Ask Allie!
Ask Allie is our advice column, where you can ask all your food-related questions to get digestible answers! No question is off limits!
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Is it ok to use the same container to activate and continuously culture kefir in?
— Lisa
Definitely. Kefir tends to do a little better in a container that isn’t cleaned constantly, too!
Hi! I see that in your articles you state that the type of milk does not matter for kefir (ultra vs past). Does this matter for meso yogurt? I’m having a hard time finding anything other than ultra and my cultures have always seemed a little thin. I’m not sure if it’s the milk I’m using? I’d like to try more cultures from you soon, thanks!!
— Kay
Which cultures do you have? They might be thin as a personality trait. But no, it doesn’t matter for meso. I am personally not going to stock a gagillion different milks (hence no vegan yogurt for us!) just to feed my family milk and dairy ferments, so I use the UHT because the proteins are already denatured. If you’re using UHT already, you are probably getting a thicker final product than you would from other kinds of milk (bc denatured proteins). Also, how much yogurt are you using per cup of milk? And how large are the batches?
Her reply:
I have short viili, filmjolk, matsoni and piima. I just do one or two cups of each and eyeball maybe two or three tablespoons of culture into the next batch. Great, it seems to be working fine for me...but a few sites stated that I shouldn’t be using UHT milk for anything so I was wondering if I was missing out.
Mine:
No, a lot of people think that there’s a problem with pasteurized milk in sum (usually they only list UHT, but often will mention the other non-raws in passing), but there’s no problem.
Your fil and piima are drinking yogurts. You can double the culture to thicken it for a few batches, and it should stabilize and be able to do normal ratios (1T:1C) at the same thickness once the culture acclimates to its new, thicker life. Short viili should have a texture roughly similar to grocery store yogurt (not the Greek-styles or Bulgarian grocery store yogurts), and I believe the matsoni is also a drinking yogurt (the Japanese Caspian sea, if I’m remembering correctly, is the thicker, ropey one). Drop your quantities to no more than 1C of milk until it’s stabilized to the textures you’re looking for, though.
Hi there! I was hoping you'd be able to help me pick out some thermophilic yogurt cultures. I prefer yogurt that's mild and sweet, but most of all thick and creamy. I typically do strain my yogurt, but if there are any that require less straining to get super thick, that'd be a top contender! Looking to buy 3 varieties! Thanks so much!
— Beth
Hi Beth! I can! Our Greeks are going to be the thickest, but the Balkan, French, Beijing, Australian Traditional, and Cream Top are the sweetest. All of these thicken up fine, but be aware that the cream top does separate if you don’t use homogenized milk.
