Salton Yogurt maker

anguk

More help needed please!

I've followed the instructions and tried to make my first batch and it's all gone wrong! It seems as though it's separated for some reason, it's hardly thickened and there's a yellow coloured liquid on the top. I tried giving it a stir but it's now got the same smell, texture and look of watered down baby sick!

Where have I gone wrong?

apprentice_tycoon

anguk wrote:

More help needed please!

I've followed the instructions and tried to make my first batch and it's all gone wrong! It seems as though it's separated for some reason, it's hardly thickened and there's a yellow coloured liquid on the top. I tried giving it a stir but it's now got the same smell, texture and look of watered down baby sick!

Where have I gone wrong?

The yellow liquid is whey, you can strain this off if you don't want to stir it in BUT if it didn't thicken then you must have another snag. Did you use UHT with powdered milk? did you leave it long enough, did you keep peeping?

edit...I was wondering if the temperature was warm enough, maybe what you have is just curdled milk rather then yogurt.

Ted_Hutchinson

First are you sure the yoghurt you used as a starter was "live" not all are. I've had trouble with "set" yoghurts as well so stay clear or those. If you choose a starter which say Bio or Probiotic it's probably live.

Next danger point is putting the starter in before the milk is cool enough. Or if you are starting with UHT getting it too hot and not waiting till it has cooled down sufficiently. If you are going to do it on a daily/twice weekly basis it's worth investing in a Yoghurt thermometer which tells you when the milk is exactly the right temperature.

When I do mine (mines a kenwood not salton but it's on the same little jar principle) I put the jars in the base and switch it on before I do anything else. I heat the milk in the microwave till it gets to the right temperature or if I'm sterilising it to 82-88, then wait till it cools down to exactly the mark on the yoghurt termometer.

I then mix the starter with a little of the warm milk and beat/stir it well before mixing it in. Then I fill up the jars, put the lid on a leave for about 4hrs. It may be you left your's too long. Especially when the weather is warm it finishes quite quickly so check it after a 3hrs by taking the lid off and giving one of the jars a wobble. You'll be able to tell if it's nearly done. If it looks solid then switch it off and put the jars in the fridge.

Because it's a live culture growing, rather than a cooking process it will continue to firm up as the jars cool down.
As I'm on a permanent low dose antibiotic I have yoghurt every day so am making it every other day. It really isn't a faff if you work it in with having breakfast and washing up.

anguk

I used Onken Natural Biopot, it says made with biocultures? I also used UHT milk straight out of the carton with some powdered milk, I didn't heat it up. I did peep into one of the jars once when it had been going for 4 hours but it hadn't thickened at all, all together it's had 6 hours.

The yoghurt maker is an old 70's one that I picked up from the bric-a-brac shop so maybe it isn't working properly. The jars did get warm though.

Ted_Hutchinson

anguk wrote:

I also used UHT milk straight out of the carton with some powdered milk, I didn't heat it up.

I hope you warmed it though, to the point where you can barely dip your finger in and leave it there while counting to ten. The milk has got to be hot enough to sting 106-109F or 41-43C this is when you add the starter to the milk.
If the milk is cooler or hotter than this the yoghurt is likely to fail.
I find about 5 minutes in the microwave is needed for a litre of UHT.
You should be all right with Onken. I'm sure I've used it successfully in the past.

anguk

Ted_Hutchinson wrote:

I hope you warmed it though, to the point where you can barely dip your finger in and leave it there while counting to ten. The milk has got to be hot enough to sting 106-109F or 41-43C this is when you add the starter to the milk.

Oooops!
I didn't heat the milk up, I didn't think I need to if I used UHT.

Oh well I'll have another go tomorrow with warm milk.

MATH

apprentice_tycoon wrote:

Math, it's a delight to eat! the work involved is about 10 mins per batch, that includes washing up - really - that's all. So even if you are making it every day it really isn't a problem.
I don't think that it will freeze well (I have made yogurt cheese, that's when you strain it until it looks like Philadelphia, and made wonderful cheesecakes out of it, these freeze well, the recipe is on the recipe thread)
I'm sure that you will find a yogurt maker at the boot sales, just last week I found the Lakeland bulk electric yogurt maker (£19.99 at Lakeland, this makes 1 litre at a time) for just £2.00 so now I have a Bel 6 pot machine, the Lakeland bulk machine and the tried and trusty wide mouth flask. I favour the bulk makers over the 6 cup one because I always strain it to make Greek-type yog.

Thanks for that, you've got me seriously tempted now. I like the idea of a machine that makes say 1ltr in one pot so I can then decant for the kidz lunch boxes. I saw some cheapo 'tupperware U like' down the market which had two sections. I'm thinking Yoghurt in one and honey nut hoops/ coco pops in tuther for HM Muller Crunch Corners.

Lincolnshire car booters you've been warned. I'm out there and I'm on a mission:D

apprentice_tycoon

Ted - I didn't think that you had to heat the milk if you are using a heated jar machine?

Anguk - stupid question, I know - did the machine come with a lid?

Ted_Hutchinson

apprentice_tycoon wrote:

Ted - I didn't think that you had to heat the milk if you are using a heated jar machine?

Well the instructions on my Kenwood version tell you to and it's always worked for me. They are very low wattage and I think they are only designed to keep the yoghurt at an even temperature while it's yogging.
Interestingly the instructions say that skimmed milk yoghurts take 6hrs while full cream only 4hrs.
I'm very surprised I still have the original instructions, but I must admit I don't follow them to the letter. I only use a couple of tablespoons of starter but the instructions say use a whole jar of yoghurt. They also tell you to make sure everything you use is sterilised before you start. I don't do this either but as I'm making a new lot every other day the jars won't have had long out of the dishwasher.

larmy16

Ted

It sounds like we have the same machine. The Kenwood Yogurella? I got mine the other day in a charity shop for £4.75 (bargain). I also have the one that Anguk has. I was a little flummoxed by the fill one jar with yoghurt instruction, but I found that one of those Total live yogs is more or less one jar, so I used that with the five glasses of full fat milk boiled + 2 tbs milk powder. Strained it into a jug holding the Total and mixed.

It turned out beautifully. Especially creamy and not so sharp as the one I used to get from making with just one tbsp for starter. I left it five hours as I went to bed and forgot I had made some!! Next time will try the 4 hours.

My instructions said dishwashing was not recommended but I could not see why, after all they are just glass jars are they not.?