture that needs to be heated, then it's fine. If, you are using raw milk, and your yogurt maker heats it over 100 degrees, then you are killing the natural bacteria in raw milk that is so healthy for you, and possibly killing some of the culture as well. The viili culture that I use would die at over 90 degrees. That's why,when making the culture, I heat the milk (to make it a blank slate for remaking the culture/mother and then cool it to around 80.) this is to keep the culture pure.

For making the Yogurt itself, the mother thrives and plays well with all the other bacteria in raw milk. and the yogurt is yummy.