Welcome back, Buddies! 💖
Today we will tell you about another food that you can easily prepare at home: the yogurt! We have always loved yogurt, it is a food with multiple characteristics and many uses. In addition, it is very good for your health!
But when was yogurt born? The word yogurt has Turkish origins and derives from the verb "yogurmak" (to thicken). Yogurt is thought to have been produced in Turkey during the 6th century BC: Central Asian shepherds would put goat's milk in containers made from animal stomachs, to keep it while they were traveling. And here the surprise, like so many great discoveries: they realized that part of the milk carried in the leather had become thick and creamy! It was also still edible. When the milk was in contact with these "animal bags", all the good bacteria of yogurt flourished.
But how did it arrive in Italy? Hard to say, certainly somehow from Asia. The first to talk about it in the west is Pliny the Elder, who described how the ancient barbarian populations used to thicken milk until obtaining a "substance with a pleasant acidity". But in Europe it expanded definitively during the 1500s: the French king Francis I suffered from serious intestinal problems, and doctors were unable to cure it. Until the sultan Suleiman the Magnificent (ally of the throne of France) sent a doctor who treated the king with yogurt.
A yogurt contains a minimum of 10 million lactic acid bacteria per gram. Lactic acid bacteria are known as lactic ferments, and this high quantity help the intestinal balance. In addition, 100 ml of plain yogurt corresponds to only 75 kcal, which should not be underestimated.
After the usual presentation of the product's background, now let's move on to the concrete. Here is the recipe for homemade yogurt!
Tools needed:
A yogurt maker
Little yogurt jars
A bowl
A whisk
A ladle
Ingredients:
(for 7 jars ca. 180 ml)
1 L UHT whole milk at ambient temperature
1 jar of white yogurt (120 ml) at ambient temperature
6 teaspoons honey*
* We use it to make lactose-free yogurt. Ari is lactose intolerant and that's it! Therefore, given that lactic ferments actually eat lactose or sugars to become yogurt, honey must be added to the lactose-free one (otherwise there is a risk that it will not come out). If instead you use the one with lactose, you can also not sweeten it and decide if doing it later!
Procedure:
Take a large bowl and pour the yogurt into it.
Pour 6 teaspoons of honey and mix well.
Slowly add the milk while mixing with the whisk.
When it is totally mixed, take a small quantity of the mixture with a ladle and slowly pour into the jars.
Place the jars in the yogurt maker.
Set the temperature at 35° for 9 hours.
After 9 hours, bring out from the yogurt maker and put in the fridge.
Final informations:
Choose a starter yogurt that has the following lactic ferments: L.bulgaricus, Str.thermophilus (Streptococcus thermophilus and Lactobacillus delbrueckii subspecies bulgaricus). They are the best in terms of health and affect on the yogurt's quality.
Be very careful to not cover the jars with the lid during fermentation, because it develops a lot of consensation, which would risk to go into yogurt and spoiling it a little.
As soon as yogurt is out of the yogurt maker, allow to cool to room temperature and then cover with the lid and put in the fridge.
After the first yogurt, you can use yours as a starter. Be careful, though: your yogurt is more loaded with lactic ferments, so just put half a jar. We always make one half and we keep it aside until the preparation of the next one!
🍓Do you want a fruit yogurt? Perfect! Cut 300 g of washed and dried fruit into small pieces. Place it in a saucepan with 1 or 2 teaspoons of sugar. Cook over moderate heat, stirring constantly, until the fruit is soft and has released the juices. Cook for 5 minutes, remove from the flame and let cool completely. If you don't like fruit in pieces, you can blend it at this point. Add everything to the yogurt / milk mix in the bowl and put in the yogurt maker.
Now you are ready to prepare your first yogurt: let us know if you'll try, if you succeed and the result! You can enjoy it for breakfast, snack, to make desserts, in short ... it is an inevitable food in every home!
Buon appetito! 😊
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