Does yogurt "wear out"?

Asked by ccrow (8097

) February 22nd, 2010

OK, so I used Stonyfield Farms yogurt as a starter for a batch of yogurt that came out fine. Then I used some of that batch to make the next one; it came out not quite smooth, but leaning toward ricotta texture, & was a bit more tangy. Then I tried to use some of that batch to make more… nothing happened. I scalded & cooled the milk as usual, stirred in the starter, left it in a warm oven as usual, but after 5 hours all I had was warm milk with a slight yogurt flavor. Anybody know what went wrong?

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6 Answers

I’m not an expert but my mother has started making her own and she said that she gets about three maybe four batches from her starter, then she needs to start again. I assume it has to do with the pasteurized nature of yogurt and how that affects the life of the cultures. Eventually they would run out of food, yes?

gemiwing (14718

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Maybe the lack of heat causes the bacteria to die? If you take the starter culture bacteria and use it in a new yogurt mix, wouldn’t they have plenty to eat from the new mix?

lilikoi (10105

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Your question got me curious and I dug around a bit. If you ctrl+F search for “forever” on this page, you’ll get someone’s comment about how the yogurt culture will not last forever and needs to be refreshed. I’d still like to know what causes the culture to die out eventually. It would be a much more beautiful process if it could be sustained indefinitely….

lilikoi (10105

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Yeah… I guess I must have had especially short-lived yogurt-making bacteria. I don’t think I’ve ever had it quit that soon before. Oh well, back to the store tomorrow!

ccrow (8097

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