Bacterial Growth on Roads

Better keep off the roads today - they'll be clogged with returning holidaymakers.

Talking of pond life, as my regular reader will know (apparently I have two now, or so I'm led to believe), I occasionally make kefir. Yesterday I decided to make its cousin - yoghurt.

Our local SPAR is the only shop where you're not forced to stand in an interminable queue that's at least half a mile in length - there's usually no more than a couple of people lined up on the pavement outside SPAR at the mandatory 2m separation. I bought some strawberry Activia and put one small pot of that in a kilner jar of a litre and a half of full-cream milk, leaving it in a reasonably warm cupboard. However, although the packaging said it was a live yoghurt, I didn't quite believe the marketing hype, as there was no description of the bacteria used. 

In the evening, No.1 Son wanted a lift to restock his supplies at the local Waitrose and, given there wasn't a queue at that time, I accompanied him into the shop and bought a large tub of live yoghurt that stated what cultures it contained - a much better guide of genuineness. I added a good dollop of that to the mix.

Later that evening, I wasn't quite happy with the temperature of the culture - it was a bit too cool - so I moved the Kilner jar to the bathroom and placed it on the towel rail. This resulted in the perfect temperature for the culture to grow (around 30 degrees) and, by yesterday evening I had a large Kilner of delicious, natural yoghurt. The secret is not to culture it too long that it separates - anything from 24 to 36 hours.

If you want a Greek style yoghurt, add either some milk powder or gelatine to aid the thickening.

I learned this method of yoghurt growing from my mum, who hardly ever bought yoghurt from the shops and had a veritable yoghurt farm in her airing cupboard - we brought our love of yoghurt to the UK from Holland when we moved here in the 60s and before it became popular in the UK.

All you need to do is reserve some of the yoghurt you make and use that as a seed culture for your next batch. If you aren't going to make any immediately, just keep it in the fridge to slow down the bacterial growth until such time as you need it. Should you accidentally kill the culture or it goes off, simply buy another small pot of live yoghurt at the supermarket to use as your next seed culture.

I'm thinking of experimenting with kefir as a sourdough starter in my bread baking. I'm interested to see how the resultant bread tastes.

Might give cheese making a go too, if this situation goes on much longer.