The Yoghurt Mafia

https://www.rnz.co.nz/programmes/in-depth-special-projects/story/2018800662/the-yoghurt-mafia

by casca • 5 years ago

183 79 5 years ago

rnz.co.nz

There’s something really satisfying about making yogurt. I make it a gallon at a time in an instant pot. The family loves it.

gnicholas3• 5 years ago

What was your original culture from, and how often do you start fresh? Do you strain? What do you store a gallon of yogurt in after you make it?

I make 1/2 gallon at a time and strain with a cheesecloth for a couple hours. The output fits into a large round pyrex container.

smnrchrds7• 5 years ago

I second these questions. I use the Greek yogourt from a local dairy shop as starter and the results are amazing, but I have never been able to use my yogourt as starter for the next batch, no matter how fresh it is.

Avshalom• 5 years ago

I've used Tillamook and brown cow as starters and they've been fine for a second batch at least.

I don't strain mine, instead i chuck in like half a cup/gallon of dry milk. It's sort of the bass ackwards method. Then I part it up into quart Tupperware.

nszceta3• 5 years ago

Any one dollar plain yogurt from the supermarket works fine

Keep an eye out for faint orange "oil spills" on the surface or fizziness in the final product. Toss it if you encounter those and start over.

magixx• 5 years ago

I've had a lot of success with plain Kirkland greek yogurt but most should work. I also do 1 gallon at a time and microwave it to get it up to temperature. This takes about 20min from fridge to desired temperature. After fermenting in my instant pot, I pour it into a fine mesh strainer on top of a large food container and put it in the fridge. The container is for the whey to collect in. This turns it into Greek yogurt.

bernawil• 5 years ago

Here's my lazy technique.

Get the biggest thermos flask you have. Get as much milk as it fits.

Get any yogurt. So far literally anything has worked: flavored, with added sugar or even the cheap versions with lots of gelatin.

Heat the milk around until it boils. Add sugar until it's slightly sweet but not too much (this will feed the culture. It won't be sweet after). Let it chill until 40c or slightly above body temperature.

Now mix in the yogurt, you need like 6 teaspoons for a liter milk, but just pour the container you have for good measure.

Pour the mix in the thermos flask and leave for aprox 4 hours, or until the whey separates. After that, the longer you wait the more acidic the yogurt gets.

Now time to strain. I put a sheet of coffee filter paper on the bottom of a pasta colander and another container beneath to collect the liquid. Pour the yogurt there, leave overnight in the fridge and you get thick Greek yogurt.

cfn• 5 years ago

I got a powder culture from Amazon because I am using raw milk and it would just not work with yogurt from the store. There are several different cultures available in 10 or 12 sachets and you might need a new one every 6 months or so. I tried a few different ones and I cannot feel the difference between them.

neonate2• 5 years ago

https://archive.is/WVddI

potatochup4• 5 years ago

Is RNZ not available from outside New Zealand?

neonate2• 5 years ago

No idea. In this case I posted the link for those who, like me, dislike distracting multimedia tricks in what ought to be a straightforwardly scrollable news article.

andylynch• 5 years ago

It is (for non Kiwis here, it’s roughly the local equivalent of the BBC)

dukeofdoom• 5 years ago

Reminds me of the Simpson's episode were the mafia had a racket selling rat milk. There's probably some symbolic double meaning to milking rats, that went over my head. The moment were the back room is revealed with the rats hooked up to milking machines, was gross and funny at the same time.

shahar2k• 5 years ago

Malk

sdwr2• 5 years ago

My bones are so brittle, but i always drink plenty of ... malk?

barbecue_sauce• 5 years ago

Now with Vitamin R.

112358132134553• 5 years ago

Dairy products reminds me of Djokovic who after stopping to eat dairy and gluten products became an exceptional player, without injuries. Or my own experience, for different reasons, switching to locally foraged or produced fruits and feeling better overall, more energized, sleeping better

I wonder if that's the case for everyone, that we can eat dairy products, but it's just not optimal for us

the_af4• 5 years ago

I know nutritionists claim we are not "meant" to consume milk after 1-2 years old, but it's not my life's goal to become an athlete and eating cheese is optimal for me, in the sense it makes me "optimally happy" because good cheese is one of life's pleasures.

pmoriarty• 5 years ago

"good cheese is one of life's pleasures"

Unfortunately animals are usually harmed for this pleasure.

post_below• 5 years ago

The claim is partly based on the fact that the majority of people stop producing lactase (the enzyme needed to digest milk sugar) at an early age.

Well aged cheese has little to no milk sugar, the cultures have eaten all of it. So, problem solved.

nszceta3• 5 years ago

Humans should only consume UHT milk or highly fermented milk products, not normally pasteurized or unpasteurized milk. Milk protein consumption induces postprandial hyperinsulinaemia and shifts the growth hormone/insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) axis to permanently increased IGF-1 serum levels. Insulin/IGF-1 signalling is involved in the regulation of fetal growth, T-cell maturation in the thymus, linear growth, pathogenesis of acne, atherosclerosis, diabetes mellitus, obesity, cancer and neurodegenerative diseases, thus affecting most chronic diseases of Western societies. Of special concern is the possibility that milk intake during pregnancy adversely affects the early fetal programming of the IGF-1 axis which will influence health risks later in life.

sdwr2• 5 years ago

As a yogurt (and occasional milk and cheese) lover, I feel I should be upset at you. The thick, bloated sensation in my gut area points to a kernel of truth in what you're saying though...

Guest42• 5 years ago

I think it’s possible to find high level athletes that take a variety of approaches towards nutrition.

I’ve always found Michael Phelps approach interesting although I wouldn’t recommend it (or a scaled down version of it)

https://olympics.com/en/featured-news/michael-phelps-10000-c...

112358132134553• 5 years ago

Yes, just like Usain Bolt who would eat tens of burgers during Beijing olympics, and they both changed gradually, giving more importance to diet

Phelps eat mostly plant based food nowadays https://www.muscleandfitness.com/athletes-celebrities/interv..., when he was athlete, of course you need much more carbohydrates, so you would eat more

Zababa2• 5 years ago

I wonder if that's the case for everyone, that we can eat dairy products, but it's just not optimal for us

I think it depends a lot on people. Your point about "locally foraged" is good, but you have to take into account your ancestry. For example, I have ancestry in France and Italy, both places that used milk a lot during their history. This gives me better chances than someone with ancestry in Asia or Africa to be lactose tolerant. However in the end it doesn't matter, and the only way to know is to try out yourself and see how you react. For some people, it will improve their health (like how some people improve their health when they stop eating gluten), for others the impact will be negligable or not here at all. Everyone is different.

whynotkeithberg• 5 years ago

This was an extremely entertaining story. Thank you for sharing it... It also makes me want to try and make yogurt. I grew up on a cattle ranch and we always had a milk cow. Yet, we never made yogurt more than a few times. I recently moved back near where I grew up as I got the opportunity for remote work. I have access to tons of fresh milk and fruit, I will definitely have to try this again.

publicola1990• 5 years ago

Only if the article merely reported the thing and had not descended into this narrative building..

They did not even offer a summary in the beginning.

kaishiro• 5 years ago

It's a long form piece - it's not news. And there is a summary:

"Locked up for their part in a drug ring, two inmates swapped manufacturing meth for manufacturing yoghurt.

Eva Corlett finds out how they turned their product into a prison trading commodity so popular that yoghurt culture was smuggled between prisons."

What else are you looking for exactly?

gnat• 5 years ago

The TL;DR is two guys, in prison for making meth, learned how to make yogurt from prison-available ingredients, and it kept them going through the hard times in prison. Now they're out, they don't make yogurt but they are staying straight. It's a character story, not a business lesson with a three bullet-point redux.

And, in fact, paragraph two is the summary you were after:

They don’t know it yet but that moment will change their lives. Not only will they go on to make yoghurt using heat from the radiator pipes running through their cells, they’ll turn yoghurt into a prison trading commodity so popular it will be smuggled between New Zealand jails. Wal and Dylan will become known as The Yoghurt Mafia, and their new obsession will give them a reason to carry on in a relentlessly bleak environment.

I'm not sure where your "if only" came from, but it's unjustified. Back in your can, Oscar!

DenverCode2• 5 years ago

Oh, wow. You and I left that feeling two completely different ways. I loved every aspect about that story and how it was written.

DenverCode2• 5 years ago

Wow, that was an amazing read.

But if there was irony, there was also a metaphor in their switch from meth to yoghurt. Like yoghurt, if the conditions are right, if there is patience and there is care, people can change and a new kind of culture can survive.

bruce_one2• 5 years ago

We have an [Easiyo](https://easiyo.com/collections/frontpage/products/black-yogu...) that cost ~$20AUD, and we use one tablespoon of existing yogurt and ~150grams of milk powder (slightly more than suggested for milk, to make it thicker) to make 1 litre of yogurt at a time. (Just mix those bits; put boiling water in the Easiyo, put the container with the mixture in, wait 12 hours, done - no scolding, no temperature monitoring, super simple :-) )

It's incredibly easy, and now I search for more and more recipes that use yogurt to make different things (eg, flatbreads, cakes, pasta sauces, among lots of other things).

It's super easy and really awesome having yogurt forever available :-)

jbc1• 5 years ago

I'm going to pick one of these up tomorrow and I'm trying to work out how your modification fits in with the instructions on their website:

- Mix EasiYo Yogurt Sachet with room temperature drinking water (15-20°C) in the EasiYo Jar

- Add boiling water to the Yogurt Maker and place jar inside. Leave to set for 8-12 hours

- Refrigerate Yogurt until chilled. Enjoy

Are you cutting the amount of yogurt mix you put in short and adding milk powder? mixing the milk powder with water to create milk and then adding yogurt mix with that?

_frkl• 5 years ago

I was wondering the same, and looked up "hack easiyo", lots of examples of people coming up with their own ways to use the system, without having to purchase the EasiYo printer ink, so to speak.

bruce_one2• 5 years ago

When we first got it, I used one Easiyo sachet to make one container of yogurt. From then on, I've used 1 heaped tablespoon of the last batch of yogurt and then just milk powder.

My steps:

- Mix ~500ml tap water with 150g of milk powder (just put the lid on and shake vigorously, I always put the water in first as the mixing is much easier).

- Add 1 heaped tablespoon of existing yogurt (the previous batch, or I've used Chobani successfully (I've heard some commercial yogurts work and some don't)).

- Fill (leave 5mm gap at the top) the container with tap water.

- Shake again to mix (less vigorously).

- Add boiling water to maker.

- Put jar in.

- Generally I try to wait 12 hours, sometimes up to 18 when I'm not home.

- Refrigerate and enjoy :-)

I enjoy the yogurt straight, but I wouldn't expect everyone to (it may not be sweet enough) - my wife adds honey or jam and fruit when serving.

(I now actually freeze one tablespoon of yogurt as soon as a batch is done, and use it for the next batch after thawing in the fridge (overnight).)

aussieguy1234• 5 years ago

I'd buy their yogurt, if they turned it into a business

brigandish2• 5 years ago

500ml UHT + 1 tbsp of yoghurt + mid 20's (celcius) temp + 24-48 hours == 500ml of yoghurt.

I'd say it's as easy as pie but pie is far more of a challenge.

stephanreynolds• 5 years ago

Good article but I like Turkish yoghurt

The Yoghurt Mafia

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