My Winnings in the Half-Billion Dollar Power Ball

[istanbulin]

can you use storebought yogurt for the 2 Tbsp, and start making your own from there?

ive been looking at the possibility of making kefir, but i think you need raw milk (illegal here)

Do not use strobought yogurt for making homemade yogurt, it generally cause a sticky bad yogurt, Try to find a homemade yogurt.
BTW, you can make kefir from storebought pastorized milk, you just need a kefir yeast.

 

[Boboro]

Next thang you cant have a cow. then you need the gov. ment to feed you. Cant buy the milk you want. thats very sad.

 

[ne3go]

Dan, yes it may be strong for the beginners or first time drinkers, I think you tried homemade raki in Adana it's undrinkable for me too because it sometimes contains 60-65% alcohol. I call it Turkish absinthe But raki is not licorice flavored, it's anise flavored distilled beverage with 45-50% alcohol (vol).

Don't know if its the exact same thing, think the anise flavor is in ouzo. Here raki is the distilled product from the remainings of grapes, after the pressing for making wine. Also called "tsipouro" or "tsikoudia". It's mostly a homemade drink with no additives, a heavy one, with sometimes over 60% alcohol!

But the good thing is, that pure raki is the only drink with no hangover next day. You can drink a lot, and wake up absolutelly normal!

 

[Rayshields]

can you use storebought yogurt for the 2 Tbsp, and start making your own from there?

ive been looking at the possibility of making kefir, but i think you need raw milk (illegal here)

I have kefir grains and kefir powder. Both work in pasturized milk or raw milk. Yogurt can be made from most store bought yogurt...successive batches get better using the last batch to innoculate the next batch.

 

[deluxestogie]

Various yogurt culture packets are available on-line. The variety I use is here: http://www.cheesemaking.com/store/p/163-Yogurt-DS-sweet-5-packets.html. There alre also instructions on that page.

I start with a single culture packet to make a half-gallon batch. So long as some yogurt remains from the previous batch, I just use some of the yogurt for the culture of the next batch. The remaining culture packets stay in the freezer, and keep for several years.

But most store yogurts are still active cultures. Each is slightly different. If you want "Activia," then just start your batch with a couple of tablespoons of the store-bought Activia.

The same site, http://www.cheesemaking.com, also offers kefir packets. If you have any interest in making simple cheeses, Ricki Carroll's book, Home Cheese Making, (also on the site) is hard to beat.

Bob

 

[istanbulin]

Don't know if its the exact same thing, think the anise flavor is in ouzo. Here raki is the distilled product from the remainings of grapes, after the pressing for making wine. Also called "tsipouro" or "tsikoudia". It's mostly a homemade drink with no additives, a heavy one, with sometimes over 60% alcohol!

But the good thing is, that pure raki is the only drink with no hangover next day. You can drink a lot, and wake up absolutelly normal!

Real raki has very close relationship with ouzo, anise flavored. I tried two ouzos Plomari and Barbayanni from Lesbos, Plomari is milder but Barbayanni resembles raki.
At the same time in some regions people make homemade raki, this also have anise flavor but very high in alcohol.
I tried Greek raki(tsipouro) in Cyprus, it resembles grappa. Also people in Bulgaria and Albania make this grappa like drink and caled it raki but it's different than our regular (Turkish) raki.
As I said before, If you have chance to try Turkish raki, you may say "hmm, it resembles ouzo"

 

[wazzappenning]

thanks for the yogurt/kefir info. very helpful. the only other thought that occurred to me is that storebought(homemade too i imagine) goes off after a while. putting 2 Tbsp of the previous batch continually doesnt end up giving you some off yogurt?