Dairy – Why Mix Yogurt Starter with Milk Before Adding to Batch?

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.

If you can't find a reusable sour cream starter, you can use buttermilk starter. Some bloggers and biology/chemistry professors just use fresh active buttermilk as a starter rather than ordering some online. If you look at the various labels and product pages, you will find that both the buttermilk and sour cream starters contain the same four cultures: Lactococcus lactis subsp. lactis, Lactococcus lactis subsp. cremoris, Lactococcus lactis biovar diacetylactis and Leuconostoc mesenteroides subsp. cremoris.

In the Q & A for their buttermilk starter, culturesforhealth.com also provides this tip for using it for sour cream:

It is best to maintain it in regular whole milk, rather than reculturing cream long term.

On another page, Dr. Frankhauser goes on to say:

SOUR CREAM is produced by the same bacteria as buttermilk, but the starting milk product is pasteurized light cream. Bacteria are less numerous than in buttermilk.

This may be related to the lower concentrations of lactose found in unfermented milk products that contain higher percentages of fat. My best guess is that companies don't market the sour cream starters as heirloom or reusable because starting the new batch from the last batch may not reliably provide results that are as robust over time as their other products. If you just use milk for your starter, you can reuse it over time.