Slimy yogurt?

reese.piece

I've been making my own yogurt for months now, and for some reason the last two batches have turned out slimy.  I thought it was because I wasn't paying close enough attention last time and the milk came to a full rolling boil.  So last night I made sure not to boil it, and it still turned out slimy.  I am so disappointed, because I was planning to take it to MOPS tomorrow and I've been telling everyone how easy and yummy homemade yogurt is.  Now I'll have to run out and buy some. 

I switched to 1% milk a while back and have been adding gradually more powdered milk because it was really runny - could adding too much cause it to be slimy?  Because of the weather it's a lot warmer in the house, so could it be staying too warm overnight?  I don't think anything else is different ... Anyone know why this is happening??

mrs.a.butler

did some searching and this is what I found...

"Did you change your culture or source yogurt at all? If not, then maybe the cups need extra sterilization - I'd boil them to make sure they're a "clean slate" for your cultured milk."

 "some commercial manufacturers use some other non-yogurt bacteria to help make it thicker. if you use one of those brands, you end up getting something with the consistency of slime. if you run into that problem, try another brand or just buy a culture so you know what you are getting"

 

reese.piece

Hmm...  I had been using Dannon all-natural and switched to store brand, but I had used it with success before.  Maybe the pot wasn't clean enough???

mrs.a.butler

i would say either the pot wasn't clean enough, the containers weren't clean enough, or the store brand starting using something different.  I would try going back to dannon and sterilizing everything to see if it makes a difference

smurfetteinred

Have you tried just using your homemade yogurt as your starter? I haven't made any in awhile but when I was making it regularly, I used Stonyfield as a starter and then just reserved a little of my homemade stuff every batch to start the new batch. Obviously you'll have to get a good batch again before you can do that but you might try that in the future. If I were you I'd switch back to Dannon and see if it helps. I also always did a quick boil of my instruments before I got started.