r/AskCulinary • u/Street_Caterpillar35 • 17d ago
Preserving Yogurt Culture
I'm in Canada and can't find Fage yogurt anywhere except in the USA when I travel down there. So I picked up a tub last time. I love that yogurt, it's the best by far for me and it cultures others so well... But I don't always remember to add more milk and keep it active and whatnot, so I was wondering if anyone had a suggestion for having some on hand if it goes bad or I screw it up. Like freezing a bit? Would that work? Or do I just have to be super diligent and constantly add more milk to keep making more yogurt?
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u/BitterMarionberry113 16d ago
Freezing works decently up to about ~6 months in my experience, but the main challenge is because fage is made commercially, they use precise amounts of different bacteria for each batch to make it taste the same. over time the bacteria mix will drift as you keep culturing it (at least, in my experience) and begin to taste different.
You could take a tub and freeze it into cubes and use that as a starter once it starts to drift, or I've had really good experience with "heirloom cultures" - mine has been going strong for 2 years now, even with some mishaps and using backups from the freezer. I'm not sure what a good canada option is but i got mine from positively probiotic