A couple of weeks ago I picked up some filmjölk online. I had heard about it before and wanted to give it a try. I have made lots of yogurt in the past but the cultures I had always used required the milk to be heated to a certain point then cooled to a given temperature while the culture did its thing. The type of cultures that requires higher temperatures like that are called thermophilic cultures. By contrast, mesophilic cultures tend to work at room temperatures and do not require the higher temps. Filmjölk is a mesophilic culture which means it can be produced at room temperature.

The taste is about like yogurt, maybe not quite as tart and it isn’t as thick as the yogurt you will buy in the store. I’ve used it anywhere I would use yogurt, buttermilk or sour cream. Since the culture works on the lactose, it doesn’t bother lactose intolerant individuals like plain milk does. Its great in pancakes, cake and with fruit. You can make a cream cheese substitute called yogurt cheese by draining off the whey. I like it with berries and a little bit of sweetener.

The photo shows some gooseberries I picked earlier in the morning. It takes about 12-18hours to incubate a batch. The ratio is 1Tbs of the starter to 1 cup of milk. I use whole milk but you can use 2% or even light cream. I generally start the process when I get home from work. The culture goes into the milk in a 1 pint jar and is placed on the kitchen counter out of the direct sun. By the following morning it is ready to be put in the fridge. It does continue to thicken in the fridge and that evening the process is started again. I can take a break if I don’t want to make it every day though it may take a little longer to get a finished product if the culture has been in the fridge more than a few days.