The ferment
a) For yoghurts
This is made either from:
- One shop-bought natural yoghurt with the longest expiry date possible;
your yoghurt will therefore contain more active ferment for a firmer
yoghurt.
- From a freeze-dried ferment. In this case, follow the activation time
specified on the ferment instructions. You can find these ferments in
supermarkets, pharmacies and in certain health product stores.
- From one of your recently prepared yoghurts – this must be natural and
recently prepared. This is called culturing. After five culturing processes,
the used yoghurt loses active ferments and therefore risks giving a less
firm consistency. You then need to start again using a shopbought yoghurt
or freeze-dried ferment.
b) For other cheese preparations: fromage frais and petits Délices
• Starter: always use fromage frais to start the process.
• Rennet: to make cheese preparations, you need to add a few drops of
rennet (available from the pharmacy or specialist health food shops).
Tip: you can replace the rennet with one soup spoon of lemon juice.
When to sweeten?
For yoghurts and your fromage frais:
You can sweeten your yoghurts either when eating them or before
preparing them; this can be done by adding sugar to the milk at the same
time as the ferments and mixing well with a fork until it melts.
6
Too high a heat
may destroy the
properties of your
ferment.
If you have boiled
the milk, wait
until it has
reached room
temperature
before adding the
ferment.
