Quick Question, Yakult as a yogurt starter?

fluffynit

Hi

Got some yakult reduced from £2.79 to 50p today. Can I use one of the bottles as a yogurt starter in my EasiYo or does it not contain the correct starter Live bacteria

Just a newbie yogurt maker trying something new. Also if i can use a Yakult, what do i add to it in terms of water/milk/uht/sugar?

thanks

fluffynit

thriftlady_2

Hi,I'm not very familiar with Yakult,but my feeling as an experienced yogurt maker is no you can't.Sorry! You definitely can't use any flavoured or sweetened yogurt as a starter so if the Yakult is flavoured it would definitely be no go.I may be wrong,but that's my feeling.HTH

doddsy

Thriftlady - which yougurt do you use as a starter please?
regard
Doddsy

thriftlady_2

Hi,Doddsy,I use Yeo Valley organic natural bio-live yogurt

doddsy

Thanks for that!

HOLsale

i use the probiotic plain yogurt that comes in 4 packs from lidl (blue and green labeling)

makes lovely yogurt and it's cheap too!

has anyone made yogurt using greek yogurt as a starter and if so, does it make the end result thicker?

Ted_Hutchinson

I haven't actually used Yakult as a starter but I have used other drinky type probiotic yoghurts in my starter, I've mixed them with some of my previous batch and not had any problems.
If they've been flavoured all that happens is the flavour is detectable in the finished new batch its a the level of a "hint of " variety. So I don't really think there would be a problem using Yakult or a flavoured probiotic starter providing you are aware that some of the flavour will be detectable slightly in the new batch.

peatiron

Try before you make a lot. Many live yogurts these days contain a trace of bakers yeast to stop you using it as a starter (it makes you buy the ready made yogurt). We have used many for 10 years but are finding it harder and harder to find a pure yogurt to use as a starter.

Haffiana

I would be interested to know where this information re the bakers yeast comes from? I make kefir, which contains several yeasts as well as bacterial cultures, and obviously neither inhibits the other.

Yoghurt is traditionally made with the two bacteria Lactobacillus bulgaricus and Streptococcus thermophillus. These days many shop bought yoghurts also contain bifidus cultures, as well as added acidophilus cultures. Now these are a bit of a pig to cultivate normally, as well as potentially making bitter yoghurts - in fact modern commercial yoghurts need to be tweaked a lot during manufacture in order to get those bifidus and acidophilus to be in the finished yoghurt at all. This explains why modern commercial yoghurts are not very effective starters for a yoghurt made the traditional way, ie home-made!

If you can get a yoghurt that only contains Lactobacillus bulgaricus and Streptococcus thermophillus, then this will make the best possible starter, and more to the point, it will make a yoghurt that can be used virtually indefinitely as its own starter, something which is almost impossible with these modern day tweaked yoghurts. The only yoghurts I have spotted that are of this simple, original type, are the ones typically sold quite cheaply in Asian shops and corner shops, usually in a simple plastic carton with the label printed on in a single colour. A very good clue to a traditional yoghurt is that it will separate into curds and whey when allowed to sit undisturbed in the fridge, and in fact can be strained and turned into an excellent soft cheese - impossible with the bacterial balance in supermarket yoghurts.

ChocClare

HOLsale wrote: »

has anyone made yogurt using greek yogurt as a starter and if so, does it make the end result thicker?

I always make my yoghurt using 2 tablespoons of Total Greek yoghurt (the ordinary kind, not the 0% fat kind) and full fat UHT milk in the EasiYo. It is nothing like as thick as Total yoghurt when it comes out but it's not runny either. You can strain it (Total yoghurt is strained, after all). I know some people add dried milk to thicken it but I think that just makes it taste of dried milk :eek:

jonesjw

I use Danone live yoghurt as a starter.
Can be any flavour too, makes no difference, other than a trace of the flavour gets carried over into the new batch.
Then, when my tub runs low after a few days, I just use some of MY homemade yoghurt as the starter for the next batch.
This can go on for many many months & it only becomes necessary to buy a new tub of starter yoghurt after I've been on a holiday and not got any fresh yoghurt of my own in the fridge..
So maybe 2 tubs of starter yoghurt per year is sufficient.