Sustainable houses & yoghurt

Green Gavin has just written about Sustainable House Day on Sunday September 9th, and it looks like his home will be open.

I’d love to go and meet Gav and see what he’s doing. But Melton is on the other side of the city from me and I make a regular Sunday trip in the other direction anyway. Too far away to do both.

I’ll keep up with the SHD site (they’re still posting locations) and see if there’s anything in my area. I could manage an afternoon visit locally and it would be interesting to see what others are doing and get some new ideas.

****************

In the meantime, I’m really pleased with my yoghurt-making efforts. I’m using the method of Sandor Katz in his book Wild Fermentation, which I bought recently.

For Katz’s method you need a litre of whole milk and a tablespoon of fresh, live-culture plain yoghurt. (I’m doing two 500 ml batches a few days apart). For my first few batches I used el cheapo Coles milk ($1 per litre) and then switched to a brand called Great Ocean Road, which is more expensive and which Coles also stock. It made thicker yoghurt and I’m wondering if this has something to do with the permeate issue.  I still buy Coles milk for other things and get the Great Ocean Road brand just for yoghurt. I could also try Pura Milk (see link).

You only need to buy the yoghurt starter for the first batch. After that, you simply use some of your previously-made batch. Buy your favourite brand but make sure it contains live cultures.

Heat the milk in a saucepan to 82 C. (you’ll need a thermometer). Pour it into the container you’ll be making the yoghut in and cool to 43 C. Put a lid on it while it’s cooling to keep out any stray microbes floating round in the air.

When it’s cooled, add the starter culture and stir in. You’ll need to keep it at 43 C for at least 8-12 hours for the lactic bacteria to multiply and do their thing. If you don’t have a yoghurt maker, you’ll need to work out some sort of insulated container with hot water to do this. I make mine first thing in the morning and put it in the Excalibur dehydrator all day and into the evening. By the end of that time it’s thickened, but just to give it a bit extra, I put it in an insulated container overnight, standing in water at the same temperature (for fellow Thermomix owners, the Thermoserver works a treat. Just make sure the container will fit in the Thermoserver with the lid on). So my yoghurt gets about 24 hours maturing time:

Sandor Katz says the milk doesn’t need to be preheated, but it makes for a thicker yoghurt. He also says it’s important not to add more starter than what’s recommended. It can give a watery sour product. More is not better. I can vouch for that. I did that before I started following his method and he’s right…I got watery & sour.

I’m more than happy with my yoghurt. At less than $2 a litre what’s to complain about?