Skyr Food

ICELANDIC SKYR

Steps:

• Pour the powdered milk into a large clean bowl.
• Allow the boiled water to cool until just warm. It must not be too hot or it will kill the living culture in the buttermilk!
• Pour the water over the milk powder, allowing room for the buttermilk. Stir thoroughly so that it is completely dissolved.
• Add the buttermilk, stir well and cover. Place in the oven, undisturbed.
• Do not turn on the oven, simply turn on the oven light. This will be enough heat to allow the culture to work. Allow this to work overnight.
• In the morning check your skyr for firmness and flavor. If it is not set and separated or sour enough, leave it to work longer. Every oven is different.
• Once you are happy with the degree of sourness, the skyr has to be drained. Gently cut the curd into squares of sections. Do not break it up too much.
• Line a colander with cheesecloth or a clean new J-cloth (I personally just use a bit of leftover muslin from my sewing stash).
• Set this in the sink or a larger container to catch the whey. Scoop the curds and whey gently into the lined colander. It will drain better if it is not stirred or broken up too much. It will take about one day to drain to the proper consistency.
• Then it can be beaten with a mixer until smooth. Store covered in the refrigerator. Stir in sugar and cream, or your favorite flavorings, as desired when ready to serve.

MAKING SKYR YOGURT

Steps:

• Safety check: yogurt cultures are a mix of bacteria developed for yogurt making. Since you will be growing bacteria, make sure it stays the good kind by remembering food safety cleanliness rules - boil all equipment or run it through your dishwasher if you can and always make sure to keep contaminated or unwashed items from touching any of the equipment, milk or cultures you are working with at all times.
• Mix the dry and liquid milk together and heat at least to 190°F Hold at that temperature for 10 minutes to give the proteins a chance to do their thing. Be careful not to ruin the batch by burning it on the bottom of the pot - you can use a double boiler if you have one.
• Cool the milk mix to at least 120°F but not below 100°F You can reheat the milk mix if it goes below 100°F.
• Put part or all of the cooked milk mix in a blender - depending on the size of your blender - with the tablespoon of Siggis (make sure you taste a bit of the Siggis if you haven't tasted it yet so you know what your results should taste like - and keep any extra in your freezer for your next batch) and blend well - 10 seconds should do it. Mix with any of the extra milk if your blender is not big enough to hold all the mixed cooked milk and Siggis.
• Pour the cooled, mixed and blended milk into 8 oz cups and place in your yogurt-maker (if you have one) and start it or put the cups in a cooler with a large bottle (quart or more) of hot water - at least 140°F Be sure the cups do not touch the water bottle. If the water is too hot, it will cook the yogurt rather than allow the yogurt culture to do it's thing.
• After 5 - 8 hours, check for firmness and if it is firm (will not jiggle if jostled), put in your fridge. Taste your new yogurt after it has had time to cool down in your fridge. (I have had yogurts firm up in as little as 3 hours and remember that the longer it continues in the yogurt maker or cooler, the more tangy your yogurt becomes.
• Please note that the "cooking time" shown here is really the culture time and it can vary from a couple-3 hours to 8 or more hours, with the temperature having the greatest effect on the length of time to complete. Too hot and it will cook - no yogurt; too cold and it will take forever/never - no yogurt. That is why we recommend a temperature controlled yogurt-maker of your own choosing.
• And the best news of all -- once you do this, you can make just about any kind of yogurt you want to - just buy either the active yogurt cultures (you can find them online) or buy a plain yogurt of the type you want with active cultures and make it according to the instructions in this recipe.
• Enjoy!

MAKE ICELANDIC YOGURT (SKYR)

Steps:

• Gather the ingredients.
• Thoroughly sanitize your equipment (bowls, whisks, measuring spoon) either by rinsing it in boiling water or by removing from a hot dishwasher.
• In a heavy-bottomed pot, bring milk to a slow and steady simmer over a medium-high burner, heating it until it reaches the scalding point (use a thermometer to ensure it reaches 185 F to 190 F). This will take about 15 to 20 minutes.
• Stir frequently to prevent scalding. If, toward the very end of the heating process, you notice that the milk at the bottom of the pot has begun to scald, reduce the heat to medium-low and stop stirring. A small bit of scalding is OK, but you don't want to release the scalded bits into the mixture.
• Turn burner off immediately when milk reaches scalding point. Remove from burner and allow to cool to 110 F.
• In a small bowl, combine 1 cup of cooled milk with skyr, then return mixture to the pot, stirring to incorporate.
• Whisk liquid rennet into warm water, then stir immediately into milk (the rennet will lose its effectiveness if prepared more than 30 minutes before using).
• Cover pot with a thick towel and keep in a warm, draft-free place (an oven or an insulated cooler) for 12 hours.
• After the allotted time, curds will have formed. Spoon curds into a fine-meshed bag (nylon vegetable bags work great for this) or a double-layer of cheesecloth.
• Suspend bag over a dripping tray in a cool room or the refrigerator and allow to drain until skyr is thick.
• Serve skyr and enjoy. Skyr will keep for three or four weeks, covered, in the refrigerator.