In my initial fermented food order I obtained Kambucha Tea culture, water kefir grains, and Viili yogurt culture. They were all shipped Priority Mail but due to the vagaries of the U.S. Postal service they arrived in four days instead of the typical two. Why mention this? Well, as the seller of the yogurt culture stated in the sales page, one had to be careful not to let live organic yogurt culture set in the mailbox on hot days, as heat can kill the culture. I diligently watched for the mail carrier and made sure the cultures were instantly taken into a well air-conditioned house.
After safely installing the yogurt culture in a cool environment, the next step was to actually make the Villi yogurt. This I did (following most carefully the instructions) by adding two cups of whole milk to the two tablespoons of yogurt culture inside a one-quart jar and topped it off with a coffee filter and rubber band. After the yogurt and milk were mixed it needed to be placed in a warm environment, such as the top of a bookcase. The theory was that in 12 to 17 hours one would have two cups of delicious yogurt to consume, after chilling in the refrigerator for six hours.
As the time approached for checking the yogurt the excitement was palpable. At the fourteen hour mark shakily and with beating heart, I stretched out my hand to discover: the batch was still all liquid, no firmness at all. Fine, no panic, I just placed the jar back, and at the twenty-four hour mark, I checked again, still liquid. Ok, so maybe the spot I choose was not warm enough, so I found a new place, even higher up and farther away from drafts.
At thirty-six hours; still liquid.
At forty-eight hours: still liquid.
Now maybe it was time to panic.
Finally, on the third day there were some signs of firmness, but still mostly liquid. After five days and still no yogurt I wrote the seller who informed me the yogurt mixture was probably not safe. Down the drain it went. There was, maybe, a half-a-cup of something that might have been yogurt in the bottom of the jar.
What went wrong? Being a beginner at this fermented food thing, I am not sure. My two best guesses are one; the extra time the yogurt culture spent in transit in this heat killed off enough bacteria that there was not enough to culture two cups of milk.
The second guess is: with much health-consciousness I procured a carton of organic, hormone free, grass fed, and whole milk. Having done my duty to my own health and the making the world a better place I did not notice that it was also “ultra-pasteurized”…ultra-pasteurized? …never heard such a term before. It turns out that ultra-pasteurization is a process that involves even higher temperatures over and even longer period of time then conventional pasteurization. This process results in an even more bland and nutrient devoid milk then consumers have already been complaining about for years. Milk subjected to this treatment is incapable of being used for cheese at all and no doubt makes for lousy yogurt.
Will I try again? Time will only tell. Not before the outdoor temperatures have cooled done some. And the primary reason for making yogurt was that one could have a fresh cultured product in less than a day. Whereas the Kambucha and water kefir took about a week to have a batch and most of the initial batch needs to go to starter for subsequent batches.
I guess, not every adventure in the land of fermented foods is destined to have a happy ending.
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