Much Cheaper and Easier Yogurt Starter

A little while after I finished the post on making yogurt, I stumbled across another little gem, but it took awhile for me to get to the store to be able to try it out.
So some people were posting somewhere that probiotic capsules could be used as a yogurt starter.  If that were really the case, that would be huge.  The freeze-dried yogurt starters run about a dollar to two each.  That's kind of a chunk of change, but not so bad in the long term if you make yogurt regularly and always save some to start the next batch.  But it you don't?  If you forgot, or if you can't go through a batch quickly enough?  If one of the kids ate it?  Yeah, it can get a little pricey.

I figured it would be worth giving this idea a try, especially since it could wind up saving a lot of money.

As luck would have it, when I finally made it out to go grocery shopping (we've been down to one vehicle for the past couple of months, so getting out for shopping has been a little difficult), I happened upon a discounted bottle of probiotic capsules, normally $12.49, discounted to $6.29.  Nice.  The label states that each capsule contains 14 billion bacteria from eight species:  Lactobacillus acidophilus, Bifidobacterium lactis, Lactobacillus plantarum, Lactobacillus salivarius, Bifidobacterium bifidum, Bifidobacterium longum, Lactobacillus rhamnosus, and Lactobacillus casei. The bottle contains sixty capsules and I used one capsule to make a two-quart batch of yogurt, making my cost for this starter a little over ten cents.

What I had read suggested using capsules containing two to three billion bacteria, so fourteen billion would have been a little over the top.  But it was on sale....

Anyway, so instead of having to find my starter yogurt in the fridge and then mixing it with a little of the milk to start a new batch of yogurt, I just had to wait for the milk to reach the right temperature and then sprinkle the probiotic capsule contents (don't just throw the capsule into the yogurt) over the milk and whisk it in.

I really wasn't sure this was going to work.  After all, I've tried quite a few things that have not worked.

Fortunately, this is not one of them!

I actually made two different batches of yogurt that day so that I could do a side-by-side comparison.  I followed the same directions for making both batches, but for the first batch I used some starter that I had set aside from the previous batch, and for the second batch I used the probiotic capsule.

Not only did the probiotic capsule make yogurt, it made it very well!  The yogurt set up much firmer but was still creamy and thick without being stiff.  And it's much cheaper and easier.  Awesome!

In the future, I will probably try using half a capsule per batch, or I may buy probiotic capsules that contain even more bacteria, and then use only a portion of those.  Next time you make yogurt, be sure to give probiotic capsules a try. 

Links to related posts:
Dry Milk
Making Thick, Creamy Yogurt
Frozen Yogurt from Food Storage 

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