yogurt culture

[alise]

This may be a strange question but...
Is it possible to use probiotic capsules as a starter for my yogurt? If so, how much would I use?

I've been making yogurt for a long time & this is somewhat of an experiment. Just wondering if anyone else has tried this.

Thanks.

[Christopher Weeks]

http://www.wildfermentation.com/forum/search.php?st=0&sk=t&sd=d&sr=posts&keywords=yogurt+from+probiotic+capsule

[alise]

Thank you.

[Christopher Weeks]

I don't have any personal experience with it, but I knew I'd read of some other folks doing that!

[Gutted]

This is how I do my yoghurt rather than relying on some questionable sourced supermarket yoghurt.

You will have to use far more than you might imagine, the whole capsule will take quite a long time to reach completion in my experience, typically around 16 hours for the typical 5 billion CFU probiotic capsule. It shows just how much stronger a well produced and cultured yoghurt is in comparison to most probiotic capsules. Do not let questionable claims about capsules being stronger, which some probiotic manufacturers claim, mislead you. A well produced yoghurt cultured to a fairly firm and set consistency will be considerably stronger than a probiotic capsule.
You have probably already found this out for yourself by now based upon the time to completion of your starters.

Doing it this way means you can be fairly certain of the bacteria and strains used in the yoghurt which might be especially useful to you as avoiding certain strains of bacteria can be beneficial if you have certain medical conditions. Some bacteria can lower LDL cholesterol and raise HDL improving this important ratio. Bacteria can also alter the satiety hormone, Leptin and thereby reduce hunger pangs, cravings and body weight.

I have made some made from 3 bacteria cultures which do not produce lactic acid which means that they are beneficial to oral health as it is the lactic acid that many bacteria produce which can damage and rot teeth.They also produce hydrogen peroxide which can whiten the teeth and help destroy other competing harmful oral bacteria. Those I got from some tiny mints called probiotic smile. Another benefit is that they don't tend to go over fermented as many bacteria do, producing the clear lactic acid curds on the surface if left too long. I forgot about a batch the other night and when I awoke they were completed and nice and set firm with no curds at all.

Some might not culture well in aerobic conditions. You can culture yeasts as well, I have cultured Saccharomyces Boulardii yoghurt very successfully but that does tend to produce lactic acid if fermented too long. It is far more fussy about conditions and having food.

You could try adding other things to the milk such as coconut sugar, bee pollen, wheat grass powder, barley grass powder, FOS, nutritional yeast etc. I had an idea to use Goji berries as the medium in order to get rid of some of the carbohydrates as they are very high carb.