I have found several recipes online for making doogh or ayran (I love this stuff sooo much), and they all seem to involve diluting greek yogurt with either water or soda. I want to make my yogurt drink from scratch, so that means making greek yogurt is my first step. However, greek yogurt is yogurt that has been strained to remove whey, so I thought, if all I care about is the drink, should I skip straining, or will the flavor be better (maybe fresher-tasting) if I strain out the whey then add water?
Doogh/Ayran from scratch
drinksmiddle-eastern-cuisineturkish-cuisineyogurt
Related Solutions
You cannot make good hummus from canned chickpeas, you should make it from fresh dried beans
The beans need plenty of soaking and rinsing
When cooking, add one tsp of baking soda per cup of beans. Baking soda chemically softens the bean proteins. Never add salt or other flavourings during the bean cooking stage
Traditional hummus is somewhat coarse, but very soft (due to baking soda). It is made with a minimal amount of olive oil, but drizzled with olive oil and a sprinkle of cooked, and still warm chick peas when served
Restaurant hummus is often just over processed junk made in a factory with a commercial grinder (like a peanut butter grinder)
Also, see How should I prepare dried chickpeas? if your chickpeas never go soft
Don't get frustrated. There really aren't that many variables to keep track of.
1- I don't know the age of store bought yogurt but I have never had just-purchased yogurt not work as a starter. I have had month old yogurt from my fridge not turn out. If you don't plan on making yogurt often enough to keep you starter viable then consider freezing some in ice cube trays.
Whatever starter you use- make sure it lists "live, active cultures". Personally I wouldn't use a flavored yogurt as a starter.
2- I don't think that is enough starter. I will use 1/4 cup of starter for a quart of milk. If you are using 1 cup of milk that would be one Tbs of starter (12X the amount you used).
3- It depends. The goal is to denature the albumin proteins in the milk. 180F is hot enough if the milk is held at that temperature for at least half an hour. It needs to be held at 190F for closer to 10 minutes.
4- You need to get better control of your temperature. 130F will kill your starter but erratic temperature fluctuations will also produce very poor yogurt. Without a temperature controller or manual intervention your slow cooker will get much too hot- even with a water bath.
More successful approaches are to put it in a draft free place in an insulated container, or in your switched off oven.
5- The humidity is not going to play a role unless it is condensing into your container enough to dilute things.
Good luck. I hope you get it working. Fermenting milk is fun.
Best Answer
I have no idea why it starts with Greek yogurt. Wherever I've had it - at home, restaurant-made, or ready-bought, it contained just plain yogurt, water and salt. (The ratio varies to taste). This includes ayran made in traditional Turkish restaurants run by Turkish owners. Also, I can't think of a practical reason why true (strained) Greek yogurt could make a difference. The whey doesn't have a strong taste on its own, and what little it has, it is similar to the yogurt itself, so you probably won't notice a difference. You are just losing the nutrients from the whey.
In some countries, true Greek yogurt isn't available, and what you get sold as "Greek yogurt" is actually sour cream with double the fat content, but with the same protein and lactose content as plain yogurt. This could have some taste difference in comparison to ayran made with plain yogurt, but in my eyes, it will be a negative change. If you use the same yogurt:water ratio as with plain yogurt, you will get too much fat, which isn't pleasant in ayran (which is mostly a refreshing drink). If you use a doubled water ratio so the fat amount stays the same, you get much less taste.
Conclusion, go with the normal yogurt. It is not only cheaper, it is also the traditional, time-proven way of getting tasty ayran.