Chalav Yisrael Organic milk and yogurt: does it exist?

seeker

Thu, Jun 25 2015, 7:22 am

Not trying to lower your standards or anything, but please realize that many highly respectable halachic authorities hold that plain kosher is just as good as cholov yisrael (which is why there is a hechsher on it at all, pretty much.) So don't waste too much guilt on this, if you are going to go ahead and do it anyway. Certainly if your children's health is at stake you have very good reason to use it. Yogurt is extremely healthy (make sure to buy the probiotic kind) and the sugar and food coloring is most definitely not.

WriterMom

Fri, Jun 26 2015, 11:43 am

Just a co-sign on the homemade yogurt not being hard (providing you can get a culture starter with a hechsher you find acceptable.) I make it without any special equipment. Here's what you do: find a recipe that suits the kind of starter you have and the end product you want. The starter will likely come with some numbers, and you can Google to find what you're interested in because there are different schools about how sour it is and the time and temperature. But you need two numbers: the temperature and time.

Then I use a cooking thermometer, a cooler, and glass jars, although you could use any container, but I prefer not to heat anything in plastic. So you heat the milk, cool it to the desired temperature, and add the starter. Then you put it in a water bath inside the cooler, fill the cooler enough to keep the sides warm with warm water, and close the cooler. Check every hour or so to make sure you're in the right temperature range, and add hot water as needed to keep the temperature where you want it.

That's it! I takes me usually 6-8 hours, so you need to be around the kitchen for most of the day, but it takes 1.5 minutes per hour, so as long as you'll be home anyway it doesn't interfere with childcare, other cooking, working from home etc. Good luck!