# Controlling the tartness of homemade yogurt?



## mags (May 4, 2004)

OK, so I got a yogurt machine several months ago and was so excited to try it. I tried the recipe that came with the machine and ohhh, it was too TART! I want to try making homemade yogurt again, BUT I would like some advice about how to make it less tart. It seems that I had read ppl's comments on amazon.com (where I researched the machines) about controlling the tartness, but nobody every mentioned HOW you actually did that. Any direction or advice would be greatly appreciate!


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## nonconformnmom (May 24, 2005)

I don't use a machine, but what I've found is the longer the incubation time, the more tart the yogurt. So try reducing the incubation time and see if that helps ...


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## Panserbjorne (Sep 17, 2003)

Yup.


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## mammom (Aug 13, 2004)

Did you get the Salton? I just ordered that one from amazon a few months ago... I agree with the pp's that it's the length of time that you leave it in the warmer that increases the tartness. I think four-five hours has been a good amount of time for me (with the Salton). I left it like 8 hours one time accidentally and ooooheeee! I could not eat it (HOWEVER, I have found it makes a good replacement for sourcream in dishes that call for it!







)

I am still working to perfect mine, btw. I was using store-bought plain yogurt (organic, trader joes) as my starter at first and had good luck. Then I decided to try the Yogourmet starter and have not liked it so far (I've only made it twice with the yogourmet).

Good luck!


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## mags (May 4, 2004)

Thanks ladies! Yes, I think I got the salton (william sonoma) and I let it incubate according to the directions and that is probably why it was so incredibly tart! Thanks for the advice. I've used stonybrook farms' organic yogurt as a starter and it worked out very well, although my yogurt's consistency was much more, "stiffer" than stonybrook's consistency.

Hey, I think this is my 1000th post, so I guess I'm officially a senior member!


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## MovingMomma (Apr 28, 2004)

Full fat milk will also produce a less tart yogurt than non-fat. Skim is somewhere inbetween.


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## HAPPY_MOM1 (Oct 6, 2006)

hi everyone

couldn't believe when I found a thread about yogurt.

I don't have the machine. I didn't by putting it in the oven over night.
what came out didn't look like yogurt. I don't know how to explain but it was elastic.

So does anyone knows what I did wrong.








By the way my husband loved it.


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## heldt123 (Aug 5, 2004)

I put mine in the crock pot (with water) on warm with the lid slightly adjar with my candy thermometer. I "cook" it for about 8 hours and that is close to the same tartness as store bought. Just perfect for me. I've done it for less time and it is a little less tart.

I acidently put it on low once and it came out all chunky and over cooked...ooops!

Happy Mom...what temp? Did you keep a thermometer in there? It might have been too hot. My oven gets too hot on the lowest temp and gets too cool with the door propped open.


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## lioralourie (Aug 22, 2004)

yes it does get kinda tart. The type of starter yogurt reallly can make a difference, though. Horizon makes DELICIOUS yogurt, while some other Australian brands are more tart to begin with, so come out more tart. (We're limited to the brands because we keep kosher, and live in Beijing so we're just happy we can get ANYTHING here. But DH brings back Horizon from Hong kong occasionally)

We've found this out about the starter type, since we always cook ours a long time, like 20-24 hours to reduce the lactose as much as possible.

dd is sensitive to dairy but we're vegetarians so I'd like her to have some milk products--and the daily probiotics have helped her digestion a lot over the last few months.


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