Homemade Yogurt and Buttermilk

Like so many things. It's just better homemade. 

The savings of course depends on whether or not you buy your milk. But regardless there is still the control over the quality. 

Buttermilk

My favorite for soaking chicken to fry, of course in biscuits and anything chocolate that calls for milk. Besides just drinking it! 

Buttermilk can be re-cultured from the first starter batch and continuously after that. We purchased our starter enzymes from Cultures for Health. Their site is easy to follow and full of tips and recipes. The starter batch is simple. (screen shot from their page)

After the starter batch add 1/4 cup of your reserve to 1 Quart milk and let sit in a warm spot 70-77* for 24-48 hours. (Full explanation is linked under re-culture, above) 

Yogurt 

(You will need a thermometer and a crock pot)

I use a lot of yogurt. I started out replacing a little at a time of mayo or sour cream in recipes like pasta salad and topping for Mexican foods. Yogurt can also replace oil in a lot of baking items. A splash of olive oil will give it that oily texture that is sometimes needed.

Like buttermilk, yogurt can be simply re-made from your starter batch. 1 Quart of milk heated to 160* and cooled to 110*. Then add 2-3 T of starter yogurt and allowed to incubate for 5-8 hours. You can buy the yogurt makers that are set to the right temp etc. I was given one and am trying it next time.We have been using a crock pot and have had very good luck with. Heat the crock pot with water in it until you are ready to let the yogurt set. Dump the water, add the yogurt milk mixture, be sure to shut it off and unplug. Wrap the whole thing with a heavy towel to hold in the heat.

Both can also be started from store bought. Make sure to get plain yogurt with live cultures. The drawback to this is that the store cultures are not as "alive" and after a batch or two they don't really work anymore. 

When making your own you will see that the textures are slightly different from store bought. The buttermilk is a little thicker but the flavor is amazing. A good stir with a spoon or whisk will loosen it up. The yogurt is slightly more watery but again a stir will bring it together. Also letting drain though a strainer or hanging from a cheese cloth will tighten it up to whatever texture you like. 

At our local store a 32 oz (4 cups) container of yogurt is about $4. A gallon of milk is also about $4. I can make 4x as much yogurt for the same price.

The Gift of Sauerkraut.

For my birthday I got a wonderful gift. As my family watched me open it, and laughed, I tried to keep on a "thank you , I love it" face. In reality, it more like "what in the 'world' is it".

A fermentation kit...of course! It's actually

pretty cool and right up my alley. I've made sauerkraut in crocks, (side note here, I recently read an article that said that if your crock had been used in the past for "glassing eggs" it will not work for kraut. The way to tell is if dry it has a white filmy look, wet, it goes away but comes back when it dries again.) but what if you don't want to start that much? What about kimchee, pickled eggs...there are a million ideas for fermented foods to be tried. This kit fits a wide mouth jar. A test quart is perfect for trying something you haven't tried before. I have some 1/2 and gallon jars that this will work great on, but for today I only had 1 head of cabbage. I have a couple tutorials pinned on my fermenting board on +Pinterest and I watched a video on +YouTube . I put what I thought was the best advice together.

You'll Need

1 head of cabbage, purple or green

1T canning salt

Shred the cabbage with a knife or in the food processor. Save back one f the outer leaves for later.

Mix your salt and cabbage

together in a large bowl and let sit for several hours. This gives the salt time to draw some of the moisture out and makes packing it into you jar much easier. Mine sat about 5hrs. because that's when I had time to get back to it.

When your ready place cabbage into the jar a handful at a time and pack it down. The handle of a wooden spoon works well.

As you pack it the moisture will start to come out. This is what you want, it's the brine that will need to cover the cabbage for it to ferment. Takes a little elbow grease but letting it sit with the salt makes this much easier. When your out of cabbage and have packed until the liquid is at least a half inch above the cabbage, it's time. If your family didn't realize what a great gift this contraption would be, no fear. Use the extra leaf that you set back to cover your kraut, a shot glass or something small like that can help keep it submerged. Place your flat and ring on and tighten "finger" tight, then loosen 1/2 turn. The fermentation process produces gasses that will need to be able to vent.

If you have one of these they come with the directions

The glass weight goes in on top of the cabbage, rubber gasket, flat with hole in it, ring. Then then cork and the water valve. Sunlight can kill the process so I laid a dish towel over it and set it in the corner of my counter. After a week or so you can start testing it and it's ready when it satisfies your taste. I'll let you know how this goes.

Day 5

Starting to get that kraut smell and taste. No scum to skim. Very excited about this tool.

You can find this single kit and several larger kits at Fermentools.com. I've also found several more great sites for recipes and pinned them on Pinterest.

Day 17

Still more salty than kraut but all seems well. Just read about the virtues of patience when it comes to fermentation. Not one of my stronger traits but worth the wait.

Day 29

I'm so excited! Kraut is ready to eat! Sure, it could go a little longer, but...

And I'm lucky enough to have a package of sausages from my moms butchered pigs in the freezer.

 

                                                                         

Top with some spicy mustard and....

WOW! 

Soon as I get done posting this I'm making another order. And starting another recipe!