Salvaging Yogurt

[darshevania]

I did my usual. I heated the milk to 96C and boiled it for a few minutes. I then brought down the temperature to 45C and added my starter, poured it in the jars and put it in my electric incubator (little more than a heating surface with a cheap plastic shell, I don't think it retains heat well, but the heating surface keeps it at the right temperature and I've never had a problem with it). Unfortunately, at some point last night (I think when I grabbed a bottle of wine near the incubator) the incubator got unplugged. So it sat in a room probably at about 21-25C for about 8-10hours. This morning when I opened the incubator, I thought it look strange and then noticed the unplugged incubator. I took out one of the small jars and it was mostly liquid with a yogurt type sludge at the bottom. I've plugged the incubator back in for the larger jar. Consistency and taste aside should it be ok to eat in a few hours?

Thoughts?

[CoconutLover]

The only time I have not eaten yogurt I make at home is when it smells foul, tastes foul (after it passes the smell test) or if it has grown mold.

Since it just dropped below the ideal temp for yogurt making, I would guess the yogurt process was simply slowed, not ruined. Continuing on with the culturing process should be fine and so should eating it as long as it smells, tastes and looks fine.

A while back when I was making yogurt on a more regular basis, I found it much simpler to use a cooler filled with warm water to culture my yogurts. I talk about the "cooler method" in this recipe for coconut milk yogurt: http://www.yummycoconut.com/coconut-milk-recipes/coconut-milk-yogurt/. It is by far the easiest set and forget method I have ever used to make yogurt. I used to keep a constant vigil over my yogurt that I had sitting on my stove in a hot water bath. I would reheat the water bath every couple of hours making sure it was warm enough which eventually led to me quitting yogurt making entirely for quite some time.

[Gutted]

It sounds like it has gone too far and turned the yoghurt to lactic acid. At such temperatures, it shouldn't take very long to complete. Mine takes about 3 hours to become set and if it goes over the surface begins to turn clear and it gets worse the longer that it is left without getting it into the fridge.

Therefore, even though it became unplugged, it could of still been at a temperature which was high enough to allow a decent level of fermentation.

The clear part you might not want to drink because it will be fairly acid. What remains could be watery and not ideal but could still be consumed. I try and avoid doing letting it go over if at all possible.