Got Milk? How to Make Yogurt

Posted by thanhlt

July 7, 2010

This
is the VOA Special English Development Report.

Yogurt
is a healthy food that can be made at home. One way to make it is to first buy
some yogurt from a store or purchase dry yogurt culture. Add two small
spoonfuls of the yogurt to two cups of milk. This will be the starter for your
own yogurt. A cup in the United States is two hundred forty milliliters.

A Tibetan woman tries some yogurt during a yogurt festival in Lhasa

When making yogurt, it is very important to have clean
equipment, clean hands and good temperature control.

Pour
eight cups of milk into a large cooking pot. Heat the milk to eighty-five
degrees Celsius. Then cool the milk quickly to forty-three degrees. To do this,
you can put the cooking pot in cool water.

Keep
the yogurt at forty-three degrees and add one-half cup of the starter. The
remaining starter can be kept for later use. If you want a thicker yogurt, you
can also add one-third of a cup of dry milk.

Cover
the pot and keep it at a temperature of forty to forty-five degrees Celsius for
four to six hours. After that, your homemade yogurt is ready. It can be left at
room temperature for up to twelve hours if you like a stronger taste.

You
can add fruit, nuts, honey or spices.

Yogurt
can be made with milk from cows or other animals including goats, sheep, water
buffalo and camels. It can be spelled y-o-g-u-r-t or y-o-g-h-u-r-t. More information on yogurt making can be found at
Web sites such as practicalanswers.org.

Now,
from yogurt, we move on to another ancient and related food — cheese.

Parmigiano-Reggiano
is the king of Italy’s cheeses. People worldwide use it on pasta and other
foods. The traditional Italian cheese is produced on several hundred farms
around the northern city of Parma.

Cheese makers age it for at least
twelve months in large rounds called wheels.

Parmigiano-Reggiano

Parmigiano-Reggiano producers say
now they are struggling with the financial crisis. Sales of the cheese and a
lower-priced version, Grana Padano, are down in Italy. Prices for producers
have dropped. And low-priced copies are on the market.

Now
comes a rescue plan for the industry. Italy’s government has made available
enough money to buy two hundred thousand wheels of Parmigiano-Reggiano.
Charitable organizations then will give the cheese — more than sixty million
dollars’ worth — to poor people.

And
that’s the VOA Special English Development Report, written by Karen Leggett
with additional reporting by Sabina Castelfranco in Parma.