I have read the answers to this question – How to thicken yogurt and I am not sure if my question is on topic or not – this is the procedure I followed to make yogurt in a mountainous region and I am not able to make yogurt twenty four hours after I started the procedure
1) Boiled unpasteurized milk
2) Cool the boiled milk to where when I touch the milk it feels warm.
3) I added three teaspoons of branded yogurt(3 % fat)
4) Stir for couple of minutes with teaspoon
I am not sure if you are required to put a lid over the milk as it ferments (I did not) but today morning when I looked it is half milk and half yogurt. It still tastes milk like. The bottom portion is yogurt and the top portion is milk. I am in a mountainous region and it is fairly cold right now(the coconut oil has frozen). I reckon it is around 13-14 degrees centigrade plus rain and I am wondering if my milk culture is "gone" or is there a way to rescue it ? In the morning I did wrap some woolens around it and did put a lid on top of the vessel. I am looking to know what I did wrong here.
Best Answer
Not covering it was unwise - it accelerates cooling and also allows other (unwanted) bacteria to populate it.
Not insulating it to keep it warm was your main problem. I seem to recall that some cultures in cold climates that traditionally fermented milk products would do so in a bag worn next to the skin, under clothing and blankets, to keep the ferment warm at body temperature. You can probably improvise something a bit less primal, but it's there as an option. A well-insulated box is generally simple enough, but waiting until the milk was already cool to "wrap some woolens around it" is too little, too late - you need the insulation to keep the heat in, as it does not warm the milk up when it's already cold.
I have decent success with a 35-37C temperature for a long time (24 hours) - but without a means to hold the milk at temperature (perhaps set it above the warm computer? Carefully!) I'd start in the 45C range and wrap it up in a lot of insulation to hold the heat as long as possible. Aside from woolens, styrofoam or cardboard are fairly inexpensive or even free insulating materials that are widely available. You can nest several cardboard boxes inside each other to make multiple layers for better insulation. If you are making a small quantity of yogurt you can add bottles or jars of warm water for additional thermal mass (wrap them all up together inside the insulation/box.)