Trent: Yogurt ?? (Read 889 times)

Trent (et al., obviously), So my BF finally gave into my pleas (and economic arguments) and bought a yogurt maker instead of buying a ton of the Greek-style yogurt at Trader Joes So, here is my question: what is the basic nutrition value of the liquid whey that is a by-product of straining the yogurt to make it thicker and more cheeselike... is it proteinous enough to be worth saving for post-run smoothies? Thanks!!

Congrat!! Some thoughts. 1. Actually, you really don't need a yogurt maker Just a saucepot and some jars. 2. The liquid you remove is whey. Whey has protein and a very small amount of salt. Whether whey has sugar depends on how the whey is made. If the whey is the by-product of cheese making, it will also have sugar. If the whey is the by-product of yogurt-making, it will have very very little sugar (and will be sour). It is great for making bread. You can use it for smoothies, but I usually just use the unstrained yogurt, which has even more protein. Some folks use it to make a lemonade-like drink. 3. I think you cannot generally say "greek yogurt has..." more of this or less of that. There are many many yogurts out on the shelves. The only way to know what is in your yogurt is either to make it yourself or read the label. 4. Try to get unhomogenized whole milk to make your yogurt. Try it once. It is incredible.

well, all of the greek yogurts that are commercially available and whose nutritional labels that I have read have less sugar and far more protein that the non-strained yogurts. Since those yogurts have no stabilizers (at least the plain yogurt, not the stir-ins) I'm not sure how they'd differ substantially from homemade strained yogurts. Why wouldn't most of the lactose drain with the water and most of the protein stay with the solids at home? Seriously, is there something that'd done differently in an industrial setting? there could be. I generally agree that we have more control over the content of home made foods, but in this case, I don't see how it helps. When making yogurt at home, we know the ingedients that went into the yogurt, but how would that help us to estimate the nutritional value of the whey?

The yogurt bacteria convert lactose (i.e., milk sugar) to lactic acid. The lactic acid coagulates the non-whey milk proteins. This causes the yogurt curd to form. The little bit of liquid leftover is the whey squeezed from the curd. With most cheesemaking, the curd is formed using other processes (such as by using rennet and heat) and there is no conversion of lactose to lactic acid, so the sugars remain. The whey to curd ratio with cheesemaking is also MUCH higher than with yogurt making. MTA: The lactose and lactic acid are evenly distributed throughout; they are not more or less concentrated in the whey.

Hard to know. I am not sure what "Greek yogurt" is. Could it be made from the milk of an animal other than a cow? That might explain the difference.

Oh, yes. We're officially part owners in a dairy herd and get two gallons of raw milk each week (since it's illegal to buy or sell the milk, we have "shares" in the herd). The mozzarella cheese, paneer and yogurt that I make with this milk is unbelievably delicious. To find out if you can get raw milk near you...

Thanks for the link! My pediatrician had told me about a farm not terribly far from me but didnt give me enough info to find it. I think I found it. She said they also have the BEST eggs. I am not quite sure this is exactly the same farm but I may look in to it. I have a little more time during the school year to make a long drive. dh will freak though I think. But if he does, I know how to pasteurize at home. I have weird breastmilk that cant be stored for longer than 24 hours so I had to pasteurize it if I wanted to freeze any or use it the next day. We go through a TON of yogurt so this would be a lot cheaper. $11/gallon. MTA: And I probably will buy a yogurt maker too.

If I get raw milk from the farm I will probably use it straight up. I don't see pasteurizing on a regular basis. We'll see how dh feels about it. But yeah, that is pretty much it, heat hold heat, cool down. Really similar to the first step of making cheese. It takes a long time to do it right though. My breastmilk I actually just needed to kill SOME of the lipase enzyme and it dies pretty easily so I would just zap it briefly or heat on the stove just until vapors started to form and then take it off. I didnt hold it at heat. I just needed to kill a little bit, not kill it dead. The farm I am looking at has a sterling reputation. Cleanliness is 99.9% of what pasteurization protects against. It's necessary so the cows in mass dairy farming can live in horrid conditions and be mass processed. It would be funny if dh was squeamish about it though. This is the man who will eat leftovers way past expiration. He usually says stuff like "if it doesnt stink or taste bad, there is nothing wrong with it" and " a little bad food just strengthens your system"

My breastmilk I actually just needed to kill SOME of the lipase enzyme and it dies pretty easily so I would just zap it briefly or heat on the stove just until vapors started to form and then take it off. I didnt hold it at heat. I just needed to kill a little bit, not kill it dead.

Huh...I had a few "batches" that did that weird "soapy" thing overnight and I tossed them (which really stinks when one's an exclusive pumper due to a kid with latching issues...it's like throwing work literally down the drain). I had been told it was a lipase issue, too, but never was advised to do anything to the milk to counteract that. Wish I'd known about that. It was kind of a rare occurrence, luckily. Now I'm intrigued about the unpasteurized milk thing, too. I've developed the lactose intolerance thing in the past year, but can still tolerate cultured dairy and have made my own yogurt in the past (similar to Trent's method, only I stick the yogurt in a cooler with a heating pad on top of the tubs for warmth). GOOD eats.