My girfriend’s parents make their own yogurt. In particular, Caspian Sea Yogurt (see wiki,) which is really popular in japan. Since I eat yogurt on a daily basis, usally for breakfast with fruit or as a snack in late evening, I thought I would try my hand at making it.
The nice thing about caspian yogurt is that it is one of a few yogurt strains that does not need to be boiled and heated for the culture to activate. So it is really easy to make and continue to make.
I was able to track down the culture here in the Tokyo-sabaku and decided to make some. It is pretty straight forward and easy to make..
Clean a seal-able container (I used a 1L rubbermaid container,) 600ml of milk warmed to room temperature (around 22C,) and the caspian culture. In my case I used a frozen powdered culture.
Put the culture in the container and add the milk, stirring to make sure the the culture doesn’t clump together. Seal the container and leave in a warm place for about 12 hours.
After 12 hours, nothing had happened. It dawned on me that my room was pretty cold as it is winter here. So the next day I put it in my shower room with the hot-blower going and some hot water in the tub. I came home yesterday and to my surprise, I had a container full of yogurt! Easy and delicious!
So the next phase is making more. Theoretically, all I have to do is add 1/2 cup of the yogurt to another 500 mL of milk and wait another 24 hours… so I’ll let you know soon..
This sounds cool and I want to try it! Were you able to repeat the process?
Actually, yes! It is amazingly easy once I figured out that you need to keep it warm. I am making my 5th batch now, and most of my friends are probably tired of getting yogurt from me.
Email me your address, I have a packet of culture left that I will send you if you want to make it.