Need Quick Help ~ Yogurt & Kombucha

[Dace]

Do I have to sterilize the containers if I am making yogurt and kombucha? One recipe said to sterilize and another just said wash.

My yogurt jars I can sterilize if I have to but the container I got for my kombucha, I do not think can take the heat...it will break

 

[FarmerDenise]

I can tell you that I wash the jars for yogurt, I think that's sterile enough. If I happen to put them in the dishwashe, they get sterilized, but I don't go out of my way to do so.
I don't know about kombucha.

 

[big brown horse]

Dace thanks for asking these questions. I am on the same page as you in this fermentation etc process...page one! Actually you are probably way ahead of me!

 

[freemotion]

You are taking a risk of bad beasties if you don't sterilize. That being said, I don't sterilize! I run everything through the dishwasher, and if dh did it, I rinse, because he loves the Cascade in the dishwasher. If I run the dishwasher, I use homemade stuff, so I don't rinse it again.

The only thing I sterilize is the filter I use for my milking, and I just pour a mild bleach solution, the same solution I use for my udder wash and teat dip (1.5 tsp Clorox in 1 c warm water with one drop of dish soap) and then I rinse it well. Remember that anything that will kill bad beasties will also kill good beasties.

I used to pasteurize my milk for yogurt, too, worried about incubating the bad with the good. I've since calmed down a LOT and will make yogurt and cheese "right from the goat."

I give everything the sniff test, this tells you what is growing for the most part. I don't give my raw stuff to fragile people, though, because my body can fight stuff that a fragile person's may not. I don't want to be responsible for anything.....My own family members are the exception, because they can make their own informed choice.

 

[Dace]

OK, then a good scrub-a-dub-dub is sufficient for me!