MILK FERMENTATION

MY QUESTION AND HYPOTHISIS

• My question is: What milk ferments fastest and what milk tastes better after fermentation and inoculation?
• If we heat milk to 100°F and inoculate it with bacteria the whole milk will ferment faster and will taste closest to yogurt..

RESAERCH

• According to an anonymous food scientist milk will ferment faster if it has more fat
• Naturally I'm left to assume that the whole milk will ferment faster and will taste closer to the yogurt

PROCEDURE

• I will heat all the milk to 68°F
• I will then inoculate all milk with bacteria
• I will then set the milk in water to maintain temperature
• I will check the milk every hour
• After all the milk is fermented I will do a straw ribbon test

PROCEDURE PART 2

• I will then drain the whey out of the milk one at a time
• I will record the amount of curd and whey
• I will taste the yogurt and compare its taste to the yogurt that I inoculated the milk with

MATERIALS

• Four table spoons of active cultures
• 1 cup of 1% milk
• 1 cup of 2% milk
• 1 cup of skim milk
• 1 cup of whole milk

AFTER ONE HOUR

• 1% milk air space at 11cm
• 2% milk at 10 cm
• Skim at 9.5
• Whole at 10.5

AFTER 2 HOURS

• 1% at 11cm
• 2% at 10.5cm
• Skim at 11
• Whole at 11.5

AFTER 6 HOURS

• 1% at 11.5
• 2% at 10.5
• Skim 11.5
• Whole 11.5

AFTER SEVEN HOURS

• 1% 12
• 2% 11.5
• Skim 11.5
• Whole 12

AFTER EIGHT HOURS

• 1% 13
• 2% 13
• Skim 12
• Whole is at 12

1% YEILD

2% YEILD

SKIM YEILD

WHOLE YEILD

RESULTS

• Whole milk won at fermentation
• The closest tasting yogurt to the real deal was from 2%
• The most curd yield belonged to 1% and skim
• The overall result is a 3 way tie between 1%, skim, and whole

IN CONCLUTION

• In a way I was right saying whole milk would ferment faster.
• The second part of my hypothesis was wrong because of the tie
• Looks like anything but 2% milk will work for yogurt