Originally published on October 4, 2005 in the New York Daily News
Culture clubJoin those yogurt lovers who are making their own
By RACHEL WHARTONIf Americans used to scorn yogurt as hippie food, we're now making up for the snub: We spentnearly $2.8 billion on yogurt in 2003, and sales continue to grow.But if you're one of those plunking down nearly $1 for 8 ounces and even more if it's organic
or artisanal consider Nathan Donahoe's approach: He makes his own.A recent graduate of the city's Natural Gourmet Cookery School, Donahoe discovered thathomemade yogurt is both cheap a quart costs about the same as a quart of milk and easy.
Yogurt is simply curdled milk, says Donahoe. It's fermented and thickened by bacteria that helpit last longer than milk. Back before refrigeration, nearly 4,000 years ago, he says, tribes inCentral Asia made yogurt to preserve their milk, storing it in animal skins or clay jars.
Bacteria are key
"The combination of hot climate and friendly bacteria present in the jars and bags," he says,"were the perfect conditions for the yogurt to form."Requiring just a pot, a thermometer and a bowl, making yogurt today is nearly as effortless, saysSabrina Sexton, a chef-instructor at the Institute of Culinary Education who specializes in cheeseand often makes yogurt at home.You heat up any animal's milk to the temperature where bacteria reproduce, says Sexton, add a bit of fresh yogurt with "live active cultures" (Lactobacillus bulgaricus, Streptococcusthermophilus and other unharmful bacteria that some scientists say aid our digestive and immunesystems) and keep the mixture warm while the bacteria go to work.This can be six hours in a yogurt machine, or 24 in a warm place. The longer you incubate your yogurt, as this process is called, the tarter your yogurt will be.Either way, Sexton and Donahoe agree, the results are usually better than the yogurt you buy in astore, which can come with sugars, stabilizers and preservatives.
A unique tang
And while not as jelled as Americans may be used to, says Donahoe, now a chef at The Canyonspa in California, homemade yogurt is creamier and tangier, with a flavor that's fresher and morecomplex. "It just tastes far superior," he says. For Indian, Middle Eastern and southernMediterranean cooks, of course, the unique tang of homemade yogurt is a hallmark of their cuisines. This lesson is clear to Christos Christou, the chef now working on Ammos, themidtown traditional Greek spot that opens later this month.Using his Cypriot grandmother's recipe and huge, traditional earthenware pots, Christou will be
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