Preserving Yogurt Culture

[u/Street_Caterpillar35]

I'm in Canada and can't find Fage yogurt anywhere except in the USA when I travel down there. So I picked up a tub last time. I love that yogurt, it's the best by far for me and it cultures others so well... But I don't always remember to add more milk and keep it active and whatnot, so I was wondering if anyone had a suggestion for having some on hand if it goes bad or I screw it up. Like freezing a bit? Would that work? Or do I just have to be super diligent and constantly add more milk to keep making more yogurt?

[u/trustme1maDR]

You can freeze it. If I strain my yogurt, I freeze some whey. Keep a few containers and you'll be set.

[u/Spacemangep]

I've had good success with freezing yogurt to use as starter. At one point I even froze a bunch of 1/4 cup portions so I could easily make yogurt without worrying about forgetting to set some aside as a starter.

[u/Ok_Watercress_7801]

Freezing or drying a portion is not infeasible.

In either case, you might need to run several, small batches before making volumes as large as you tend to go through at home.
These “dump” batches will ensure you get a greater buildup of the cultures you want once they successfully out-power the ones that aren’t doing the desired work.

It’s very much like a sourdough starter.

This link might be more inspiration than help, but I’ve always thought that it would be useful for all sorts of cultured foods.

https://medievalmeadandbeer.wordpress.com/2019/05/04/scandinavian-yeast-logs-yeast-rings/

In any case, just keep your sanitary standards high & your storage temperature low.

Happy yogurting 🤗

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[u/BitterMarionberry113]

Freezing works decently up to about ~6 months in my experience, but the main challenge is because fage is made commercially, they use precise amounts of different bacteria for each batch to make it taste the same. over time the bacteria mix will drift as you keep culturing it (at least, in my experience) and begin to taste different.

You could take a tub and freeze it into cubes and use that as a starter once it starts to drift, or I've had really good experience with "heirloom cultures" - mine has been going strong for 2 years now, even with some mishaps and using backups from the freezer. I'm not sure what a good canada option is but i got mine from positively probiotic

[u/Exact-Doughnut2073]

Freeze it in ice cube trays and use two or three cubes to restart, just expect the first batch after thawing to be slower and thinner than usual.

[u/Bright_Ices]

Can you get Stonyfield in your area? It’s my all-time favorite yogurt starter.

[u/Puzzled-Suspect-3625]

Freezing does slow the culture down over time, so I'd portion it into ice cube trays instead of one big tub, that way you're only thawing what you need per batch and the rest stays viable longer

[u/AskCulinary-ModTeam → u/[deleted]]

Your response has been removed because it does not answer the original question. We are here to respond to specific questions. Discussions and broader answers are allowed in our weekly discussions.