Cultured Dairy ProductsMy friend whose father made sauerkraut also told me about her grandmother's yogurt. Whenever there was extra milk left over after milking the cows, it was set on the cozy top of the back of her wood-burning stove. The next day, that milk was yogurt. Without pasteurization or refrigeration, milk from healthy cows [1] contains bacteria that will produce a healthy fermentation. It contains Lactobacillus and other lactic-acid producing bacteria that break down the lactose and milk protein (casein) and produce acid to sour and thicken the milk. There are several types of cultured milk in addition to yogurt, including acidophilus milk, kefir, buttermilk, and pima. All of them can be made with cow milk and the right culture. I haven't tried to make all of them with milk from other animals, but I have made goat milk yogurt, acidophilus milk and kefir and camel milk yogurt. Since I have never had access to sheep milk, I haven't made any cultured products using it. We can buy sheep milk yogurt in health food stores here and it is thick, rich and delicious. Ask your health food store to carry Black Sheep YogurtTM. The last time I made kefir was about twenty years ago. It worked well only when I used the Good LifeTM kefir bug and culture which are no longer available. This is one reason I did not include a kefir recipe in Healing Basics. A second reason is that one of the organisms that is part of the kefir fermentation is a species of the yeast Saccaromyces closely related to bakers' and brewers' yeast, so kefir is often not tolerated by those with food allergies. Several factors influence the quality of homemade fermented milks such as yogurt and acidophilus milk. The most important are the temperature at which they are made, the milk used, and the culture used. There are several yogurt makers on the market. Currently, all of them keep the milk at about 110oF, which is good for making cow milk yogurt quickly, but not good for alternative milks. Alternative milk products do not thicken as quickly as cow milk products, and therefore require longer incubation and can not be rushed by the higher temperature. My favorite inexpensive incubator for yogurt and acidophilus milk is a homemade "proofing box" incubator which I originally made to incubate sourdough bread. To make a homemade incubator, you will need a Styrofoam cooler (mine cost about $5), a shop light, preferably with plastic rather than metal casing (costing about $10-15), a 25-watt incandescent light bulb, and a thermometer. Install the light bulb into the shop light. Discard the lid of the cooler. Make a small hole in the bottom of the cooler near one end and thread the cord of the shop light through it until the base of the shop light touches the inside of the cooler. Tape the cord on the outside of the cooler to keep it from slipping. Use wire or tape to attach the hook end of the shop light to the bottom of the cooler near the other end of the cooler. Turn the cooler upside down on a table or counter top and plug in the light. Put the thermometer in the proofing box. After about an hour, read the temperature on the thermometer. If it is between 90oF and 98oF, your proofing box is ready to use. If it is higher, experiment with propping one end of the box up a half inch or so until you find how much you need to prop it up to maintain the temperature in the proper range. I use the ring from the lid of a canning jar to prop up the end of my box, thus maintaining the temperature at about 95oF. If the temperature is lower than 90oF, check it in another hour or two; the temperature will almost certainly have risen into the right range by then. If it has not, change the light bulb to one with higher wattage. The first few times you use your proofing box, it is a good idea to check the temperature every hour or two to be sure that the temperature is staying at about 95oF. Don't lose sleep watching the box, however. If the temperature drops a little overnight, the fermentation will still work, just correct the temperature when you rise in the morning. A homemade proofing box is very versatile. It can be used to make sourdough bread as well as fermented milks. If you are making more than one kind of fermented milk at a time, you can incubate several jars of different kinds of milk at the same time. You can also make larger batches of fermented milk using a proofing box than you can using a yogurt maker. You do not need special containers when making yogurt in a proofing box, so you can store your yogurt in the same jars in which you made it. If you wish to purchase a proofing box, Brod & TaylorTM makes one which is sold in the King Arthur FlourTM Bakers' Catalogue and on their website. The older model I have, which is not also a slow cooker, folds to less than three inches thick for convenient storage. It has a digital temperature control which does not keep the temperature totally stable. The temperature actually varies at different times of day or night and different seasons of the year. Put a small jar of water in the box and take the temperature of the water after it's been on about an hour or two. I find that I need to set the temperature at 85 to 90oF for the temperature of the water to be 95oF. Experiment to determine where to set the digital temperature control to get the actual temperature that you want, which is about 95oF. When you use the box, it is a good idea to check the temperature every few hours during non-sleep hours to be sure that the temperature is staying at about 95oF. The type of milk used also influences the character of your yogurt or acidophilus milk. Cow and sheep milk, being relatively high in fat and protein, make thick, creamy yogurt and acidophilus milk. Whole goat milk makes thinner fermented milk than cow milk. Yet when the culture is at its peak, cultured goat milk products are quite creamy. Non-fat goat milk makes very watery fermented milk and contains less fat soluble vitamins, so use whole milk. Camel milk makes thin yogurt, but once I had very thick camel yogurt. I was getting raw camel milk from a family locally. The husband was out of town, the kids got sick, just as they were getting better, the wife got sick, so the camels didn't get milked for about three days. When the husband returned home and milked the camels, I received some of that milk, and it was concentrated enough to make thick yogurt. Camel milk yogurt is delicious even when thinner, and all homemade yogurt is great for your health. The type of organisms in the culture and age of the culture you use also affect your fermented milk. Yogurt cultures free of cow milk and starch can be purchased from GI ProStartTM. To make acidophilus milk, I use Klaire Laboratories Therbiotic Factor 1TM supplement as a starter. The consistency of acidophilus milk will vary with the age of the culture. The batch made from the powdered acidophilus culture will be creamy but not extremely thick. Then as the culture reaches its peak with successive batches, your acidophilus milk will become much thicker. When the acidophilus milk becomes thinner again with subsequent batches, it is time to start a new culture from the acidophilus supplement, Therbiotic Factor 1TM. Recipes for cultured dairy products made with alternative milks and these cultures are found in Healing Basics. Cultured dairy products have many health benefits. If you are lactose intolerant and the milk is allowed to ferment a full 24 hours, you will most likely tolerate it. Fermented milks contain enzymes that help us digest and absorb the nutrients in the milk more easily, and possibly help with the digestion and absorption of other foods eaten at the same time. People who eat cultured dairy products regularly have less bone loss as they age. Additionally, the lactic acid bacteria they contain are great for intestinal health. Footnotes
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