Freeze Your Yogurt Starter?

This started as a question from a user of MakeYourOwnYogurt.com, and when I didn't know the answer, it turned into an experiment. If you are familiar with my homemade yogurt recipe, you know that it requires 2-3 Tbs of plain yogurt as a starter. If it is your first batch, I have you start with a quality yogurt with lots of active cultures (like Dannon), and for all batches thereafter, you can use your own. But this user was getting to the end of her current batch of yogurt, and was not going to be in town the following week to warrant making more. So she asked, can I freeze the 2-3 Tbs of yogurt, and will it work as a starter in the future?

It seemed perfectly logical, since you can buy freeze-dried yogurt cultures online and at health food stores, but I could not say for sure. So I took enough fresh yogurt to make a starter, and froze it in a 2 oz. plastic container. When I went to make my next batch of yogurt, I removed it from the freezer and put it into a slightly larger container filled with warm water (a water jacket). As I went about the rest of my preparation (sterilizing equipment, heating the milk, and then cooling the milk), it was defrosting to room temperature. Once my milk was at 110°F, I pitched my yogurt starter in, and mixed it up well. After waiting seven hours with it on the heating pad, I returned to a perfect pot of homemade yogurt!

So freezing some starter from your last batch is a great way to make sure you always have some on hand, and ensure you will never have to buy store-bought again. I imagine it will keep in the fridge for a few months, so make sure you always have a little, and you can make yogurt any time you like. Thanks again to my reader for this question. I had fun answering it, and learned a valuable, money-saving tip.

Homemade Yogurt FAQ Added

Since launching my homemade yogurt website, I have heard from people from all over the world, with success stories, helpful tips, and questions about making yogurt. Some of these questions I was able to easily answer, while others required I hit the books. I have held onto all of these comments and questions, and have been planning an FAQ for some time. This weekend, I was able to put out the initial version, which covers the bulk of the most frequently asked questions about making yogurt:

Homemade Yogurt FAQ

I hope that this FAQ will be a work in progress, and new and experienced home yogurt makers will continue to send me their comments and questions.

New Homemade Yogurt Blog

Hello and welcome to my brand new homemade yogurt blog. My name is Michael W. Reeps, and I am the owner and creator of MakeYourOwnYogurt.com, which teaches visitors how to make homemade yogurt, with easy to follow, step-by-step instructions, and photographic examples. Since I created the site a few years back, people from all over the world have written to me to share their yogurt making experiences, and express their thanks. I have been overwhelmed by these positive responses, and the willingness of perfect strangers to try making their own yogurt simply because they read about it on my website.

I hope to use this blog to share some of these experiences, post new tidbits I pick up from visitors and elsewhere, and report on any new homemade yogurt making information that comes my way. I intend to update this often, and hope you will check back. And please try making your own yogurt, if you have not done so already. It's a fun, healthy, energy and money saving activity that reduces packaging waste, and produces a delicious homemade treat.