I have a question for "Doctor Yogurt" [tigertiger]
I have done quite a few batches of my own yogurt using imported milk from germany and Xiao Xiong 1.5 liter yogurt maker.
Sometimes though for no apparent reason the yogurt becomes very stringy and syrup like. It's not gotten bad since the flavor is ok.

I suspect it's because I use the yogurt starter satchets when my chain of yogurt as starter breaks.

The manual from the yogurt maker is rubbish, so not much help there.

Did you you [guys] have similar problems?

Thanks for all the delicious recipes and advise.

I forgot,
Duration of the yogurt in progress doesn't seem to make a difference. It happened on an 8h batch as well as an 11h batch.

Thanks for the compliment, but I am only an enthusiastic amateur.

I have never used the packet starter, and can only hazard a guess.

If the stringiness is only happening when you use the packet starter, then I would try going back to the mix after an hour, and giving it a good stir to make sure the stuff is properly disolved, and mixed in evenly.

I assume that giving it a good stir at the end of the process sees it all blend in ok. Am I correct?

General tip. I stir with a a couple of chopsticks as the wood does not scratch the plastic containers. Great for non-stick surfaces too.

The fat percentage in the milk might also make a difference

Thanks for your advise. My wife just told me that we got the stringy yogurt before using previous batch (good) yogurt as starter and still got the yogurt all syrup(y).

I stir the starter satchet in well, ...well the content of course, not the satchet itself. lol

And after the time is up I give it another good stir to mix everything again before putting the new batch into the fridge.
What's good about my yog. maker is that the container is stainless steel, which is good for sterilizing. Also I put all the items I use in boiling water for a a few minutes to sterilize.

But maybe I am doing something wrong with the sterilizing. I will make another batch today and hopefuly it will get a good consistence this time.

The milk I use varies, sometimes I use the 1.5% and sometimes I use the 3.5% fat ones but I had good batches with both of them so I think the devil is somewhere in the details.

The only other variable I could think of is in scalding the milk.

I searched and found this.
"You need to heat the milk to 180 degrees to denature the milk proteins, and to allow one protein in particular — lactoglobulin, the one that's responsible for a smooth, consistent yogurt — to unwind. If you don't heat the milk adequately, slimy and stringy yogurt is the result."

Interesting! Watching a Tibetan grandma make yogurt in a village, she first churned the milk (in an old washing machine...) and pulled out the butter, then drained the (now skim?) milk into a bowl which was then heated only for a short while on the stove before adding some whey as starter. The whey was also used to wash dishes and her hands. It definitely did not get to 180, which is also how I'm used to making yogurt. She did the blanket around the pot method, and the yogurt was strained into a VERY thick cheese through a woven conical basket then put up above the stove to smoke. I did a blog post on it a few years back, but it's not a hosted blog anymore. If I dig out the files and re-host, I'll certainly post a link to it here.

Anybody experience making a yogurt from goat milk powder? Is standard procedure OK? or need to do some other steps as well? Cheers

Just give it a try and let us know. I don't see what other steps would be needed, and the cost is not high.

Hi,
I made yoghurt using this method, for the 1st time it tasted perfect but, while following the same process again, it became sour. Is there anything that I can do for it to not get sour taste?