live bacteria in yoghurt

[yonitabonita]

Hi folks,

I want to make my own yoghurt and need a starter yoghurt with live cultures in it. Any idea how I can go about explaining this in Chinese?

Or better still, anyone know what brand of yoghurt might be suitable?

thanks for any responses,

Y

[Lu]

I never made yoghurt myself, but a friend told me it's really easy: put... ehm, I think milk, in a thermos flask (the kind that you find in any Chinese hotel), add a bit of yoghurt (from what I remember this friend telling me any kind would do), and leave for some time. Turns automatically into yoghurt. When you've finished that yoghurt, don't clean the flask, just put [i think milk] in it again, this time there's no need to add yoghurt. Good luck!

[yonitabonita]

Whoops, written in a hurry and my question wasn't clear.

What I meant to ask is how to find yoghurt with live cultures in it. How would it read on a Chinese yoghurt packet label? I can't find "live culture" in my dictionaries, can anyone give me a pointer on where to start?

Thanks folks,

Yonita

[chenpv]

More things:

1. Make sure the vessels are sterilized thoroughly before you use them. And during the whole process, sneezes, exhales from mouth, rubbing hairs etc stuff are strictly prohibited. Also don't taste the milk before you pour it into vessel for fermentation.

2. The milk should be defatted, since fat inhibits the propagation of that bacteria.

3. Seal the cover while fermentation.

4. The bacteria work best at 25-30 degrees centigrade.

Hehe, it reminds me of the yogurt we made in our microbiolgy experiment class. After devouring 5 glasses of product we manufactured, I actually suffered from a slight diarrhea.

[roddy]

Here's one example. Keyword is 活菌

[chenpv]

What I meant to ask is how to find yoghurt with live cultures in it.

If you are in Beijing, try this one:

http://photo.hexun.com/p/2005/0912/3427/b_4D6E03ABEBCB8CFB.jpg

[yonitabonita]

Thanks guys.

While we're on the topic, any of you know if milk in China is generally pasteurised and /or homogenised? (or maybe this should be the subject of a seperate thread)..

Y

[flameproof]

They sell yogurt maker and cultures in BJ:

www.rikon-cn.com

[yonitabonita]

Thanks for the info folks. Study distraction project here I come.

[smalltownfart]

Yonita:

I used to make a lot of homemade yogurt when I was still a student.

Some points from my experience -

- It's a good idea to heat/pasteurize the milk yourself. I heat it up just until it looks like it is fairly close to boiling point.. (This shd be 185 F, get a thermometer to be on the safe side)

- Let it cool down to a warmish temperature before introducing the culture!

- I used to place my containers on top of the fridge, the slight warmth worked well for me.