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Yogurt


birder53

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I think I'm in love!

I have long been a fan of the Liberte Mediterranee yogurt (it's 8% milkfat, so what's not to love? :laugh:)  Anyway, today I tried a new flavor for lunch -- Plum & Walnut.  This has got to be the best the yogurt I've ever eaten!!  It's creamy.  And has a great flavor.  Plus there are little bits of walnut in it.  My only complain is that the 6 ounces went too quickly.

Liberte has a bunch of great flavours. Strawberry is my favorite, followed closely by lemon. The lemon is tart and lemony without tasting like sour milk. I tried the Hazelnut a while ago, it was good but weird. I just couldn't wrap my head around the taste of hazelnuts but with the texture of yogurt.

I too am a fan of the Liberte brand yoghurt. I fell in love with it upon discovering the 8% milk fat version, but really wished there was a lower fat version I could consume on a more regular basis. (I couldn't quite justify those 14g of fat each morning). Then, lo and behold, my Whole Foods began carrying the "6 grains" variety with only 1.5% milk fat. The flavours are pretty good and I love the little bits of grain mixed into the yoghurt. It's a nice texture change. I'm intrigued by the plum and walnut flavour -- will have to be on the look out.

As for other brands - I like the Yobaby brand. Full milk, with the cream on top. (there's something decadent about stirring the cream in.) Banana and pears flavours are particularly good.

Debbie S. aka "ozgirl"

Squirrel: "Darn nuts! How I long for a grapefruit." - Eddie Izzard

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I wish I could find this Total Yogurt somewhere, my local TJs doesn't seem to carry it, and I couldn't find anywhere to buy it online. Actually, I can't find yogurt other than plain old every day dannon style yogurt, which I find pretty damn boring.

About making your own yogurt: Yogurt starts with a culture, which is bacteria, which eats the sugar and turns it into something else, right? Yeast is also sort of a bacteria that eats sugar and turns it into something else, correct? What would happen if I poured some milk into the crockpot, added a teaspoon of yeast, stirred it all up, and left it on warm all night?

He don't mix meat and dairy,

He don't eat humble pie,

So sing a miserere

And hang the bastard high!

- Richard Wilbur and John LaTouche from Candide

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About making your own yogurt:  Yogurt starts with a culture, which is bacteria, which eats the sugar and turns it into something else, right?  Yeast is also sort of a bacteria that eats sugar and turns it into something else, correct?  What would happen if I poured some milk into the crockpot, added a teaspoon of yeast, stirred it all up, and left it on warm all night?

Yeast won't give you the culture you need for yogurt; for that, you need specific bacteria. L. Bulgaris is one.

More info on the Yogurt-making @ home thread.

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So, I would just end up with soupy yeast flavored water, or would I get something thick and tangy, but not really yogurt?

He don't mix meat and dairy,

He don't eat humble pie,

So sing a miserere

And hang the bastard high!

- Richard Wilbur and John LaTouche from Candide

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I'm guessing something soupy and yeasty. Possibly even foamy.

Try it! Find out for sure!

Heh, you know, why not? I've got some milk I've got to use up anyway...

He don't mix meat and dairy,

He don't eat humble pie,

So sing a miserere

And hang the bastard high!

- Richard Wilbur and John LaTouche from Candide

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Nullo, you could even end up with fermented milk beer or milk wine, whatever you want to call it. Some cultures in the former U.S.S.R. (like Uzbekistan and such) make alcoholic beverages out of milk by tying it in a bladder and leaving this package hanging in the sun with lots of bacteria floating around in it. Skim out any curdy bits for cheese and keep the liquid part for getting drunk.

And then post while you're drunk so we can see what it feels like. :biggrin:

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  • 1 year later...

ok,

yougurt

lately i've been digging cream on top yogurt deeply.

i like stoneyfield farms french vanilla,

and brown cow maple...

i seem to be leaning towards non-fruit, non-chunky yogurt.

i tried goats milk yo...

but there is an odd tang, and a hint of musk. Call me a wuss,

but the idea of goat's milk yogurt,

milk from the horned one,

has a slight creep factor, even though

i can groove on goat cheese.

i can't do non-fat or reduced fat...

has to be full on fatty.

also if you dig cream on top

do you mix the cream top in, or hit it

straight? stoneyfield french vanilla, i hit straight,

no mixee.

have you ever tried to make your own?

i remember in abbie hoffman's "Steal This Book",

there is a recipe that involves a windowsill, sunlight and cheese cloth.

-m

edited: fat fingers again

Edited by akebono (log)

Nonsense, I have not yet begun to defile myself.

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I will eat almost any yogurt, fat free, low fat or full fat. As long as it isn't fruited!

Fruited yogurts MUST be special. Otherwise I want to chuck 'em. I like to use yogurt with my cereal, too. Now, I want to research making my own, I've heard that it's pretty foolproof, i.e. a doofus like me could do it.

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I'm going to try this with some yogurt from the neighborhood health food shop. I'll report back after Monday.

edited by me because Matt's bad spelling is contagious.

Edited by Rebecca263 (log)

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I eat sour cream with a spoon from the container, because it tastes like fatty yogurt without the awful chunky fruit syrup.

I like Greek-style yogurts too. Liberty "Mediterranean" yogurt is very good. I like the mocha (or was it coffee?) flavour.

I am not a low-fat yogurt kind of girl. And if I ate fat-free anything, I think my head would implode.

I like goat yogurt, but I agree...the tanginess that I welcome in goat cheese isn't quite as good in yogurt form.

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ok,

yougurt

lately i've been digging cream on top yogurt deeply.

i like stoneyfield farms french vanilla,

and brown cow maple...

i seem to be leaning towards non-fruit, non-chunky yogurt.

i tried goats milk yo...

but there is an odd tang, and a hint of musk. Call me a wuss,

but the idea of goat's milk yogurt,

milk from the horned one,

has a slight creep factor, even though

i can groove on goat cheese.

i can't do non-fat or reduced fat...

has to be full on fatty.

also if you dig cream on top

do you mix the cream top in, or hit it

straight? stoneyfield french vanilla, i hit straight,

no mixee.

have you ever tried to make your own?

i remember in abbie hoffman's "Steal This Book",

there is a recipe that involves a windowsill, sunlight and cheese cloth.

-m

edited: fat fingers again

I recently bought my third yogurt maker, a Donvier that chimes when the time's up. It makes very good yogurt using Fage as starter & 2% milk. Bought this machine because I would always forget when the yogurt was ready. I've been very pleased with the results as I prefer a tart yogurt & you can control the tartness by how long you process the milk. It's also much cheaper than buying yogurt ready-made.

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I recently bought my third yogurt maker, a Donvier that chimes when the time's up.  It makes very good yogurt using Fage as starter & 2% milk.  Bought this machine because I would always forget when the yogurt was ready.  I've been very pleased with the results as I prefer a tart yogurt & you can control the tartness by how long you process the milk.  It's also much cheaper than buying yogurt ready-made.

When using Fage (my latest addiction) as a starter, does the final product have that extra tangy, extra thick, greek yogurt quality. I guess my question is, are you making Fage yogurt at home, or is it not quite as good, though still great? :biggrin:

The thought at making fage yogurt at home is making my head spin with delight. Please tell me this works! :biggrin:

"It's better to burn out than to fade away"-Neil Young

"I think I hear a dingo eating your baby"-Bart Simpson

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I make yogurt, sour cream, cream cheese all the time. I have a couple of yogurt "makers" but do not always use them, yogurt does its own thing, if you have everything scrupulously clean when you start and add a culture. If left at room temp it takes longer than when it is heated in one of the little appliances made for the purpose.

If you have an older gas oven with a standing pilot light, that will be plenty warm enough for the yogurt to develop nicely.

When you buy yogurt to use as a culture - make sure it says "live" culture and it has no additives other than the milk products, salt and pectin. NO preservatives.

And it should say Cultured after pasteurization.

This site has a good explanation and excellent recipes for cow, goat, soy and etc., yogurt.

Her directions for soy milk yogurt (using agar agar for thickening) also work with rice milk.

Edited by andiesenji (log)

"There are, it has been said, two types of people in the world. There are those who say: this glass is half full. And then there are those who say: this glass is half empty. The world belongs, however, to those who can look at the glass and say: What's up with this glass? Excuse me? Excuse me? This is my glass? I don't think so. My glass was full! And it was a bigger glass!" Terry Pratchett

 

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Ok - so what's in that incredible yogurt you get in Turkey, anyway? It was thick thick thick and not at all acidic. Even the small containers you could buy in the corner store had a layer of (ack I think) butterfat on top.

Was this made with cream? I would kill for a source of that stuff in this part of the world.

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Much yogurt here is made with milk that is not homogenized, so you get the really good and quite solid cream layer on top. Also, if it says "full milk" it means full milk, not 4% as it is in the US. One brand here, Tikvesli, is definitely full cow's milk, or at least has a much higher percentage of cream, as it's quite yellow, more expensive, and very rich, so much so that I almost can't really eat it alone. But I use it when I make Indian food calling for yogurt and cream, and omit the cream.

Also, I've read (but am not sure about it) that much yogurt here is made with milk that has been reduced to about 2/3 its original volume, resulting in a thicker end product. Perhaps that's what accounts for the different texture of the cream layer as well, as that on the "creamline" yogurt I got once or twice at Trader Joe's was just greasy.

There are three different bacteria that I'm aware of that show up in yogurt, and perhaps different strains within them as well, so what you use as a starter does make a big difference. I remember using plain Yoplait back in the US as a starter, and getting (surprise) yogurt with exactly that same very smooth texture.

I think I need to do more research on this; I never make my own yogurt these days with so many different ones to choose from, but one of these days when I'm home all day and my wood stove (with a "keep warm" oven compartment) is burning, I'll get several different small containers of yogurt and inoculate small amounts from a single batch of milk to see how different the results will be.

Not all yogurt here is extremely thick. What I've had in villages that women made themselves is much more like what my mom would make at home.

One very famous yogurt in Istanbul is that from the little town of Kanlica on the Bosphorus. It's also not particularly thick, but it still has a good solid layer of cream on the top. It's mostly just a name any more, like so many things here, but an old-timer on the ferry told me that in the old days (meaning up till about the 50s), there were pastures behind Kanlica where the cows grazed on wild herbs; some particular plant they ate gave the yogurt an ever so slight pink coloring, as well as a distinct fragrance. There haven't been any fields behind Kanlica for a long time now... But if you take the ferry up and down the Bosphorus, they storm the boat at Kanlica with small overpriced containers of yogurt and powdered sugar, and everyone dutifully buys theirs, raving on about how wonderful it is. :hmmm:

Goat's milk yogurt I only tried once, and the texture was all wrong for me, slick and shiny. I've heard people here say you "can't make yogurt from goat's milk," but that often simply means "we don't do it."

Sheep's milk on the other hand, makes wonderful yogurt. It's almost impossible to find commercially in Turkey for some strange reason (though very common in the villages), but in Greece you can get it at almost any market. It's one of the things I make sure I eat at least once when I'm there. The sheep's milk yogurt from the town of Dorkas in Greece is especially renowned. One day someone had brought a big container of yogurt from there and offered it to me and some friends. One of the women was on a diet and declined, but then saw the container, and said "E...afou einai Dorkados...!" (Well...since it's from Dorkas...!) and lit into it. :biggrin:

One yogurt that is also locally available but hard to find for sale is that from "manda" or buffalo milk. It's very rich and thick, and pure white. Most buffalo milk gets used for making milk sweets like muhallebi (plain milk pudding), keskül (almond pudding) and sütlaç (rice pudding, but very different from the western version), as well as kaymak, or clotted cream. (Which, incidentally, has 30% less butterfat than butter, which means you can eat 30% more of it...)

If I have anything other than pure yogurt, it's with things I add myself. A little good honey, or some sour cherry preserves once and a while. But when I lived in Thessaloniki in N. Greece back in 1976, I used to do something that made my friends go "bleah" when they found out about it: there is a local pastry called a "Rox," which is basically walnut cake (karydhopitta) baked inside a round shell of phyllo, and then soaked in syrup in the usual way. I'd put the Rox in a bowl, invert a container of sheep's milk yogurt and... These days, I don't think I could eat even half a Rox unless it was with lots of unsweetened coffee but then, that was breakfast more often than not....

"Los Angeles is the only city in the world where there are two separate lines at holy communion. One line is for the regular body of Christ. One line is for the fat-free body of Christ. Our Lady of Malibu Beach serves a great free-range body of Christ over angel-hair pasta."

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I'm drooling.

We ate the delicious Turkish yogurt mixed with a little of those apricot preserves you get. It was so good I can't eat yogurt at home anymore.

We took the Bosphorus ferry but unfortunately no one came on the boat in Kanlica with yogurt to sell. I was disappointed because I had heard about it and wanted to try it. Oh well - will just have to go back.

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sazji,

that was a great post...

i'm very interested in scoring some of the buffalo yogurt

that you spoke of. i doubt it is available here in the U.S.

a boy can dream tho-

Nonsense, I have not yet begun to defile myself.

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I eat Cascade Fresh fat-free. It has live cultures and is not at all acidic as it is infused with fruit juice. It does have fruit chunks on the bottom. I can't imagine why anyone would dislike fruit yogurts, maybe you've only tried Dannon? Interesting flavors include marionberry, boysenberry, key lime pie and green apple pie.

I eat on average five packs a day, at 146 calories a pack, that's 733 calories a day. I'm not really a health nut as I'll eat butter and foie gras without hesitation, but when I'm not chowing down on some fat I like to eat really healthy foods.

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The homemade yogurt is done, I suppose, but none too thick and not so delicious. Although, it IS tangy. It's a bit lumpy, too. One problem is that my kitchen is very cold, and so is the rest of the house, it's the frozen North that I live in! I'll get some Greek yogurt on Sunday, and try again.

Edited by Rebecca263 (log)

More Than Salt

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Cure Cutaneous Lymphoma

Join the DarkSide---------------------------> DarkSide Member #006-03-09-06

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  • 1 month later...

After breezing through Morocco and Paris on a recent trip, I am plagued by the age of question: why do the yogurt (store bought brands) in Morocco and France (and for that matter, the rest of Europe) taste so much more creamier and luscious than the American variety? Even the yogurt that I bought from the Greenmarket does not match up to the European versions. What are they doing that we Americans are not?

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The Adventures of Bond Girl

I don't ask for much, but whatever you do give me, make it of the highest quality.

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