The Yogurt Encyclopaedia.

October 15, 2007 5:10 PM

The Yogurt Encyclopaedia (254kb pdf). With information such as how to make your own yogurt, the origins of yogurt and many recipes using yogurt, the Yogurt Encyclopaedia certainly... contains a lot of information on yogurt.

And ladies... there's even a special welcome. Just for you!

posted by Effigy2000 (20 comments total)

I'm kind of upset this isn't presented as a Media Wiki. Yogurtopedia would have been awesome. Although Wikipedia has 757 yogurt related pages.
posted by schwa at 5:27 PM on October 15, 2007

Curd? Word. I'm utterly creaming for this post.
posted by DenOfSizer at 5:29 PM on October 15, 2007

Oh, it's a pdf. Hunh.
posted by DenOfSizer at 5:30 PM on October 15, 2007

But it comes with a free Frogurt!
Homer: That's good!
posted by porn in the woods at 5:31 PM on October 15, 2007

A former boss of mine is Bulgarian. Only yogurt snob I've ever met.
posted by a robot made out of meat at 5:44 PM on October 15, 2007

In the new USA network show Burn Notice, there is a yogurt reference in every episode (at least in season one). Yogurt+Burn+Notice (google search).
posted by cjorgensen at 5:57 PM on October 15, 2007

Just made some homemade yogurt last night, so this was an interesting read.*

If you like yogurt cheese, but hate fussing with cheesecloth (as I do), I'd recommend picking up one of these. Does a great job at draining the whey from the yogurt (the strainer sits in a small box with a tupperware-like lid for easy storage in the fridge) and you can just toss it in the dishwasher when everything has been consumed.

The author's notes on fermentation times were a bit surprising. I've only ever incubated my batches for about 12 hours, which results in a mildly sour yogurt. 24 hours = puckerface, I imagine.

Need to try making some kefir next and some yogurt cake.

*though "giaourti" is the Greek word for yogurt, not "kajmak".
posted by longdaysjourney at 6:07 PM on October 15, 2007

I won't eat anything with active cultures. I can't stand the thought of all the fine art, music, and theater I am destroying.
posted by Astro Zombie at 6:16 PM on October 15, 2007 [3 favorites]

longdaysjourney: Thanks for that Amazon link. That looks very handy and you have to love something that has so many 5 star reader reviews.
posted by spock at 6:28 PM on October 15, 2007

But it comes with a free Frogurt!

The .pdf... it is also cursed.
posted by loquacious at 6:31 PM on October 15, 2007

spock: I'm sure Alton Brown would scoff at the one-use nature of it and cobble up something similar for under a dollar, but if you don't have the time, space or inclination to fiddle with cheesecloth, it's such a fantastic device. I'm going to send one to my mom when she gets back from Greece (she laughed when I raved about it, but I'm sure she'll love it when she tries it).

I just need to figure out what to do with the whey though. I know people say to drink it, but I've never been able to do that. Been googling, and it looks like you can use it in place of water when baking bread. Think I'll give that a try.
posted by longdaysjourney at 6:57 PM on October 15, 2007

However, I would like to subscribe to eat your newsletter for breakfast. And lunch. Possibly even dinner.

I find it fascinating that nearly every culture... - heh, tribe, family, whatever - on Earth has some form of yogurt and probiotic item in their traditional diet, diary or non-dairy. Non-dairy item include traditional kimchee, sauerkraut, pickles, tempeh and natto. And even certain raw beers and wines, or mead or mash-like fermented drinks from non-diary sources.

It can be no accident that 'culture' as 'subset and traditions and arts of a people' and 'culture' as 'colony and/or colonies of bacterial cells in the wild and/or controlled medium' and even 'cult' as adherence of beliefs all have similar Latin roots and etymologies.

'Cult' - roughly defined (by myself) as 'group' - derived from "to cultivate". Interesting.

Probiotics are amazing. Sometimes - and if you follow all the dots and lines to the ends, all of the time - all those uncountable, teeming cells make Everything on Earth Go. Learn up, yo!

Related: If you do, please consider stopping using "antibacterial" cleaning products, as they destroy the local cultures and leave only the strongest - and possibly nastiest, and possibly most immune system and antibiotic resistant bacteria behind to divide and conquer. Use systemic (oral, usually) antibiotics sparingly and correctly, let your children eat dirt and yogurt, etc, etc.

This permaculture message has been brought to you by the numerals "yeast - true 'staff' of 'civilized' life" and the letters "beer is proof God wants you to be happy!"
posted by loquacious at 6:58 PM on October 15, 2007

Kefir is the superior in taste and health, but more difficult to make at home, and hard to find in the store (still alive).

yoghurt is exceptionally easy to make, if anyone eats yoghurt regularly, making it in batches from a gallon of milk is the way to go. 1 gallon of milk = 1 gallon of yogurt. Use your favorite brand as the starter culture, yoghurt pirate, arghhh.
posted by stbalbach at 7:12 PM on October 15, 2007

I find it fascinating that nearly every culture... - heh, tribe, family, whatever - on Earth has some form of yogurt and probiotic item in their traditional diet, diary or non-dairy.

I think it's probably because it's the perfect way to make milk last longer, particularly when it's just on the verge of spoiling. I've noticed that the yogurt I make with "older" milk tastes better than the stuff I make with really fresh milk too. Would love to try making some with unpasteurized milk one of these days. (There's a farm a few hours away from me that's reportedly setting up a cow share program, but I'm finding it hard to shake the whole NON-PASTEURIZED = DEATH! thing. If I were doing the milking, I wouldn't have a problem, I don't think, but there's just so many potentially dirty things between me and the cow....)

Interesting that Alton only heats his milk to 120 degrees. I've found that if I don't heat my milk to near boiling (200-210 F) and keep it there for about 10-14 min, my yogurt turns out very grainy. I'm using 1% milk though, so that might be why.
posted by longdaysjourney at 7:41 PM on October 15, 2007

My brother went to university in England and this guy would keep on making him say "yogurt" over and over again because of the difference of accents.

American: YO-gurt
British: yo-GURT

Then the British guy would keep on laughing and saying YOgurt YOgurt as he walked away. Maybe my brother neglected to tell me he was on drugs or something...
posted by spec80 at 8:57 PM on October 15, 2007

The whey should not be thrown out. It can be substituted in any recipe where buttermilk is called for. It can also be cooked to make ricotta cheese which can be used to make some awesome home-made lasagna.
posted by spock at 10:53 PM on October 15, 2007

Another option for the whey.

Makes the oddest tasting cheese I have ever eaten. mmmmm..... caramelised cheese.
posted by kjs4 at 11:56 PM on October 15, 2007

Oh my goodness, I love every cheese there is but, kjs4, gjetost is one of the yuckiest things I've ever put in my mouth!
posted by Fennel B. at 12:19 AM on October 16, 2007

We make our own yogurt, and it's consistently quite delicious, though it took us a few tries to get a recipe to our liking down pat. We use one of these. The only downside is that it makes small batches. Well, small for us anyway. We churn out a new batch about once a week. It is pretty fun pirating cultures from store-bought. One of the best batches we made came from Trader Joe's yogurt.
posted by jquinby at 7:16 AM on October 16, 2007

That's the same model I use to make the batches I strain, jquinby. :) Besides being bigger, I also wish it came with a timer to turn itself off like Donvier's single serving machine, but I do like the removable insert.
posted by longdaysjourney at 8:59 AM on October 16, 2007