Caspian Sea Yogurt (Matsoni) Photos

984 days ago

Man, I just love this Caspian Sea Yogurt (Matsoni). It not only taste great, the yogurt is easy to make as well. Even easier than making Kefir. You don’t need to do any straining at all. You just add some of the previous batch of Caspian Sea Yogurt into milk, cover the container with a piece of cloth and let it ferment for like 8 hours or so. In Singapore’s weather, I guess about 8 hours should be more than enough. In countries with a colder climate, longer fermentation is required. After the fermentation is complete (you can observe that the yogurt is stable when tilted), you can start eating this delicious yogurt. Of course, you will need to keep some yogurt in a very clean container to innoculate the next batch. It is just so simple that I am surprised that not many people are making their own yogurt using this strains of bacteria.

For those who are interested in the taste, well, I have to say that it definitely taste better than regular yogurt. Regular yogurt have this tart taste, which a lot of people find off-putting. They add tons of sugar, flavouring and other additives to make it palatable. For this Caspian Sea Yogurt, it taste bland not sour. And in fact, there is a slight sweetness to it. Adding fruits or honey would make it very agreeable with most consumers. You don’t need sugar. The Japanese love it, and you know that the Japanese are very fussy when it comes to the taste of their food. Health-wise, I am not very sure. Well, we know that there are probiotics in the Caspian Sea Yogurt since it is made from the Caspian Sea Yogurt cultures but other than that, I cannot find much information about it. Anyway, most of the information on the CSY is in Japanese, as the Japanese did a lot of research on it. Hopefully, someone can translate those information into English for us. I am very keen to see what kinds of vitamins, minerals and nutrients the CSY has. I also wonder what the CSY bacteria is doing in my gut when I consume it.

And if you are worried about any risk, I have to inform you that this CSY has been consumed by generations of Georgians and they supposedly live very long lives.  Yes,of course, I am not saying that CSY is the only reason why their health is so good, but I am sure that it is part of it. So don’t worry, if your equipment and handling is clean and proper, the CSY will turn out fine. I heard that this strain is very hardy and should not have any problems. Make sure you use pasteurised milk for making CSY. It seems that UHT milk will turn your CSY lumpy.

Creamy Caspian Sea Yogurt! Just check out how thick it is! By the way, I am using full cream milk here. If you are using low fat milk or skim milk, you might find that your yogurt is a bit on the watery side. I always encourage my readers to use full cream milk instead of low fat milk to make yogurt. Also note that how white it is. Most regular yogurt will have this slightly yellowish tint to it, but CSY results in very white yogurt! Yes, very appealing!

Yes, feels like honey.

Another photo showing how “sticky” this yogurt is.  I doubt that you will be able to get this kind of creaminess and stickness with the regular yogurt. Most of the end results I have with making regular yogurt is lumpy and slightly runny yogurt. Even with the Easiyo Yogurt Base, I don’t get this kind of texture. That is why I am sticking to CSY for my yogurt fix!

Final picture of the CSY. Yummy!

I hope that these pictures are enough to convince you to try out Caspian Sea Yogurt. Leave the boring old regular yogurt behind and start enjoying extremely delicious yogurt. It is cheaper (hey, economy now no good), delicious and easy to do. I bought my yogurt culture from eBay. Not very expensive – about US$10. And because it is a very hardy strain, you can continue to use a small amount of the previous batch to make your next batch of yogurt. Lasts forever if properly handled.

Yogurt