Yogurt First Batch Syndrome with Coach April
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Yogurt First Batch Syndrome with Coach April
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TRANSCRIPT
(DISCLAIMER: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain errors. It cannot be relied upon for factual accuracy.)
00:00:00
Hello everybody, Coach April here. I am going to share a common question answer that I get all the time. My first batch of yogurt looks like cottage cheese, and it's liquidy. Let me show you. This is a batch of yogurt that I made. Top looks great, but take a peek underneath. Very much cottage cheese, liquidy, and we think, "Oh, no, I failed." You didn't fail. This is typical first batch syndrome, what we call it. Again, more cottage cheese-like, really liquidy. And so I want to show you what I do with that first batch to get it ready to make my second batch. So that first batch didn't fail. What we're going to do is use that batch that looks like cottage cheese, very liquidy, to make our second batch. And that second batch is going to be much thicker, more "yogurt-like." So I'm just going to start my second batch. So I'm going to put some half-and-half. I've got organic half-and-half from Aldi stores, but again, find your favorite half-and-half that's organic, ideally. We're going to put that there. Then I have my two tablespoons of inulin. Some people are using a little bit less. All good. But what I'm going to do is just slowly incorporate that in. And when I say slowly, my whisk isn't moving slowly, but how I'm adding the inulin, I'm adding it just a little bit at a time and really making sure to incorporate that in as that slurry is being created. So again, just a smidge of that half-and-half, and then I'm shaking in my pre-measured two tablespoons of inulin. Some people are using a tablespoon and a half, whatever works for you. I've just always used two tablespoons. So we've got that being incorporated in.
00:02:01
The beauty of using previous batches for the next one is, again, you don't have to use any of those capsules. The previous batch is going to be our starter. So I've got my slurry. I feel like I've got the inulin all incorporated in well. Now I'm going to add the rest of the half-and-half. And I'm using a utensil that doesn't have crevices where my yogurt mixture is going to get in there. That can be a contamination issue. So find a really good stirrer and really think about does it have any of those crevices where things might be trapped in there, and then mold, and then give your yogurt batch potential for mold. Okay, so I've got so far just the inulin and my half-and-half. Now it's time to incorporate that previous batch. So what I'm going to do is you can use the liquid or the solid or both to make your next batches. So I'm going to go ahead and give that a good stir so I get a little bit of liquid and some of that chunkage in there. I'm going to take one tablespoon, incorporate that in. We're going to use two tablespoons total of that previous batch. I'm incorporating that in. I'm going to go ahead and get that second tablespoon. You notice that I'm not being very accurate, and that's okay. We just want to get two tablespoons of that previous batch. No matter what that previous batch was, you can use that to make your next batch. Okay, so I've got my inulin, my half-and-half, and now two tablespoons of that previous batch. No capsules needed. All we need is that previous batch. So I'm going to go ahead. I'm using a Pyrex dish. This is going to fit in my Luvele yogurt maker,
00:03:58
and so I'm going to move this over here. So what we're going to do is I've got my water bath in here, so it's about, I would say, half full of water. I'm now going to put in my dish that's covered into the water bath. I'm going to cover that up, and then we can get that baby started. So I'm going to get 36 hours. 100 degrees is the happy point for most of our microbes now, so we'll get that started. And then I want to talk about the rest of that batch that people think, "Oh my gosh, it failed." No, you didn't fail. Not at all. What we're going to do is use that, and now I'm going to take that and freeze that batch that looked like it failed. Now, I could eat this. There's nothing wrong with that. It just doesn't look the way we think it should. So what I'm going to do is take tablespoon increments, put it into my silicone mold. This is an ice cube tray. And so I am going to fill those up with one-tablespoon increments. And then when it's time to make my next batch, I just simply pop out two of those. I usually put them in a Ziploc bag and thaw them in the refrigerator, and then they'll be ready to go for my next batches. So I have starter for my next batches because of this "failed batch." Hey, guys, you didn't fail. This is just part of the science of making our fermentation projects. So give yourself a little grace and wiggle room, and use that as your starter for your next batches. Hope that helps.