Customer Reviews

Yogourmet Casei Bifidus Acidophilus Probiotic Yogurt Starter, 1 Ounce, 6-Count Boxes (Pack of 2)

5 star:		(30)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Yogurt made with this starter and organic whole milk is simply the best I have ever tasted. It does not have the thin, sour taste that most of the single-culture starters produce. The taste is instead smooth and full-bodied. It is also thicker than most when a little dry milk is added. The process takes a bit longer, since the milk must be heated to 180 degrees, then cooled to 75. The cooling requires an ice-water bath, or the temperature would never get that low in our kitchen. After 12 hours in the Yogourmet Multi, which starts at room temperature and very gradually increases to 112 degrees, the yogurt is perfect every time. It is so good that it makes a good dessert all by itself, and is even better mixed with fruit. Combined with mayonnaise, it makes a fine potato or carrot-raisin salad. Smoothies are really smooth. Give it a try in your favorite recipe. You will love it!

We eat yogurt regularly and I have found the yogourmet brand to be very reliable,resulting in a good food product. This particular item has additional probiotics so I got some of this to add to the regulart yogurt starter from yogourmet. I used one packet of this, one packet of the regular as well as one packet of another brand that I bought on Amazon (some little green packets) and made up a new batch of yogurt. I used a little over two quarts of fresh farm milk, added a packet of each of the above mentioned starters, along with a little powdered milk to make a little thicker product (this is optional) and the resulting yogurt was so delicious and a good consistency! I take out a sample and put it in the freezer and use it for the next batch. This way I don't use up my packets of starter very fast. They keep indefinitely in the freezer. The only time I use a new packet from the box is if for some reason my starter that I take out of each new batch starts to develop an off flavor from some stray bacteria that got in. This rarely happens as long as I keep my sample in the freezer. What a delicious, healthy food. It's so good for you.

This starter makes delicious yogurt. I like to use it with whole milk. You must first heat the milk up to at least 180 degrees and then cool it to 73-77 degrees. As the previous reviewer stated, you must use an icewater bath to cool the milk down. This works wonderfully. I let my yogurt incubate 15 hours and it is extremely thick and delicious! It has a bit of a tart taste, which is very yummy. I alternate using this yogurt with the Yogourmet freeze-dried yogurt for variety. I eat yogurt every single day and have been using Yogourmet starters for a couple of years now. I won't use any other brand as I've tried several and the ones from Yogourmet are the best.

Bought this along with the Yogourmet yogurt maker. (In retrospect, I probably didn't need to buy it separately because there was a package deal that included it). The starter makes amazing yogurt, but it seems like it takes a long time to get going when starting with the starter, rather than saving yogurt and using that as a starter. So, I'd recommend using this to start the culture, but then using yogurt from then on. The probiotic blend does take longer and you have to start at a lower temperature, but the flavor is great and the health benefits are even better. Oh, yeah, it's important to note that for 2 quarts of yogurt, you have to use 2 packets--something that isn't really mentioned, but each packet is only 5 grams.

I love this product and have been using it for many years now. It makes a perfect yogurt every time. I use the Yogourmet incubator too - a gift from my mother when I got married 12 years ago. The gift that keeps on giving is always the best! I have tried all of the Yogourmet freeze dried starters with fantastic success. The Yogourmet Casei Bifidus Acidophilus Probiotic Yogurt Starter, is my favorite, found here on Amazon for a GREAT price. I give this company a 100% positive review. I have never had problems with any of their culture products or with the Yogourmet incubator machine.

I use 2 quarts of milk with the recommended 10 grams of Yogourmet starter. I have found for myself, that the key to making great yogurt is to heat the milk to 185 degrees and continue cooking it at this temperature for 10 minutes. Cooking at this temperature kills any harmful bacteria in the milk that remains even after pasteurization. It also breaks down the proteins in the milk insuring a great yogurt SET. Apparently, the proteins are easier for your body to digest in this broken down state as well. Cool the 2 quarts of milk to 112 degrees, add starter, (10 grams freeze dried starter or 1/2 cup leftover yogurt from original batch) 1 1/2 cups optional powdered milk, up to 1 cup optional sugar and up to 1 tablespoon optional flavoring extracts. Incubate until desired tartness is reached. My kids prefer the maximum sugar so the yogurt tastes more like store bought. Although with this much sugar, the milk takes longer to turn into yogurt - up to 24 hours. Try using honey extract, vanilla extract, raspberry extract, etc.

I used two of the 5 gram pouches for a gallon of milk (one sleeve for a total of 10 grams). I do not have a yogurt maker and used a stainless steel pot on the stove. After the heating process, I put the cultured milk in my oven to incubate over about 8 hours (longer than suggested). Periodically, I'd turn the oven on for a minute or so to get the mixture about 100 degrees F, but I bet the temperature fluxuated quite a bit.

I then strained the yogurt through cheesecloth for a few hours (while sitting at room temperature). The yogurt is far tastier and smoother than Fage brand Greek-style yogurt. It's about the consistency of very thick mayonaise or sour cream. I doubt I will ever eat mayo or sour cream again.

The starter is very forgiving. Now that I have cultured yogurt, I'll probably use the mother instead of the starter.

If you are interested in instructions or a recipe, although I did not follow this book exactly, it's a great reference:

Wild Fermentation: The Flavor, Nutrition, and Craft of Live-Culture Foods

Like others have mentioned, yogurt made with this is much tastier than store bought.

Be sure to use the right temperatures - heat to 180 degrees, the cool to 113 degrees
to add the starter. The high temperature changes the protein in the milk so the yogurt
sets better, just like when making custard from scratch.

I use a yogoutmet model T yogurt maker, which is cool. and run it for 10 hours. This
converts most of the sugar, making the resulting yogurt nice and sour, the way I like it.
At this point you can use it in place of sour cream, and it will also stay intact better at
higher temperatures. If you thicken it bit more, by removing some of the whey, you
will have the thickness of Greek-style yogurt. You can also thicken it more to use in
place of cream cheese.

Pretty good deal for the money, culture works fine. I wanted the Casei strain, because of research I read, so this is a good way to get it.

In one of the reviews of the Yogourmet incubator someone wished for a yogurt maker that was more like a toaster. They wanted to put the milk in and take yogurt out. This can almost be done with the Yogourmet Machine and the CBA culture. Here's how. Purchase two quart boxes of Organic Valley Whole shelf stable milk. You find these not in the Dairy case but out on store shelves. Then purchase a package of Organic Valley Non-Fat dry milk. Are you good with this so far? The only tricky part is warming the shelf stable boxed milk up to 77°. I took a big cooking pot and put it in the sink and set the two closed boxes of milk in the pan and filled it with 80° tap water. Around a half hour later the milk was the right temperature. I ran some scalding water into my Yogourmet batch container for a mini-sanitize and to warm it slightly. Then I added the two boxes of shelf stable milk. Into this I mixed around 3 ounces of powdered milk using a hand mixer. Verify that your milk is the correct temperature and put 4 ounces of the milk into a cup and mix in the two packages of the CBA starter. Now pour and stir this back into the batch container and put the container in the Yogourmet incubator and add sufficient 77° water around the batch container and plug in the unit. In 12 hours you will have your yogurt the easy way. No heating, no cooling just making Yogurt the easy "like toast" way.

I have been making yogurt using the Yogourmet machine and this CBA starter since 2003. It was very easy to make successful yogurt consistently so I never switched to any other products. It is good for both non-fat and whole fat milk - although personally I prefer whole fat since it tastes original. I use 1/2 to 2/3 of a small bag for each 1/2 gallon container of yogurt. It always comes out right after 11 hours of "cooking" time. I will definitely recommend this product.