easiyo yogurt maker any good? or make your own? (merged)

veronarona

PennyGSD wrote: »

still tastes grainy.

I'm not one of the experts, I keep up with this thread in the hope of being galvanised into taking the plunge :whistle:

Anyway, I Googled "graininess" in yoghurt and came up with that very term

Physical properties and microstructure of yoghurts supplemented with milk protein hydrolysates (which yours is not, of course)

... has a sub-heading "Graininess" - but they want $31.50 to let me read it

I found this in a discussion on US Amazon:

I solved my grainy yogurt problems by holding the milk just below boiling (between 200-210 degrees Fahrenheit) for 10 minutes. That seems to boil off most of the water that makes the yogurt grainy (and also results in a thick and rich yogurt).

This is the whole thread: http://www.amazon.com/Grainy-Yogurt/forum/Fx1MLUX2APWBUWX/Tx20ZFO2801A8N6/1?_encoding=UTF8&asin=B0000DE4TY

Good luck! And do let us know how you get on.

Sorry for the long post...

I enjoyed reading it

veronarona

alfieroux

PennyGSD - have you tried "playing" with the water. Mine tastes much smoother since I started to filter my water (our tap water is really hard!) I'm not pretending that I know the answer, only that I noticed a difference between the Brittax water and Anglian's own brand. Try bottled, filtered and tap - see if there is any difference or preference....

Hope this helps
Alfie

PennyGSD

Aww. Thanks.

After spending all afternoon trawling the internet (I only looked on UK sites though), I also found a vague reference to graininess which suggested that maybe too much starter had been added. (Don't ask me where - I looked at so many sites but didn't think to make a note of it...)

Considering the fact that Bean Sprout had managed to make a successful batch with just the swilling out of an empty yoghurt pot, I've decided to try cutting down to just a rounded teaspoon of live yoghurt.

However, in case it's the excess water thing you found a reference to, I've also decided to add a rounded tablespoon of milk powder, as I reckon this will have the same effect of concentrating the mixture as simmering off some of the fluid will have, and it seems to be quite a common addition.

Oh, and I'm also now using Sainsbury's Basics UHT skimmed milk instead of their fresh skimmed milk, and I've switched to using some Rachel's Dairy Organic Greek Style Bio-Live Yoghurt (yummmmmmm), so if this gets rid of the graininess I won't have a clue which one worked so will have to use this exact method in future.

Will report back in the morning.

PennyGSD

alfieroux wrote: »

PennyGSD - have you tried "playing" with the water. Mine tastes much smoother since I started to filter my water (our tap water is really hard!) I'm not pretending that I know the answer, only that I noticed a difference between the Brittax water and Anglian's own brand. Try bottled, filtered and tap - see if there is any difference or preference....

Hope this helps
Alfie

Thanks Alfie

I was busy typing as you posted, but I'm a little confused as I don't use water, just milk and yoghurt?

thunderchild

I will be interested in this as I get grainy yoghurt. I just thought it was because it was home made?

PennyGSD

It's very early days as there's a limit to how much luke warm yoghurt I can stomach, but early indications are really quite promising. There's far less whey separated out than the previous 2 attempts and the half teaspoon I tasted was pretty smooth.

It's quite a loose set as it poured out of the flask with just a little coaxing rather than the previous attempts, where the top half was runny and lumpy with the bottom half much more solid, but the texture throughout is pretty even. I might leave future attempts just an hour or two longer to see if it will set slightly further.

The flavour is also pretty good - nice slight twang, slightly less so than normal shop style, but definately yoghurt flavoured rather than thick milk.

I did some more searching yesterday evening and found that other possible causes were boiling the milk initially for too long, adding the starter at too high a temperature or leaving it to yog at too high a temperature. I used UHT milk this time so didn't need to bring it to a boil, and also pitched the starter in at about 43 degrees, a few degrees cooler than previously. I also warmed up the flask with boiling water to help sterilise it as well as warm it up, but allowed it to cool a lot further before tipping the contents in there. The added bonus of this, even if it didn't contribute to a smoother yoghurt, is that the finished yoghurt is much cooler already so could go into the fridge after a quick float in a tub of chilled water.

I'm itching to try the exact same method on another batch, but without the added milk powder, but that's going to have to wait a day or two. I am trying to diet at the moment and although I'm using skimmed milk so the result is very low fat, I really shouldn't eat a pint of yoghurt a day.

Penny

veronarona

Has anyone tried Easiyo's Low Lactose? Lawson's have it at about half price. I was wondering if its flavour and texture can be compared to any of the others:

http://www.lawsonshop.co.uk/productinfo.php?pid=7284

I wish it was the Greek one, I'd been on it like a shot

veronarona

naki

veronarona wrote: »

Has anyone tried Easiyo's Low Lactose? Lawson's have it at about half price. I was wondering if its flavour and texture can be compared to any of the others:
veronarona

I have the low lactose one! I just tried it yesterday and tried a little bit today. It isn't very sweet at all, and quite tart to be honest. I would sweeten it. I'm going to go and chop some fruit to put in mine!:rotfl:

thunderchild

well my second successful batch has turned out brilliant! hardly any graininess at all. All i did differently was to add less yoghurt, I mixed some milk, yoghurt and milk powder together separately then added it to the UHT in the beaker then put it in the EasiYo as usual. I also added a desert spoon of sweetener to the milk also.

When it was done and cooled in the fridge I strained 2/3's and then mixed it all back together. Its just the right consistency! Going to mix some lemon curd (home made of course) in to some for my lunch tomorrow.

I lost 3lbs this week and I am convinced that having this yoghurt everyday is helping me.

PennyGSD

thunderchild wrote: »

I lost 3lbs this week and I am convinced that having this yoghurt everyday is helping me.

My OH thought I was joking when I told him I thought the recent volumes of (very low fat) home made yoghurt I've been eating have been affecting my weight loss. Although official weigh in is tomorrow morning, sneaky peaks show I'm heading for 3-4lbs myself. Could we be on to something here?

Out of interest, how much yoghurt starter/milk did you use? I used a rounded teaspoon to a pint (so approx half a litre). Were your proportions similar or can I cut down even further?