freezing whey and yogurt

[GardenWeasel]

I imagine you can freeze them but would the yogurt still have cultures when thawed to make more yogurt from? Same question on whey. Could you still ferment pickles and kraut? The only store that carries yogurt with live cultures is about 30 miles away so I bought 2. Well now my harvest season is nearly over but I am hoping to get some cabbage late, I drained the whey from the extra and hope I can find a way to keep it going and be able to make my own yogurt. Any ideas?

 

[Mickey328]

I'm not sure, but I suspect freezing would kill the culture. I make my own yogurt and since it keeps so long, I just keep using the same strain. I started out with a small carton of live culture I bought. I just use a tablespoon in a quart of milk. When that jar is getting near the end, I use a T of it to make another. When I did my last batch, I had nearly a gallon of raw milk that was "on the edge" so I had to make 3 quarts. That was a month or so ago, and there's about half a jar left. It's stronger than I like but it's still good and the chickens love it. I'll have to get another quart "cooking" here in the next few days.

 

[DeniseCharleson]

Cultures somewhat diminished after 17 weeks at -29C but still robust:
http://stuff.mit.edu/afs/athena.mit...earch_papers/probiotic.bacteria.ice.cream.pdf

 

[ORChick]

I routinely make an extra quart of yogurt so that I can make "ice cubes" from the extra. I thaw one or two of these cubes while I am heating and cooling the milk for yogurt, and mix it in as the starter when the milk is cool enough. I do this for about 6 months, and then make another extra quart, and start again. It works well for me, though I find it loses potency after about 6 months, which is why I start anew. The frozen yogurt is also still good to eat, though maybe a bit runny (which I don't mind). As to whey, I also freeze "ice cubes", and pull them out when I make pickles (in fact I added some to radish pickles just this afternoon). I'm not sure if I read this somewhere, or just decided to try it, but it seems to work. I also remember reading in "Nourishing Traditions" that whey, kept in a jar in the 'fridge, is good for about 6 months - but I don't have enough room in the 'fridge so I freeze it.

 

[moolie]

Ditto, I freeze extra yogurt all the time so I have culture for new batches, especially as my kids often empty the jar rather than remembering to save some. Whey isn't actually required, or traditional, in making kraut or pickles so I've never used it that way. When I do occasionally have some, I use it in baking and use it all up at once so have never had to save it.

 

[GardenWeasel]

Thanks so much everyone. I will freeze some cubes of each. I hope the yogurt still has some culture after draining the whey? The kimchee recipe from Nourishing Traditions is to die for and I try to make sure my truck driving husband has some whey fermented pickled anything every week in his fridge. It will be close to hard freeze this weekend so need to cover the cabbage, broc and collards. I hope they make it cause I wasn't thinking to start them in late July. Moolie, I use the whey to pickle cause it adds a lovely flavor and it kick starts it so a pickle is ready to refrigerate after only 3 days of room temp fermenting. It is 4 TBS whey and 1 TBS sea salt to a quart of pickled anything. My fridge is full to bursting with whey pickles, especially the bumper crop of jalapenos we got this year.