# Making Yogurt From Raw Milk



## mainehomestead (May 8, 2009)

I have been making yogurt from raw milk with a starter for a few months, and have been using my yogurt as a starter for the next batch. After 5 or so makings, my yogurt gets very sour. Any idea why? Also, has anyone made yogurt with out a starter (with raw milk)?


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## Leo (Feb 7, 2006)

When making a starter culture _Never_ use _Raw_ milk. It will go 'bad' or worse. You want a _clean_ and _sterile_ medium for starters. One could easily culture e.coli or salmonella using contaminated starters. 

Raw milk has beneficial bacteria in it already, if you use it as your starter base you may end up culturing the wrong bacteria. Hence the need for a sterile base, one ideally wants a base of Pure Yogurt culture, not whatever comes out of the animal, mixes with the environment, bacteria. 

Be careful! I was poisoned by my raw foodie friend a few years ago because she did not understand what she was doing. 
Megan


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## robinthegeek (Nov 18, 2004)

I've read that if you keep using your previous batch as the starter then one strain of the bacteria in the culture will start to take over, which makes it taste sour.


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## steff bugielski (Nov 10, 2003)

Once yogurt is made it is no longer raw. The process pasteurizes it so that the yogurt cultures can thrive. You can not put cultures in raw milk and expect them to live.
I have started with raw milk and saved from the previous batch all season long with no problem.


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## Alice In TX/MO (May 10, 2002)

Obviously, the wrong bacteria took over. I'd say that's not unexpected, using raw milk. When I use raw goat milk to make yogurt, I use fresh starter every time.


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## PamB (Jan 15, 2008)

i went to a class the other night on making yogurt from raw milk. The teacher used starter from her previous batch, but she also said you can use a good organic plain yogurt for a starter. Pam


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## goatsareus (Jun 23, 2007)

mainehomestead said:


> I have been making yogurt from raw milk with a starter for a few months, and have been using my yogurt as a starter for the next batch. After 5 or so makings, my yogurt gets very sour. *Any idea why? *Also, has anyone made yogurt with out a starter (with raw milk)?


Yes, it is because you used raw milk.

Your second question, making yogurt with out a starter...no, you can not make yogurt without a starter.

Yogurt is specific strains of bacteria. And those bacteria are commonly incubated in a sterile medium of milk. If you don't have the yogurt bacteria, you don't have yogurt.

Raw milk and yogurt are both wonderful foods. In the case of yogurt though, they don't go together. If you want to be able to use some of your previous yogurt to incubate your next batch of yogurt, you must heat your milk to 180*F and cool to @115*F before you introduce your starter culture yogurt. Or you will experience the problems you describe.


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## Jeff54321 (Jan 26, 2005)

I have made countless successive batches of yogurt using raw milk and I am not dead yet. I like raw milk and I like yogurt. Ultimately I have gone to using the same method as described by goatsareus because it makes a final product that I prefer.


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## DQ (Aug 4, 2006)

Jeff54321 said:


> Ultimately I have gone to using the same method as described by goatsareus because it makes a final product that I prefer.


I prefer yogurt and not rotten milk too 

op- remember want to cultivate bacteria that make yogurt. pasteurizing before starting insures that you are cultivating the stuff that makes yogurt and not the stuff that just makes it go bad. it may not kill you but most stuff only kills you once.  not many people out there to say 'oh yeah you shouldn't do that it killed me once'. only people out there saying....'I haven't died yet'.......


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## mainehomestead (May 8, 2009)

Thank you all for your replies. I will do the 180o and cool to 115o method and see how that works for me!


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## goatsareus (Jun 23, 2007)

Heritage Ranch, welcome to HT! Don't know much about you, but here is some of my history..

I am a huge advocate and believer in the health benefits of raw milk. I have had my own personal dairy for 32 years just so I can have raw milk to drink and to use in cooking, baking and culturing.

For 12 Â½ years I worked at a nursing home. The first 5 years I supervised the staff in the kitchen. For the next 7 Â½ years I supervised the kitchen supervisor. In both positions, I was directly responsible for not knocking off the 100 wonderful souls who resided at the nursing home. When I first started working there, I had nightmares regarding the responsibility I had to make sure the elderly were served safe, uncontaminated food. Reading your post made me remember some of my nightmares.

I am concerned that you do not seem to understand the dangers you are advocating in your milk culturing procedures. Your last statement &#8220;keep it clean and your good to go&#8220;, makes my think of one of my favorite quotes, by Mark Twain, &#8221; It ain't what you don't know that gets you into trouble. It's what you know for sure that just ain't so&#8221;.

To recommend to culture raw milk with known bacteria, without also pointing out the risks involved of culturing the unknown present bacteria, is dangerous and irresponsible. I know I have e coli bacteria in the soil where my goats live. I understand how to control the multiplication of those bacteria. As I said, I drink their milk raw. 

I pray that you do not let the elderly, children, and those with a compromised immune system, consume your cultured milk products.


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## madness (Dec 6, 2006)

Huh, hadn't ever heard that raw milk wasn't good for making yogurt. I grew up on the stuff and still eat it now! (i.e. "I'm not dead yet" ). I ought to try heating it up to 180...

So...same thing with kefir I guess then? And cultured buttermilk? Oh boy, looks like I might have to rethink some of my cheese making ideas...

EDIT: Oh wait. Here's a thought. I actually PURPOSELY consume "sour" milk when I make Soda cheese. I leave the raw milk on the counter for several days until it is nice and sour and clabbered. Then I add butter, baking soda, egg and salt. So I guess that's bad too...

I thought the whole point of raw milk was that it soured and didn't putrefy so it's ok to consume it even if it's sour? I know, this isn't supposed to be a raw milk debate - just trying to get my head around it all!


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## goatsareus (Jun 23, 2007)

slow down madness....this thread is about making yogurt, incubating raw milk with yogurt bacteria.....you are bringing in a bunch of other products....not the same thing.....yes, I heat treat milk to make buttermilk, because, like yogurt, I want to incubate specific bacteria....and I use my buttermilk to make cheese....I make raw milk cheeses with my heat treated buttermilk and heat treated yogurt....but that is not what I am concerned about in this thread. Does that clear anything up for you?


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## steff bugielski (Nov 10, 2003)

I have made yogurt for some 12+ years with my raw milk. I have tried many times useing it without bringing it up to 180. Sometimes it does not work , for whatever reason. When I bring it up to 180 it always works. I do not like throwing good milk to the pigs if I don't have to so I choose to heat treat. That is not to say it will be a problem to use it raw. 
If your animals are healthy and your procedures are clean you should not have a problem. But even regular old e-coli, the type that is on everything will cause the yogurt cultures not to grow.
I make soft herbed cheese without heating the raw milk and it is wonderful and it will not kill you, but the ratio of it not working verses the ratio of the yogurt not working is much lower.

Clean raw milk in whatever form is good for you.


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## goatsareus (Jun 23, 2007)

[QUOTE said:


> deleted post


And I too do not wish to offend you, but

you do not get it....I mean you really do not get it.


and if you consider the Weston a Price Foundation a credible source of information, well....then I understand why you do not get it.....we clearly are not on the same page..

so I will say adios my friend...


and by the way, I too am not a praying person, ....I just made an exception in your case


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## Karen (Apr 17, 2002)

I'm going to open this thread back up, but only if the discussion about pasteurized vs. non-pasteurized is no longer discussed in conjunction with health issues. There is plenty of documentation on both sides of this issue and that is a topic in itself for GC. Please remember the Homemaking Forums are a place for kind, friendly, and respectful discussions and help. This is not a place for debates.


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## naturelover (Jun 6, 2006)

Heritage Ranch said:


> ..... deleted post OMG! That's revolting. :stars: I sure hope you don't poison somebody.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


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## steff bugielski (Nov 10, 2003)

Heritage ranch you may milk and culture how ever you wish but that is by far not a good practice. I hope you are not in the habit of sharing or selling your milk. 
That type of milking gives raw milk a bad name. I am very careful to wash my hands and utensils, sanitize equipment and have healthy goats and yet on occasion the samples come back over the limit for e-coli. We even had a listeriosos positive sample. I still do not know where it came from, they retested and it was fine but if there was listeriosos in the milk some one could have gotten sick and died.
Raw milk must be treated very carefully so as to minimize the possibility of contamination


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## mainehomestead (May 8, 2009)

Sorry to cause such a heated dicussion with my question, but I have always been a believer that if your equiptment is clean, raw milk won't hurt you. However I do not know this for a fact, which is why I asked the question. I am very interested in hearing about both sides of the story. A few years ago we raised pigs on raw skim milk from a local farm. When it was left in the sun it bubbled up like cottage cheese (didn't dare try it, though) and that got us thinking about the whole raw yogurt thing. I have tried heating the milk up to "very warm" and adding starter, which gave me the sour taste after a few batches. (The chickens do like it, so I really don't cosider it a waste). I am wondering how yogurt started.....where did the starter come from? (like the chicken/egg)


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## goatsareus (Jun 23, 2007)

Raw milk will not, should not, hurt you. We love raw goats milk, drink raw goats milk every day. What can/will hurt you is incubating raw milk at about 105*F for eight hours. This is not good. Cold raw milk kept cold in the refrigerator, will not hurt you.

The original question dealt with problems arising from incubating raw goats milk. That can get you into trouble.

Has this answered your question?


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## madness (Dec 6, 2006)

mainehomestead said:


> I am wondering how yogurt started.....where did the starter come from? (like the chicken/egg)


Probably just as you imagine - somewhat left their milk out and it got thick and sour. That was used to "start" other batches. Eventually, the bacteria was developed until you mostly got good batches - wasn't that the same way with sourdough?

I'm going to try heating up my raw milk to 180 before making yogurt this weekend. I sure hope it's thicker than it usually is!


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## julieq (Oct 12, 2008)

We use either raw cow or raw goat milk for both yogurt and kefir. We use new powdered yogurt cultures every time and they turn out nice and thick. Unfortunately we've never been able to reculture yogurt from a previous batch. However, with our kefir we reuse starter cultures and have one for our cow milk and one for our goat milk. 

With our yogurt we use a Salton electric yogurt maker and leave it for about 24 hours. The kefir sits on top the refrigerator where it's warm, 24 to 72 hours, depending on the time of year and how warm it is. Hope this helps.


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## goatsareus (Jun 23, 2007)

madness said:


> I'm going to try heating up my raw milk to 180 before making yogurt this weekend. I sure hope it's thicker than it usually is!


I am making yogurt today! I am able to produce thick yogurt, it stands up on a spoon and wanted to share something that I do. I set my yogurt in the morning, and incubate it most of the day. When I take it out of my insulated, non electric yogurt maker, I carefully, very carefully, gently, carry it to the refrigerator and leave it untouched until morning. It seems to be very sensitive to coming loose if it is jarred or disturbed, until it gets completely chilled.

I also start with a dry powder yogurt culture for my first batch of the season, and am able to reculture for the next 10 months.

Julieq, are you saying you use raw milk and the dry culture for your yogurt, and that you can not use some from your previous batch for your next batch? What goes wrong? um, did you read this thread?


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