Have you ever noticed that your frequent purchases of Greek yogurt is eating at your wallet? I recently found out why Greek yogurt is so darn expensive when I decided to “make my own”.
Here is Wikepedia’s definition of Greek Yogurt;
Strained yogurt, yogurt cheese, labneh, or Greek yogurt is yogurt which has been strained in a cloth or paper bag or filter to remove the whey, giving a consistency between that of yogurt and cheese, while preserving yogurt’s distinctive sour taste. Like many yogurts, strained yogurt is often made from milk which has been enriched by boiling off some of the water content, or by adding extra butterfat and powdered milk.
I did not start from scratch (I lost interest in making yogurt from scratch after my failed attempt last time). I simply grabbed some some regular vanilla yogurt from my fridge and drained it so the whey would go “awhey”. HA!
I was obviously not prepared for this little experiment, as I didn’t even have cheesecloth. Cheesecloth is used in cheese making for the sole purpose of removing whey from the cheese curds. If you try this at home, I recommend cheesecloth, or you can do what I did and use a steam basket.
After about 4 hours I noticed my once very watery yogurt was nice and creamy.
Most of the liquid whey ended up in the saucepan.
Now I understand why Greek yogurt costs twice as much as regular yogurt; it requires twice as much milk! This container started off completely filled, and this is how much Greek yogurt was left after all the whey was drained.
I wonder what yogurt companies do with the excess liquid? I’m thinking it would be a great idea to sell it to supplement companies so they could turn it into whey powder, right? That brings me to some points about Greek yogurt;
- It probably isn’t the best choice right after a workout, because the protein in Greek yogurt is casein, which is a slowly absorbed protein (Best to eat at night so the protein can slowly feed your muscles throughout the night).
- If you are lactose intolerant you may be able to handle Greek yogurt better than regular yogurt. This is because most of the lactose leaves with the liquid whey.
QUESTION: Have you ever “made your own” Greek yogurt?
