Yogurt is a natural fermented milk product made from cow's milk without pasteurization with the addition of lactobacilli. Having become relatively recently popular in our country, now yogurt confidently holds the position of one of the most healthy milk products.
The benefits of yogurt
The benefits of this product are difficult to overestimate.
- Due to the fact that yogurt is digested much faster than milk, it can be consumed by children suffering from allergies or with lactose intolerance.
- Lactobacilli contained in yogurt have a beneficial effect on the digestion and microflora of the colon.
- The use of yogurt stimulates the body's production of interferon - a hormone that positively affects immunity.
- It is believed that the use of yogurt reduces the amount of cholesterol in the blood, reducing it. Unfortunately, it has not yet been proven.
Due to the popularity of this sour-milk yummy, a huge number of "fakes" appeared on the market - dairy products that have a similar composition to yogurt: yogurt, sweet curds, etc. There is no harm from them, but most likely there will be no benefit.
If buying sweet yogurt instead of healthy yogurt can still be avoided by studying the composition in the store more carefully, then yogurt without extra additives is sometimes difficult to find. The ideal composition of natural yogurt is as short as possible: milk and sourdough. Manufacturers add a lot of sugar, preservatives, thickeners and so on. Getting the output is no longer yogurt, but a sweet dairy product, which, of course, acquires taste, but significantly loses in favor. Not to mention the presence of preservatives, which are not recommended for children to eat. The conclusion is this: if you want to get natural yogurt with a useful and crystal clear composition, you need to cook it yourself.
On how to cook yogurt at home, read below.
Ingredients and method of preparation:
Cooking yogurt at home is not easy, but very simple. To do this, you will need:
- Milk. With a minimum shelf life and without the addition of milk powder.
- Leaven. A jar of purchased yogurt without additives and sugar is suitable.
Detailed steps for making yogurt at home:
- Milk should be boiled, calculating its volume in this way: per liter of milk - no more than three or four tablespoons of purchased yogurt.
- Wait until the boiled milk cools down (you can check the desired temperature with the little finger dipped in milk. If you hold your finger in this way comfortably for several seconds, you can safely proceed to the next step).
- Add yogurt to warm milk, mixing well, until the ferment is completely dissolved.
- We close the lid with future yogurt and leave it for a day in a warm place. Bacteria will multiply, giving yogurt its unique taste and beneficial properties. Now, how to cook yogurt at home is no secret!
Cooking yogurt in a yogurt maker
For those who have already tried the above method more than once, modern technology offers to cook yogurt at home in a yogurt maker. This unit is very useful for young mothers, because the procedure takes much less time, and the yogurt maker is very convenient and extremely easy to use.
Ingredients and method of preparation:
Before you cook yogurt at home, using your favorite firm's yogurt maker, you should again stock up on milk and sourdough by following steps 1 to 3 of the method described above. Then the cooking method diverges a little: pour the resulting mixture into jars and turn on the yogurt maker. After about 7-10 hours, close the jars with ready-made yogurt with lids (note: only now, not earlier!) And put in the refrigerator. Sweet lovers are recommended at this stage to sweeten the yogurt with sugar or honey, or add pieces of berries, fruits, nuts.
Obviously, there is absolutely nothing complicated in making yogurt at home: the preparation is simple, the ingredients are affordable, it takes a little time. The main plus: the benefit, which is difficult to overestimate and the belief that households will eat a natural product.