I make Villi, a kind of yogurt that is very simple to make. It is a “mesophilic” yogurt, which means that it is prepared at room temperature. Normal yogurt has to be fermented at warm temperatures, requiring you to use a yogurt maker or some kind of other contraption.

Making Villi

Here is an excellent guide with everything you could possibly want to know about making Villi.

Dehydrating Villi Starter

If you want to share your Villi with others, or store some starter as a guarantee against your active culture going bad, you can dehydrate it. The result is thin little chips of Villi that will store for months in a cool place, and a year or more in the freezer. They can be put in the mail, or shared in person. Here’s how to make your own:

1. Take a portion of freshly fermented villi, say 1/2 cup.
2. Take an equal portion of milk (1/2 cup), and mix it into the villi.
3. Spread thinly and dehydrate at low temperature
   1. You can do this on a baking sheet lined with wax paper or a silpat on your countertop
   2. You can also do this in a dehydrator that is capable of having the heat turned off, or very far down.
4. Once the starter is fully dried, it will crackle and break when bent. Break into little chips, and store in your freezer for best results.

Don’t worry about the starter going bad during the drying process. Yogurt was originally invented as a way to preserve milk, and the acid produced by the culture will protect the starter.

The drying process will cause the culture to go dormant, and it can be woken up later by simply putting a few chips into some milk, and leaving at room temperature for a day. Enough chips to cover the nail of your pinkie finger is easily enough for a quart of milk.

The fresh milk is added to the cultured Villi before drying to make sure that the culture is well fed as it goes dormant. This should help it be more vigorous when it is woken up later.