And no, I don’t mean THAT kind of fun.
So I have been very much enjoying the new yogurt product known as Activia. But hooo boy, is it a little on a pricey side. Also, have you seen the sugar content? Something like 17g per cup. Yeouch.
Something must be done!
I know you can make yogurt at home. I saw it on the teeeveeee once. So, if you can make REGULAR yogurt at home, can you make this new fangled fancy yogurt with the Bifidus regularis in it? How hard can it be, really?
I’ve never made yogurt before in my life. Obviously, it was time to try something totally untested. For SCIENCE!!!
I’ve heard of several different ways of making yogurt - some say you just mix the milk and yogurt starter and plop in the fridge for a day. Some say leave out overnight. But since I am a scientist (ok, a grad student) AND a food geek, I decided to go with the strategy proposed by everyone’s favorite mad scientist foodie, Alton Brown. His recipe can be found here.
I assembled the players. Milk, powdered milk, honey, volunteer yogurt culture, very clean hardware.
I made sure EVERYTHING was very clean - pot, spoon, plastic container, and probe thermometer. And…there’s where things broke down.
My thermometer was reading 123F…130F..134F…141F…what the hell? I hadn’t even gotten the stove turned on yet? OK…I was going to have to wing it. AB’s recipe stated that I needed to bring the temperature to 120F. Since I already scanned other recipes, I knew that the milk had to be “scalded,” but not boiling. (this is why it helps to read several recipes before you try something new). So I heated the milk until steaming, with tiny foam bubbles formed on the sides, but NOT to boiling.
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STIR OFTEN! Even with much stirring, I still got some spooge on the bottom of my pan. Make sure you soak that shit, or you’ll NEVER get it off.
Here’s the “voluteer” culture. There is no “plain” flavor, so I used vanilla.
Then into the container, and ready to go! after lidding, of course.
OK, I’ll cop here. AB’s recipe calls for a tall cylindrical container. I do have something similar to what he used. It’s a bagle keeper. Right now, it’s Sadie’s travel food storage. I don’t think I’d ever be able to get the smell of dog food out of there. So I nixed that idea and went with this container. The recipe also said to wrap the container with a heating blanket set to medium and placed in a wine cooler. Who has a wine cooler? NOT ME! I do have a big plastic storage bin, though.
I covered with a folded up tablecloth and left it for the night. About 9 hours incubation. This morning, I had this:
Some solidification, you can see where the whey has separated out. But still pretty liquidy. Hmmm…into the fridge for the day!
A little more firm. But still pretty runny. Damn. Maybe I didn’t add enough milk powder? Or maybe I need to start with more culture. Or maybe my improvisations with the temperature and the container were more critical than I though. Humph.
But the TRUE test…does it taste OK? And…more importantly, will it kills us?
As usual in these kinds of test, the scientist NEVER uses herself as a guinea pig. I have a perfectly good victim…er…volunteer nearby!
Weeellllllll????
He likes it!
It’s actually good! Runny, and tangy. And it might need a little more sweetening. Maybe I’ll add some splenda. And it would probably be better with some fruit mixed in.
Next time I hit target, I’ll get a new thermometer. And I might try to up the powdered milk a bit (according to the recipe, the powdered milk adds more protein and makes the yogurt more solid).
All in all, a rousing success. And I have a whole quart’s worth of homemade activia for less that it costs to buy a 4-pack. Hooray!
grace on 
PandoraWilde on 
Ken on 
Seth on 
grace (46 comments)
Knit Witch (41 comments)
Julie (26 comments)
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Well, now that’s just special.
Haven’t forgotten you girlie!!! Hope to have a package out this weekend.
And it is content like this, that makes life better for me.
Mmm… yogurt…
Sounds cool! Homemade yogurt!!
Nanner - you’ve gone through ENOUGH lately, I think. That package needs to be the last thing on your mind, mmkay? Big hugs going out to you, sweetie!
Scoot - thanks! I aims to please
Se7en- you are back! I would give you a hug but I don’t want to hurt your incision. How about a peck on the cheek instead?
Making yogurt IS fun - I’ll keep blogland up to date if I try it again 
Yes, the protein content is very important, but home made yogurt will be alot more ‘runny’. A few things, don’t disturb the curd once it forms, also you can strain it through cheesecloth to firm it up all the way to an almost spreadable cheese consistency. You can find plain active yogurt if you look around a bit more, but the starter amount isn’t that important (it just provides the bacteria that do the work).
Yay! I finally found an extension to let me override the resize lock on this tiny comment window. woot!
Ok, anything that might gross me out so much I don’t eat the end product is definitely worth paying money at the store for, ha ha.
I hope Kev didn’t get the runny and tangy’s later that night, too!
Jeffrey - I have no idea why my comment window isn’t resizable, but glad you found a solution! I realize that the amount of starter isn’t so important, but smaller amounts would need longer to grow to…in yeast we call it stationary phase, I suppose bacteria reach that, too. I didn’t incubate it the full 12 hours, so I was wondering if I started with more, I could incubate it less. However, it wasn’t any more solidified this morning. I tried very hard not to disturb the curd - no stirring, and straight from the incubator to the fridge (after the photo op, of course). I may try straining it over cheese cloth at some point. However, at the consistency it is NOW, it makes the PERFECT smoothie. Mmmm…banana mango! I look forward to experimenting more with another batch!
Jamie - oh my god woman, after all you see in the ER, and it’s YOGURT that grosses you out? bleah! freak!
Is the bacteria in Activia truly unique, or is it, as I suspect, just a trademarked fancy name for the usual suspect in yogurt making?
Ooooh, the smoothie sounds good.
I like the cheese cloth idea too. Seems like it would work okay.
I say anyone with at least a BS is an official scientist. Hell, anyone who has ever done anything just to see what would happen is a scientist.
Ah, nothing like the mad scientist at work. Makes me flash back to my mad scientist days. It brought a little tear to my eye to see someone else carrying on the work (sniff).
Kudos on utilizing the “test subject”. Only insane scientists test products on themselve. And bigger kudos for the successful creation of a home made food product!
Serra - i think it is something unique. The yogurt is much tangier than regular yogurt - I suspect that’s why Activia has so much sugar in it, to cover up that taste. I’m going to do a little more research to see if I can find more info about it - it might have different growth conditions than the regular yogurt flora.
Seth - right now I’m a scientist. One day, I will be a Scientist. The capital letter is important
Vince - yes. did I mention it was EVIL YOGURT! BWAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAA!!!! YOGURT FROM THE VERY DEPTHS OF HELLLLL!!!!
AHA! I am uber geeky. I found a journal article!
I think what I need to do is first innoculate with the activia, keep it HOT (122F)for an hour and a half, then cool it down a bit (110F), add regular yogurt, and continue with a the lower incubation.
Hmmm…yes…yes…that could work. Yes it could. I must buy a new digital thermometer!!!!
I love Alton Brown. The science of food. He’s the best.
Wow…that is more effort than I would ever put into food. I guess this is why you’re a scientist and I am not - because you are inquisitive, and I would be like “Fuck it, pass the Yoplait.”
I’ve read that homemade yoghurt just tends to be “tangier” than storebought stuff. And that the longer you let it incubate the tangier it gets.
Also, I think it’s weird that dannon has somehow taken ownership of “Bifidobacterium animalis strain number DN 173 010″ which I can only assume is cultured from human breast milk, as bifidobacterium are present in breast milk and in the digestive tract, and breast milk just seems more appealing to me.
all in the name of science, love the pics - visually always help to give the full story.