Cultures for Health Traditional Yogurt Starter Culture | 4 Packets Direct-Set Thermophilic Starter | Make Up To 12 Cups Thick, Tangy Probiotic Yogurt | Powdered Live Active Cultures for Yogurt Making

Easy to use starter with easy-to-follow instructions. I used one starter packet with slightly less than a quart of raw farm milk in a 1.1 qt. yogurt maker.Based on directions other than those inside the starter, I left the maker running for 24 hours, put it in my mason jar, and let it set on the counter for 2 hours, before finally putting it in the fridge to enjoy later. Worth the wait! It turned out more tart than yogurt from the store (kind of a citrusy sort of tang). While I’m sure it’s at least partly due to the raw milk, we really enjoyed the yogurt’s taste taste - we actually like it better than store bought yogurt! Add a little honey and a handful of berries and you’ve got a delicious snack!

I've been buying from this company for years - first from their website and now from Amazon. I don't know what these other people are doing wrong but it works perfectly for me. I do agree that sometimes the starter looks sticky and gets stuck to the inside of the wrapper...but it has always worked for me. In about 4 years of using this product (we make yogurt every 2-3 weeks), one time I had a bad starter, which they replaced for me, no questions asked. I do agree that the packaging could use some improvement. It is a pain getting the culture out of it, and it does seem like something changed about it a year ago, where it is more "clumpy" than it was before. But it still works. I actually make just under a gallon of yogurt using just one of those little packets.Here is my method, hopefully it will help some people out. I bring about 4/5 of a gallon of milk up to around 185-200 degrees. If you keep it at that temp for longer, more water evaporates and you end up with a slightly thicker yogurt. By the way, I use only whole milk yogurt, and make sure you get non-UHT pasteurized milk. The ultra pasteurized process seems to do something that throws off texture in the end. Another tip is to bring the milk up to temp as slowly as possible to avoid scorching or burning it.While that's coming up to temp, I turn my oven on, just for around 5 minutes or so, to warm it. After the milk reaches the high temp, I move it off the stove, onto the counter, and wait around 2 hours for it come down to 110-115 degrees. I usually stir it every 25 minutes or so to encourage more water to evaporate so the yogurt gets thicker.At that point, I put a strainer above my final container, and strain the milk through it. This gets rid of all the little bits that formed while the milk was boiling/cooling. I then open one of the packets, dump it in, and use a wire whisk to dissolve it as much as possible. (CFH - please take note of these reviews and consider looking into packaging alternatives, because this part has become a pain. It has become more clumpy over time). I then cover my container, wrap it in one or two dish towels and stick it in the turned off oven. I also leave the oven light on to give a little extra heat. That is it. I leave it overnight, usually 10-12 hours. In the morning it is yogurt. There will be a little pool of water/whey on top.I use a paper towel and soak that all up and throw it away, to get the surface as dry as possible.Stick it in the fridge, and a few hours later it's ready to eat.Again, with this method, I have had ONE failure with this product. Also note, this review is for the "traditional" starter. I have tried others and not had great success - but this one works great. I consider myself a bit of a yogurt connoisseur and have tried many other methods - including starting with commercial yogurts as the starter. Nothing has worked as well as this one. Hope this is helpful to anyone else trying it out.

I need to add my voice to the one-star reviews. Not much to add to the commentary, but I've found, in over a couple of years of using this product that about half the time it fails. And when it does, pretty much all 4 packets are bad - seemingly when moist and caked inside the packet. Consequently I have to conclude that the quality control fails way too often for whatever reason. For me, it is not worth the aggravation to put up with a 50% failure rate on pretty much any product. BTW, when it works, it makes a fine yogurt.

This is my favorite yogurt starter as it has the best flavor in my opinion. It is so fresh and creamy and every batch I make turns out great. The only downside to this starter is that I don't think I can start another batch with my own culture from the original batch. This makes it more expensive to make the yogurt, but I will still buy this starter just for the flavor. If anyone has had success starting a second batch of this using some of the first batch, please let me know as I would love to be able to do this.

I think the culture is good. I used it with regular milk, and yogurt tastes a little bit bitter. I talked to a friend who makes yogurt a lot, and she said to get rid of bitter taste one has to use organic milk - and I think she is correct (I tried a different brand creme fraiche culture w organic cream, and no bitter taste). I will try this one from scratch (from a new packet vs using a little bit of old yogurt once I get some organic milk). But even w reg milk, if you stir in some kind of fruit preserves or jam the taste is fine.

This works well, however it could have clearer directions for those who may not know how the process works. Even their website has very vague directions imo. For example, once you make a batch, keep 6 oz aside to make another batch up to 4 times. I had to do my own research to figure that out. But my product worked great. Unlike some other reviews, I did not find it hard to remove from the packet and it seemed fresh.

No information on how much culture weight is in each packet and no customer service support. It was difficult to find a recipe I could use and hoped hard that it would work.

This culture is really good, but doesn't have the directions included for making yogurt from the existing yogurt once the dry culture is used. It can probably be found on their website, but I think that should be included, or people who are new to making yogurt might think that you can only make a batch from the dry powder.