The Great Yogurt Experiment after One Week.
Just a quick update on The Great Yogurt Experiment.
We have tasted the one week old yogurt. It was absolutely fascinating! Every jar tasted a little different. To remind you the jars were
- Mason Jar
- Fido Jar
- Pickl-it Jar that I left the air lock in
- Pickl-it Jar that I replaced the air lock with a plug’r when I moved it to the fridge.
The tasters were me, my children and a friend of mine with a very sensitive palate.
Remember, all of these jars came from the same jar of milk. I mixed my yogurt starter into the milk before pouring portions into each jar for fermenting. I put them into my Excalibur Dehydrator for 24 hours set at 100 before moving them to the fridge.
And the results? (I’m relying on my super sensitive friend and my children for most of this. I can taste that things are more and less sour but that is it).
- Mason Jar- Mild, yogurt flavor, the least sour of them all. No off flavors
- Fido Jar- Cheesy flavor, not preferred
- Pickl-It Jar with air lock -The most sour, also it tasted the most like just yogurt. No off flavors.
- Pickl-it Jar with Plug’r-Tasted over fermented. Almost like it had alcohol in it. Not preferred.
We put them all back into the fridge and will be taste testing in another week again. My experience is that the flavor differences become more distinct over time so I assume that the differences that were tasted this week will be even more noticeable next week. Stay tuned!
Also my friend who is helping taste test is very sensitive to histamines in food. She has been making yogurt in a Fido for her husband and can’t eat it herself since she also has a histamine reaction to it. She is going to try making it in a Pickl-It and see if that fixes that problem. I’ll be reporting her findings on here once she shares them with me. 
So very interesting results indeed. Who knew that subtle differences could make such a big difference in the flavors of ferments. I am assuming that different flavors mean that the components of those foods are also different. More sour I assume means more LAB’s and off flavors mean that undesirable components are present. But of course I am not able to test these things with anything more than my palate and the palates of those that I can rope into tasting them too.
Do you have any questions or observations of your own about my results? Anything you want me to try to do with the yogurt? Let me know in the comments.
To see the conclusion of this experiment go to The Great Yogurt Experiment Conclusion.
Shared at The Liberated Kitchen’s GAPS Friendly Friday #17
12 Comments
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- Fermentation Friday: Sourdough Tips and Tricks | Cooking Traditional Foods - [...] from Loving Our Guts is doing an experiment on the flavors yielded by different yogurt fermentation vessels. Since I …
- GAPS Friendly Friday #18 « The Liberated Kitchen, LLC - [...] in order to figure out if the jar you use really makes a difference in how your yogurt tastes! …
- The Great Yogurt Experiment Conclusion | Loving Our Guts - [...] The Great Yogurt Experiment after 1 Week [...]
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Years ago when I was making yogurt and experimenting with different things I noticed a preference when fermented with just cheesecloth. Wondering if you have tried that?
Hi Rachel,
I have not tried just cheesecloth but I think it would probably result in an even milder yogurt than the mason jar lid kind. Yogurt bacteria prefer an anaerobic environment so they probably wouldn’t do well in an open environment like that. Did you add a lid after it was done?
I started making yogurt in a fido jar a few months ago and use the Excaliber as well. I am very sensitive to histamines and have not noticed anything off or a change in taste in the yogurt. I think it is more firm even. But I want to get the most from my yogurt. Maybe I should try a pickle it jar? Do you remove the chamber, or plug it once the yogurt is done and in the fridge? Would several short jars work best or one big jar? Right now I make 3 pints a week. Thanks Patty!
Hi Betty,
(Yes, I learned that lesson the hard way). You really want the jar to be at least 3/4 full for storage so keep that in mind while selecting a jar size. A 1.5L jar is probably ideal for what you are doing right now if you make your yogurt weekly. Or more smaller jars would be an option so that you only have to open the jar when you are ready to eat the yogurt. 500ml jars (1/2 L) would each fit one pint approximately.
Do you react to histamines in your yogurt? My friend does and finds that using a Fido Jar does not help.
If you will notice I did remove the air lock from one jar and replace it with a plug’r but not from the other one.
You can fit a jar as large as a 2L Pickl-It in the dehydrator with a mini-airlock in it. A 2L jar is a little bit larger than 4 pints. There is no need to leave much head space in yogurt jars since this ferment does not bubble although if you don’t heat your milk first it will expand some so don’t fill them quite to the brim.
Hi Patty!
Wow, what a great experiment and such great results! Thanks so much for doing this and posting about it. I’m definitely going to order some pickl-it jars and make my sour cream and yogurt in them. I’m glad you mentioned the information about the sizes too - i’m the only one eating them (hopefully my husband will start one day!) so i may get the 1.5L or 1.0 liter jars i think. I’ve been getting about 1 gallon of cream and 1 gallon of milk every 2 weeks - i’ve increased it and you know i think i might get a histamine reaction when i eat a good bit of it (congestion, sneezy). Do you keep the air lock on while eating out of the jar? Thanks!
Glad I could help.
So far I am keeping the air lock on the jar while it is in storage. I’m new to this and still thinking through how I want to do it. Ideally I would keep the air lock on it till I eat it. Unless I was going to be eating it up within a day or two that is probably still the best plan. That is where planning your size jar becomes tricky. My dh was in the habit of taking a 2qt jar of yogurt to work and eating it over 3 days there. I’m not wanting him to do that with a pickl-it jar though.
I was really, really hopeful that Fido jars or Pickl-It jars with Plug’rs would taste the same as the jar with an air lock and free me from the dilemma of trying to figure out how long to leave the air lock on etc.
Hi! I’m interested in trying to make yogurt. I have the Excalibur dehydrator and mason jars. Is your recipe/directions posted? I’m always afraid with fermenting, like canning, that I’m going to get bad bacteria, if I don’t know what I’m doing!
Thanks for the post. Interesting test and results.
Jan
Hi Jan,
Yes I do have my instructions but from now on I will be using a pickl-it jar to make yogurt, not a mason jar. I want to keep as much good stuff alive as I can! My instructions can be found here. http://www.lovingourguts.com/gaps-basics-how-to-make-gaps-yogurt/
Patty, I’m wondering if you have looked into making your own pickle-it like Wardeh shows here: http://gnowfglins.com/2010/07/16/diy-airlock-fruit-and-veggie-ferments/#
and another one here: http://www.nwedible.com/2012/07/how-to-turn-a-mason-jar-into-a-fermenting-crock.html#comment-13630
Is there even an advantage to buying those expensive jars? Thanks.Erin
I have seen that sort of air lock. I have also seen veggies in jars under that sort of an air lock that are turning quite brown. If the veggies turn brown they are having contact with oxygen and the jar is not anaerobic.
Unfortunately that sort is not air tight and while possibly better than an open jar they fall far short of their promise. Canning lids are not designed to be air tight unless you have processed them for canning. The thin rubbery strip around the top will seal a jar when there is strong inward pressure like there is if you have canned with it but they will not work if the pressure is equal on either side (like if there is an air lock) or if it is pushing out (like if you simply put a lid tightly on a mason jar of fermented food.)
My family has found a big difference in Pickl-It jars vs using mason jars (yes I did try the trick with a baggie filled with water on top of the ferment. All I can say is YUCK!) If you decide to purchase a Pickl-It jar I will not make any money from that sale. I could endorse and promote lids similar to the one in that post that you linked and make money from their sale but since they don’t work I won’t do that.
Patty- were these made with raw milk?
Yes I always keep my milk raw when making yogurt.