Dairy & soy
Vege052 and Vege092 starter cultures
2022-05-05
Starter cultures: Vege 053, Vege 092
Substrates: Fresh dairy milk (3% fat), Alpro soy milk (1.8% fat)
Scalding: Heat up milks to approx. 90°C on the stove, leave for a minute, then pour into prepared jars and cool down in a water bath.
Starter culture: Pour a bit of the freeze-dried starter culture (fraction of 1/4 tsp) into 10 mL of water, shake. Use approx. 1.5 mL of that to inoculate each jar.
1st fermentation: 8h, 40°C(in the rice cooker) Vege 053 yogurts are much firmer than 092 ones. For dairy, both are firm, but for soy the 092 is still liquid after 8h. The acidity is quite low in all of them, although dairy 053 is quite pleasant. Soy 053 is very mild and vanilla-y.
Tasting at room temperature Continue fermentation over night in the turned-off rice cooker: 10h, 40°C-RT (=18h in total). All yogurts are firm now, to differing degrees. Stir before tasting.
- Dairy 053: Quite runny. Nice mellow acidity without sticking out too much. No off-flavours. Duncan’s favourite (“Tastes the most like yogurt.”).
- Dairy 092: Also runny, but not as much as 053. In addition, there’s a thick, slimy component to the texture that gives it nice body. Acidity is very mild (milder than 053), no off-flavours sticking out. Silfa’s favourite.
- Soy 053: Quite runny, similar to dairy 053, though a bit more watery (might be also due to the lower fat). Too sour, very strong single acidity that reminds of red currant and tingles on the tongue. Fruity notes, vanilla.
- Soy 092: Quite runny, very similar to soy 053. Missing the body of dairy 092. Strong vanilla note and quite strong acidity. Some undefinable off-notes. Duncan thinks it’s pretty bad tasting.
Tasting cold (after a few days in the fridge)
- Dairy 053: Soft and good body, a bit watery. Just plops off a spoon. Quite acidic and quite clean acidity. No off notes.
- Dairy 092: Thick and gloopy, almost a bit stretchy. Drips off a spoon in a slightly viscous way. Very good almost buttery taste and fine acidity (not overwhelming). Still Silfa’s favourite.
- Soy 053: Bit of syneresis and looks a bit feathered (though gets better again once stirred). Quite runny texture. Very sour and quite a one-note, clean acidity, bit fizzy on the tongue. Clear vanilla note (might be that specific soy milk). Not much body (neither in texture nor in taste). A bit too sour for me to eat/enjoy. Duncan thinks it has similar sourness to fil, but needs more body/thickness.
- Soy 092: Bit of syneresis and looks a bit feathered (though gets better again once stirred). Clear vanilla note (might be that specific soy milk). Quite runny texture, but also a tiny bit viscous. Sour, but also a mild/buttery note. Has more body in flavour than 092, better. Duncan likes this better, mostly because of the vanilla note.
Conclusions
- Find higher fat soy milk?
- Test same cultures with oat milk
- Test different cultures and compare
- Some time in between would probably be good, e.g. 10h at 40°C.
Vege011 and Öresunds fil starter cultures
2022-06-16
Starter cultures: Vege 01, Öresunds fil (Skånemejerier)
Substrates: Fresh dairy milk (3% fat), Alpro soy milk (1.8% fat)
Scalding: Heat up milks to approx. 90°C on the stove, leave for a minute, then pour into prepared jars and cool down in a water bath.
Starter culture:
- Freeze-dried culture: Pour a bit of the freeze-dried starter culture (approx. 1/8 tsp) into 25 mL of water, shake. Use approx. 5 mL of that to inoculate each jar (of about 200 mL).
- Store-bought fil: Take 1/2 Tbsp of fil and stir into each jar (of about 200 mL) = 1/4 Tbsp/100 mL.
1st fermentation: 8h, 40°C (in the rice cooker)
After 3h, the fil-inoculated soy and dairy milks already firmed up and started to get sour, while the Vege011 milks were still liquid and sweet.
After 6h, the fil-inoculated firmed up even more, Vege011 were getting a little bit thicker.
After 8h: fil-inoculated firmed up a lot in both soy and dairy. Vege011 have soft yogurt consistency.
Tasting at room temperature
- Dairy 011: Quite loose structure. Not very sour but nice taste.
- Soy 011: Quite loose structure, looser than dairy 011. Not sour, quite sweet actually and very vanilla-y.
- Dairy fil: Good stable gel-structure and very nice sourness. But not so nice to taste warm.
- Soy fil: Firmness in between Dairy fil and Dairy 011. Not as sour as dairy fil but pleasant. Very vanilla-y.
Tasting cold (after a day in the fridge)
- Dairy 011: Smells very animaly/milky. Has firmed up a lot and holds shape on spoon. Mellow acidity, bit funky. Very pleasant. Slight cheesiness maybe. Great texture, almost like stirred yogurt from the start. Much denser than the soy yogurts. When stirred it becomes very homogenous and smooth, with a bit of a gloopy, viscous texture that slowly drips off a spoon. Duncan: texture is better, but taste is not much better than the soy gurts.
- Soy 011: Smells like vanilla yogurt. Wobbly-gelly. Very loose, runny structure. Taste is very nice. Not really sour, but the sweetness of the soy milk has disappeared and it’s quite neutral with a nice vanilla note. When stirred, it’s very runny and looks almost like custard. Curdles a bit. Very refreshing taste. Duncan found it watery, but after adding a bit of salt it tasted much better.
- Dairy fil: Smells a bit lemony. Great taste, very pleasant. Rich taste, mellow acidity, no off flavours. Texture is quite firm, stays on spoon. But when stirred it becomes nicely soft and smooth, even a bit thinner than dairy 011 and a bit less viscous. Duncan: could still have more acidity, but nice taste.
- Soy fil: Smells less like vanilla and more a bit animaly/milky. A bit more sour than soy 011, but also not very strong. Very nice acidity level actually. Vanilla aroma is not overwhelming, but present. Texture is like a loose gel. When stirred, it gets almost gloopy. More homogeneous texture than soy 011, very smooth. Clean taste. Duncan thinks it should be more acidic.
Conclusions
- Dairy 011 and dairy fil are quite similar in taste, texture and acidity level. Dairy 011 is a bit more mouth-filling and viscous, maybe some bacteria that make exopolysaccharides?
- Soy011 is too loose and thin. Try fermenting longer?
- Soy fil worked really well, but could also benefit from a bit longer fermentation.
- The vanilla taste in the soy milk is a bit much, try to find another plant milk to test.
- Salt improves taste of soy yogurts.
Oat
_2022-05-06
Starter cultures: Vege 053, Vege 092
Substrates: Oatly chilled mellan (1.5% fat)
Scalding: Heat up milk to approx. 90°C on the stove, leave for a minute, then pour into prepared jars and cool down in a water bath.
Starter culture: Pour a bit of the freeze-dried starter culture (fraction of 1/4 tsp) into 10 mL of water, shake. Use approx. 1.5 mL of that to inoculate each jar.
1st fermentation: 8h, 40°C (in the rice cooker)
Not very thick texture, so leave for a few more hours. After that it got semi-thick and pleasantly sour, but not great.
Try again with some starch addition.
Pea
_2022-05
Starter cultures: Vege 053, Vege 092
Substrates: Sproud pea drink
Scalding: Heat up to approx. 90°C on the stove, leave for a minute, then pour into prepared jars and cool down in a water bath.
Starter culture: Pour a bit of the freeze-dried starter culture (fraction of 1/4 tsp) into 10 mL of water, shake. Use approx. 1.5 mL of that to inoculate each jar.
1st fermentation: 8h, 40°C (in the rice cooker)
No thickening at all. Leave for another 8h at 40°C. Still no thickening at all. Slightly sour taste, but not very pleasant.
_Complete failure, not suitable for yogurt making.
Soy
2025-08-17 Try plain soy milk (ICA brand) without scalding. Just pour cold into little buckets, add starter culture, run with yogurt program in rice cooker 40C, 6.5h).
Danisco Vege 038 LYO 500 DCU 1/8 teaspoon each
Result: Ok acidity, but a bit onedimensional. Bit watery. But otherwise fermented well with a bit of texture development. Bit slimey-ropey - EPS development? Good with musli and as overnight oats basis.