# Please tell me about yogurt starter



## nduetime (Dec 15, 2005)

I usually just buy some plain dannon yogurt for starter and make goats milk yogurt, then save some from one batch to make the next. It has always worked for me, no problems.

Now, I am making just goat milk yogurt and have been able to purchase some yogurt that is 100% goats milk, no soy. I am doing this for a friend and her daughter. I have heard previously about people freezing some starter to use and wonder if this really works. Some say it is ok to do so, others say that the freezing kills the active cultures. Does anybody know if freezing works or not? Thanks!


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## jerzeygurl (Jan 21, 2005)

i store the freeze dried starter in freezer as per package instruction



i have stored mother culture for everything but yougurt in freezer no reason for not just that...

yougurt culture will stay good in fridge up to 2 weeks

i usually make it once a week...


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## goatsareus (Jun 23, 2007)

I also store my purchased, dry, yogurt starters in the freezer. I have bought them from Lehman's hardware, Caprine Supply, Hoeggers, and New England Cheesemaking Supply. Been making yogurt for decades. Never heard that you can put cultured yogurt in the freezer, so I suspect that does not work. I have successfully kept cultered buttermilk in the freezer and used it to culture a fresh batch of buttermilk. At times I have used store bought yogurt to start a batch, but I prefer to keep the dry cultures in the freezer to use.


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## Julia (Jan 29, 2003)

nduetime said:


> I have heard previously about people freezing some starter to use and wonder if this really works. Some say it is ok to do so, others say that the freezing kills the active cultures. Does anybody know if freezing works or not? Thanks!


Sure it works. Yogurt is just another thermophilic bacteria, and cheesemakers have been freezing them for years before the new freeze-dried DIVs were invented. To do it long term you need a good freezer that doesn't flucuate in temperature like modern home fridge freezers do, but short term it's workable.

If you're really concerned about it, invest in a modern freeze dried DVI culture. They will last in the freezer for years, literally, and will give you an excellent product every time, cheap and easy.


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## Lannie (Jan 11, 2004)

I'd always heard that freezing cultured starters was a no-no, but then recently a whole gang of people I know told me they do that all the time and it works. So I tried it. All I can say is that FOR ME, freezing yogurt or buttermilk to save it to use as a culture later doesn't work at all. I couldn't get my yogurt to set up using the previously frozen starter, and the buttermilk that I used previously frozen starter in didn't even develop the buttermilk smell, much less the thickness. The starter cultures had only been frozen for a couple of weeks when I tried to use them the first time, so it wasn't like they'd been in there for years and someone could say they were too old. They died on freezing, as far as I can tell. So I have a freezer full of frozen yogurt and buttermilk that I use as I need it for consumption only. It tastes fine after it's been thawed and stirred up, but I'm sorry, nobody can convince me that the cultures are still alive.

The only thing I can suggest is you try it and see if it works for you. I have no reason to believe all those other people lied to me about it working for them. Maybe it's the temperature of the freezer. But for me it doesn't work.

~Lannie


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## jerzeygurl (Jan 21, 2005)

i have frozen mother cultures and they have worked out well

i find it takes too much time to make the mothers, and it dilutes the sour cream too much so i use the freeze dried


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