For as long as I can remember, my breakfast has been a glorious amalgamation of muesli and yoghurt, with a banana thrown in the mix should one be available.
This is an excellent breakfast because it is quick and easy to make, you only need to ensure you have a stock of two items, and you can convince yourself it is good for you; or at least not as bad for you as a “full English”. It is also an excellent breakfast for me, because really enjoy it, even after at least fifteen years of routine consumption.
During that time, my choice of muesli has fluctuated, mainly driven by availability. My current choice is Alpen, the “no added sugar” variety; although I am sure there is still plenty of sugar hidden in there somewhere. For a long while my yoghurt choice was driven by whatever I could find in 7-11. But then I found Yolida yoghurt, which proclaimed itself to contain “live active lactic acid bacteria culture”. It’s a bit more expensive than the 7-11 varieties, but tastes much better; and I’m worth it.
But then I stumbled across a forum discussion about making yoghurt at home, a process which required a “live” yoghurt; which I just happened to have in my fridge.
Which is why she who must be obeyed came home last night and discovered me with a bubbling pan of milk and a thermometer.
What are you doing? Making yoghurt! Why? Because it will save me some money. How much money? Oh, maybe as much as 100 baht a week…. Is it worth it? (as she surveyed the well-distributed mess in the kitchen) Well, there is the joy of creating your own food, and…
But it was too late, she was off to the shower, shaking her head at her deranged husband.
So I carried on stirring my two litres of full-cream milk that I had put in a saucepan and was heating to 85 degrees (hence the thermometre). This apparently breaks down the milk and makes it easier to turn into yoghurt.
Once it had been simmering at 85 degrees for a while, I plunged the saucepan into cold water to bring down the temperature to 45 degrees. At this point I transferred the milk to one of those cheap plastic cool drink containers and stirred in a small pot of yoghurt.
Then comes the making yoghurt phase, which requires the mixture to be kept cosy and warm for about ten hours. You can buy a yoghurt maker for this purpose, but a kitchen in Thailand is pretty warm; so just wrapping the container in a couple of towels and leaving overnight is meant to do the trick.
This morning I ripped off the towels with a flourish and inspected the contents of the container; before tipping the resulting putrid mess down the sink.
Or at least that is what she who must be obeyed predicted. But amazingly the contents of the container looked like yoghurt and smelled like yoghurt, so I concluded it was yoghurt and stuck it in some small containers and into the fridge to cool.
Note: the sample pot in the photo is a stunt double for the actual pot I used, so don’t point out the expiry date!
Tried it out for breakfast and it tasted like yoghurt too. Thinner than commercial yoghurt which has thickening agents added; but just as delicious.
So that’s another 100 baht a week I can add to my lens fund. Next, “how to grow your own muesli in a bucket”.
Comments 🔗
2013-04-22| JAN BRIGHTMORE saysWell done - how long before the craze expiry date hits. ?? Is there a genetic link between you and my brother / father / Aunty Sadie
2013-04-22| The Heavyweight saysI think you shouldn’t cook the milk. It destroys the proteines! :-D Other than that, right on, well done! Oh yes, one thing maybe, if you plan to grow wheat to mix into your muesil, be careful when you see any large black grains. Don’t grind or eat them! :-)
2013-04-22| Grant saysWhat nostalgia! 50-something years ago my dear departed mother obtained a yoghurt ‘bug’ from a Greek dairy owner who had noticed her as a regular customer for his home made product and generously asked her if she’d like to try to make her own. The results were spectacularly good, every bit as good as you describe. Living, as we did, just up the road from Antartica an overnight spell in the airing cupboard was required to complete the reaction. The airing cupboard, in the days before such things were built around a 40 gallon domestic water heater, had it’s own heater in the bottom which consumed obscene amounts of electricity and probably resulted in the gummint adding a further hydro-electric dam to the portfolio. Consequently I always had fresh yoghurt in my school lunch which had the added benefit of keeping the sandwich swappers at bay - if I was bringing that stuff to school heaven knows what was between the bread slices. I shall look forward to sampling your efforts on a future occasion. PS: You mentioned a strange metric creature called a thermometre, prepare for incoming…
2013-04-22| MissLidl saysPresumably pasteurized not UHT milk. Full fat or not, UHT milk doesn’t form long proteins I’ve had a bad experience of that with cheese making.
There’s a vanilla yoghurt that Lidl do in 1 Kg pots in European stores that it just fantastic. I haven’t found anything close to it in Thailand, or even the UK.
I wonder if you can get it thicker (maybe milk powder?) and vanilla (fake essence is probably fine), maybe its possible to improve on the recipe.
2013-04-23| Antz saysGreat stuff Spike…. but beware of the Alpen “No Added Sugar But shit loads of frustose instead”….. which needless to say is much worse than the sugar it is replacing !!
2013-05-05| MissLidl saysTried a batch using milk powder and pasteurized, and it does make it thicker/creamier.
2 litres pasteurized milk, 1 pot yolida live yoghurt 1 cup sweet time milk powder, which is 6% sugar to give the bacteria something to eat 10 drops vanilla essence yellow food coloring (I’m trying to recreate a yellowish vanilla yoghurt)
A rice cooker is ideal for yoghurt making, I took the milk up to 80+ for the sterilizing phase on the ‘cook’ setting, (you heat it to kill other bacteria that might compete with the yoghurt culture). Then cooled it down by putting the rice pot in a water bath to 40. The yoghurt, milk powder, vanilla, and coloring, together with a 1 litre taken from the warm milk, go into a blender to mix better, then poured back into the rice cooker pot and mixed with the rest of the milk.
Rice cooker on ‘warm’ for 5 hours. I found the bacteria make their own heat, I turned off the rice cooker completely off after 2 hours and it stayed at 40+ for the remaining 3 hours without needing extra heat.
Then into the fridge.
The result is thick and creamy, but has the sourness I don’t like in yolida. Next time I’ll try more sugar and maybe more milk powder, to see how thick I can make it.
If you want thicker, that seems to be the way to do it.
2013-05-05| Spike saysSuspect it is the milk powder rather than the type of milk that is making the difference.
I have heard of the rice cooker idea, but apparently some rice cookers have a warm setting that is too warm; so may not work for everyone.
I used a whole tub when making my first batch, but have since read that you need much less, and that too much can interfere with the process. Guidelines are:
1 to 2 quarts of milk – 1 T starter 1 gallon of milk – 2 T starter 2 gallons of milk – 3 T starterWhere T is a tablespoon. I used two tablespoons from my first batch to seed the second.
My second batch I left for nearly twelve hours (failed to drag myself out of bed on time) and the yoghurt was much more consistent and firmer; although still runny compared to commercial yoghurt; but an ideal consistency for pouring over my muesli (which is now home made, so sugar free and much cheaper).
The only downside of home made yoghurt is that it tastes so good that I consume much more than I used to.
2013-05-09| Jock saysSeems like the yoghurt process is under control. Have you tried mixing small dried fruits (raisins, pineapples etc) through the muesli? It gives you something extra to chew on.
2014-05-18| Ray Walton saysAntx I am pretty sure that Fructose is far better for you than normal sugar, not the other way around as you suggest.. For a start it has a much higher Glycemic Index which is excellent especially for diabetics as the body absorbs the Fructose much slower than it does sugar which it soaks up rapidly and is of course empty calories. I am diabetic type 2 and have it kept well under control; and indeed I eat a lot of fruit and a variety of types too.
As I said to Spike by email I am sure you could buy many years ago yoghurt making machines especially for the job and I remember having one about 40 years ago and making my own yoghurt too, very delicious indeed and no added sugar. I am sure I used much healthier zero fat skimmed milk though but my memory is a little hazy.
2014-05-18| Parry says“So that’s another 100 baht a week I can add to my lens fund.”
Uh-oh!!!
2014-05-18| Parry saysCome to think of it, that stack of yogurts looks remarkably like a Hasselblad Carl Zeiss CFi 180mm f/4.
2014-05-18| Spike saysNo, it doesn’t. You just like to name drop.
2014-05-18| Spike saysHigh fructose corn syrup is reckoned to be worse for you than ordinary sugar, especially if you are diabetic. Antz has inherited diabetes and controls it through careful eating alone, no pills. He is consequently something of an expert on sugars (and many other things). Yoghurt machines do the same thing as my process, except you have to buy them and they consume electricity (and probably could not process the same volume that I make every time).
2014-05-18| Ray Walton saysMaybe corn syrup has fructose, I did not know that but I was talking about sugars from fruits like Apples an even bananas is far better than processed ordinary sugar.and will not change my views and generally held views on that score, Never seen anything to say the opposite in all my research. Lets face it, no two bloody professional nutritionists seem to be able to agree on much at all so who knows what is fact and fiction. In the end I just try to use common sense in the end as I think is the way you work too Spike. But I do occasionally when needs must divert to some known but delicious bad meals but make sure I cut down on something else later or next day. Works okay for my blood sugar control but not for losing weight sadly,
I actually take minimal medicine with the lowest daily dose of Metformin, which is a well known pretty harmless safe drug,with decades of history behind it. Sure I know if I exercised a bit then I could avoid that medicine too most likely, but I take the choice of the Metformin as I hate exercise in this heat and with my decrepit old body pains.I get when I start exercising. Swimming is the most painless but I personally find it so so boring that I choose not to do it. ,Scuba diving would be fine but for that you need quite a bit of money which I do not have and need to be fitter than I to even consider it,
I only do things I enjoy though I have seriously modified my deeply enjoyable diet of old and why my blood sugar levels have been kept in excellent order according to my A1C blood tests which my physician is very pleased with. (he says I should exercise more though and I know that is true but still choose not to as no fun for me and I only do fun these days though do try to walk short distances rather than ride).
Fruit is a highly recommended food stuff for all and particularly for type two diabetics, Rich in goodness and fibre too which makes you feel less hungry and also much lower glycemic index than raw or processed sugar. l would not eat corn syrup knowingly as sure it is thick and sticky like syrup and pretty much empty calories, Though eating corn on the cob is reckoned to be very good for you and very filling too as are most vegetables.. Other than avoiding silly things as much as possible I do not worry too much about diet as I am in control now of my blood sugar levels, but could do with losing some weight but wont do it if I have to suffer at all as I do not want to make myself uncomfortable and miserable in my late years thanks very much. .
But back on topic I have to say your yoghurt suggestions are very good as again I love yoghurt and yes it is very god for you if no or low fat and no sugar added.. Bit concerned at the full fat milk you are using IMHO, and I am sure I made delicious yoghurt with skimmed milk all those years ago. Have you tried with skimmed ro even semi skimmed milk ??
2014-05-19| Spike saysFresh fruit contains nutrition, and fructose; high fructose corn syrup is processed junk with zero nutritional value. If you need to manage your sugar intake; both have to be managed.
2014-05-19| Ray Walton saysYes sure I understand about corn syrup and fully accept what you are saying as it makes perfect sense. But I have to say I have never used it nor even considered using it,
As I said Fructose as you get in natural fruit is actually far better for you than sugar and has a much lower glycemic index than sugar which is important for those of us with diabetes of course, That was all I was talking about and not corn syrup at all.
2014-05-19| Spike saysIf you eat anything that comes out of a packet or a bottle, chances are it contains HFCS.
2014-05-19| Ray Walton saysNasty indeed. I have to say I do tend quite a bit to look carefully on the labels for added sugar content.and fat levels. Sure often it seems unavoidable unless you go without which I seldom want to do, but I do opt for sugar free drinks as prefer even Aspartan to sugar and go for low or 0% fat products when available.
One sort of trouble is for example that I love Tomato Ketchup on many foods and they do have sugar in I know particularly Heinz the only one I can get here without horrible onions in, I enjoy that too much to go without but use it more sparingly these days.
But at least I am aware and look for better alternative brands and types if available. So will also look for corn syrup in the ingredients now.
2014-05-19| Matt sayshttp://www.heinzketchup.com/Products.aspx Contains “high fructose corn syrup” and “corn syrup” and is nearly 25% sugar. Yum!