Re-Culture Your Yogurt Starter

Traditional Greek Yogurt Starter ()

Tired of spending money on yogurt starter? Re-culture.

Re-culturing your starter just means using it over and over again. Also referred to as serial-cultured and last or prior batch starter, you use a small amount of your last cultured yogurt to self-generate the next batch.

The keys to never buying yogurt starter again are:

Use culture that is intended to be re-cultured.
Take proper care of your starter.
Never allow your re-starter to age more than 7 days - less is best.

Culture that is intended to be re-cultured and comes with instructions is advised. Use and care for your culture as recommended per manufacturer. Commercial non-serial starters usually have a shelf life for 5-6 batches.

Taking proper care of your starter is essential to making it last. As long as it remains a live food, you can use your re-cultured starter indefinitely. This means making yogurt on at least a weekly basis to keep the culture fresh. Its "live" quality will rapidly decline with age.

Other Tips

Use organic milk and/or very fresh milk.
Check your heat to make sure incubation doesn't exceed 100°F/38°C to avoid killing the active, live bacteria.
Once cultured, remove 1-2 tablespoons from your batch and put it in a sealed container in the back of the refrigerator where it will not be exposed to temperature changes caused by the refrigerator being opened.
Label the sealed container six days towards. If unused by that date, discard.