Homemade Yogurt Is Easy To Prepare
Homemade yogurt from bulgaros is extremely easy to make. The first thing you need are the bulgaros themselves. Order them from our on-line store. All you need is about 1 tablespoon, or 1/2 ounce, of bulgaros.
Other things you will need:
- A plastic or glass container with lid large enough to contain all the yogurt you want to make. We use washed, 1 quart, plastic cottage cheese or sour cream containers.
- Milk. You can use whole milk, 2% or skim, whichever you prefer.
- Rinse the Bulgaros thoroughly using a flour sifter.
- Place the Bulgaros in a bowl, a good rule of thumb: One half oz. can make 1 to 2 cups of yogurt a day.
- Add milk to the bowl. For every one half oz. of Bulgaros, you can add up to 1 to 2 cups of milk.
- Cover the bowl loosely, leaving space for air to circulate.
- Put the bowl in a warm place (next to the oven, for example), especially during winter time. Do not put in the refrigerator.
- Wait 24 hours. The milk should have turned into yogurt.
- Strain out the yogurt using the flour sifter or something similar.
- Rinse the bulgaros and repeat.
That's it! This converts the milk into yogurt which can be used in your favorite recipes. See our recipe section for some ideas.
Caring for bulgaros
You will see that your bulgaros will thrive and grow as they busily convert milk into yogurt. You might need to cull your bulgaros colony from time to time to keep it from getting very big. After rinsing them in preparation for making a new batch of yogurt, just throw away any of the bulgaros cultures you don't need -- or better yet, give them to a friend.
If you don't want to make yogurt on a particular day, you can store the bulgaros in water overnight. But don't do this too often, they really need milk to thrive and grow. If you are going on a short trip for a day or two, simply put the bulgaros in milk and put the bowl in the refrigerator. This slows down the yogurt making process enough so that when you return, the yogurt will be ready.
If you are going of vacation for more than a day or two, rinse the bulgaros, put them in an airtight jar (like a babyfood jar) and put the jar in the freezer while you are gone. When you return, take the bulgaros out of the freezer and place them immediately in milk. It might take a day or two for them to revive completely, but have patience, it will happen!
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