Bulgarian Yogurt Starter (Makes 8 Gal / 30 L )

The yogurt starter worked terrific with my instant pot. The yogurt has a smooth flavor without tart after tones. Also, it is creamy and an excellent addition to granola, fruit or by itself. I also changed my diet to not have any chemical or artificial additives and by making my own yogurt, I know what is exactly it this product!

I have consistently used this yogurt starter, repeatedly using a portion of the old yogurt to make new batches; it works beautifully, and I really love the flavor. It performed excellently over the more than six months I used it continuously. However, after I was away from home for over two weeks recently, I discovered a faint pinkish hue on the surface of the yogurt stored in the fridge—likely due to unwanted bacteria growing over time—so I am starting a fresh batch this time.

Used this starter and this is the first time my Soy yogurt turned out firm and delicious. I have tried using commercial non dairy yogurt as a base before and it never tasted as smooth and creamy as with this starter. The company was also very responsive when I reached out to them for their free yogurt making book even though I had ordered my starter several months ago. I highly recommend this.

This makes delicious soy yogurt that is thick, creamy, and with a consistency similar to Mexican flan. I found no need for added thickeners using soymilk (which has a higher protein content that most other non-dairy milks.) The company provides recipes for other non-dairy milks which I have not tried. (The recipe booklet was supposed to come with the starter but was missing in my order. I called the company and they promptly sent me the pdf.)Bulgarian yogurt is a thermophilic starter, which means it works better with warm milk. I simply heat the soymilk (I use TJ's organic, unsweetened, unfortified soymilk that contains only soybeans and water), cool it to the proper temperature, mix the powdered starter first in a cup of the warm soymilk, then add it to the rest of the soymilk. I pour it in a yogurt maker, let it incubate for six hours and viola, a thick, tasty non-dairy yogurt with live cultures.I found a yogurt maker for $4 at a thrift store. The company, however, provides instructions for making the yogurt without an electric yogurt maker. It uses a jar, a towel/blanket and an insulated box such as a microwave (not turned on, of course).This is a multi-use heirloom culture which means you can use some of the yogurt to start another batch. So long as you keep up with the yogurt-making so the yogurt you are using as a starter is fresh, you can make endless batches from a tiny amount of the initial culture powder. Store the starter powder in the freezer as a back-up and you won't need to buy more for a very long time. (The stated shelf-life for the package is two years.)When I was researching yogurt starters, I found most of the non-dairy yogurt starters were "direct set" starters meaning you had to use starter culture powder for each new batch of yogurt. This requires continually buying yogurt starter which can get expensive. I bought this Bacillus Bulgaricus yogurt starter seven months ago and have barely made a dent in the amount in the package. Most of the time, I just use some of the previous batch to make a new batch.I heartily recommend this yogurt starter and if I ever need more, I will buy it again.

Noticeably different taste from store bought blends, but tastes good and recycles forever. Suggest using half the starting amount it recommends though as it came out stringy the first time, which is indicative of over-crowding. I usually boil a gallon of milk, put pot in sink with cold water for 10 minutes to cool, drop a frozen 1/2 cup block of the last batch's yogurt in the center, wait another 10 minutes for the extreme cold to finish cooling it down to the right temp while the heat kills the perimeter bacteria, then stir the dissolved interior, throw in oven loosely covered with light on for 8 hours or more, then pour onto 2 commercial size coffee filters over a strainer and let drain in fridge for 6 hours for greek yogurt. If leaving longer then just blend/whisk the whey back in to desired consistency. Makes like 6 cups and a lot of whey for baking.

This is the third time ordering this starter. The yogurt turns out great with a mild, pleasant taste. I keep what is left in the freezer to keep using until it’s gone.

We first bought this after getting an electric yogurt maker. We tried various recipes, but have really been most happy using the Bulgarian Yogurt Starter and half-and-half. It is easy to use and has come out great, consistently. We love the thick creaminess of it. Looking back at it, once we started using this Bulgarian Yogurt Starter, we haven't used any other recipes or starters. We are now coming back to buy it again.

The first batch was a little runny. But every batch since then has been great, smooth, creamy and thick. Each batch tastes slightly unique. But all of them have that wonderful tangy yogurt flavor. It's so good I haven't been tempted to try out the other yogurt culture I bought at the same time. I will never go back to stealing starter yogurt from my wife's store bought yogurt.