Fermentation Support Forum

I was recently given some viili culture - the first time I prepared it, it was quite thick and my 10 year-old daughter loved it. The second batch turned out a bit thinner (however, according to a Finnish friend, it had the perfect consistency and flavour), but my daughter discovered tiny lumps in it, which put her off a bit. Hmmm.... does anyone know how to get rid of the lumps, or to prevent them from happening in my next batch?

whats Viili?

Leonie,

This has happened to my viili, too. I thought it might have been because I was feeding it frozen milk for a while (the cow was dried off), but I found when I could get fresh non-homogenized milk, and later raw non-homogenized milk (from someone else's cows), it perked back up and doesn't make lumps anymore. If you get a batch you don't like as much, whether it's lumpy or it just goes a little too far in the fridge without getting drunk up, try making cheese: http://flog.posterous.com/cheeses-0 (my fermentation log, or (f)log). If you do, let me know what your daughter thinks of it!

Bekah