How to make homemade yogurt and yogurt starter?

Yogurt belongs in those 'is it really raw or not' question. I'm sure there are a lot of ways to make yogurt but this is a very easy homemade yogurt recipe I got from my mom.

Ingredients

1. Yogurt starter - Leftover from commercial yogurt
2. Milk

Instructions

1. Add milk to the leftover yogurt.
2. Leave it overnight at room temperature.
3. And.. that's it! It's done!

Very easy, right? But I wonder how the commercial yogurt is made. It's quite frustrating really. I can't believe there are a lot of guides on how to make yogurt at home but none of them include any explanation of what yogurt starter are made of and how it is really made. It's like they don't even care and automatically label it as raw!

I tried asking my mom just now and she got annoyed at me.

You want to go to Kuala Lumpur from Pulau Pinang. The car is already there to bring you to Kuala Lumpur on the spot... If you want to go to Kuala Lumpur now, why do you have to care of how the car is made of right now? Think about it slowly later!

But mom.... how would I know if it's really raw if I don't know where it come from and how it comes to exist? Of course, I didn't voice it to her because she doesn't know how to make it anyway. So I went back prowling on the internet. The answers were.. uh, enlightening.. and weird...

1) By jilly123 on chowhound.chow.com *I like this answer! The easiest too!
i use raw organic goat milk and just leave it on my counter for a few days. granted, it's not creamy like how we are used to it in the stores, but it's yogurt.

2) By wyersmd on chowhound.chow.com *the weirdest answer
Nobody here is going to believe this, but the only way that I know of to make yogurt without a yogurt starter is with -
ants.
You are guffawing now, or at least chortling - maybe snorting perhaps in disbelief: "Yeah right buddy, you're pullin my leg. Ants, what a load of crock!"
Let me explain.
I am an American living in Turkey (as a translator), where yogurt is a daily staple. I got curious one day and started asking my Turkish friends here how the original yogurt starter was made, and was met with blank looks. Chicken and egg story, right? Yogurt comes from - well, yogurt, naturally.
So a Turkish friend and I went online one night, bent on solving this mystery: where the hell do those bacteria come from and where can I get them?
Well friends, the answer is right in your backyard.
There are two ways to get the bacteria, that we found; one, using the soil from an anthill, or using crushed ant eggs.
I cannot vouch however for American ants, I don't know if they carry the same bacteria as ants in Turkey (I am not a biologist, I am a translator and a university academic). But the situation is this:
as with regular yogurt making, where you add a pre-existing yogurt culture to milk, you have to heat the milk (a jar's worth). Then, you add the mashed up ant eggs (about 30 eggs will do), or a good pinch of soil from an ant hill. Seal and bundle up, so that the bacteria stay cozy and get to work on reproducing. After a day, open up and there will be a medley of liquid (kind of a whey) and white solids. The white solid, which looks a bit like feta cheese, is your starter.
Again heat your milk in a clean container, and this time add a tablespoon-size lump of the starter, and shake or stir a bit. Then seal, wrap and let sit for about 4 to 6 hours. Upon opening, you will find that you have yogurt. Made from ants. You can terrify your friends with this.
According to the Turkish web pages we found, the best-tasting yogurt comes from anthill soil.
I am pasting below a link to a video. It is in Turkish, so find a Turkish friend to help you work through it. But even if you can't speak Turkish, just watch along and you can pick up on what's going on:

http://www.annemmutfakta.tv/video/hulya-erol/evde-gida/arastirma-karinca-yumurtasindan-yogurt-mayalamak/index.html

I am pasting below another link, which is a text web page which details a study which arrived at the same results. It is also in Turkish, so find a translator:

http://www.ekoses.com/ekolojikyasampo...

Last night I happened to meet some Austrian biologists here in Istanbul who were baffled by this idea that the yogurt culture is actually carried by ants. Baffled isn't enough. They were flabbergasted. They refused to accept this. I was met by all-around rejection and stern looks. They told me that the yogurt-producing bacteria is actually found in the stomachs of cows. Which may also be correct. In Austria. My German is not good enough to hunt this down, but it could also be an interesting lead, for anyone with good German.

In light of the fact that NOTHING in English on the web touches on this subject successfully (that's how I found this web page, in my fruitless search to find an alternative answer), I felt compelled to post this. Cheers, and happy ant-yogurt making.

3) By jkarra on chowhound.chow.com *A great answer but then it can't be considered as raw
My mother-in-law from India taught me how to make yogurt without a starter.. use a small tamarind (u can get dried at Indian store) and a dried red chili in only a small amount of boiled milk. You let that set, then use that for the starter of the next batch. Repeat steps of boiling small amount of milk and using the new set "starter" until the yogurt smells correctly (about 4-5 times)

4) By V. L. Hamlin on eHow.com *Another great answer for non raw people

1. Pour the milk into a stainless steel pot and heat until it is 185 degrees. You can use whole milk, skim or soy. However, organic milk will produce the best flavor and nutrition to the yogurt.
2. Allow the milk to cool until it is about 110 degrees.
3. Stir the dry culture into the milk as directed by the manufacturer. Each culture manufacturer's measurements are different, so read the label before mixing it into the milk.
4. Pour the mixture into a quart-sized jar with a tight-fitting lid. Glass jars work best, however, plastic containers can be used in a pinch.
5. Place two jars of hot water into a cooler. Add the jar of yogurt starter to the cooler and close the lid. Allow it to sit in the closed cooler for 4 to 6 hours.
6. Place the yogurt starter into the refrigerator after the curds have formed. Enjoy the yogurt cold with honey, fruit or maple syrup.

So, that means no commercial yogurt for raw people and the alternatives aren't that great either. See how commercial yogurt is made here, here and here.

I was about to give up on yogurt but then I remembered another easy recipe for homemade yogurt my mom gave me.

Ingredients

1. 1 part of sour milk
2. 7 part of milk

Instructions

1. Add milk to sour milk.
2. Leave it overnight at room temperature.
3. And.. that's it! It's done!

:) I think it should be obvious by now what my next question is going to be... What is Sour Milk? Where Sour Milk comes from? How Sour Milk is made?

An excerpt from wikipedia
Sour milk in recipes

In recipes, soured milk created by the addition of an acid or by bacterial fermentation can often be used interchangeably. For example, 1 cup of cultured buttermilk, a soured milk produced by bacterial fermentation, can be replaced by 1 tablespoon of lemon juice or vinegar plus enough milk to make 1 cup. The chemically soured milk can be used after standing for 5 minutes.

By torque63 on eHow.com

1. Place 1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice or distilled white vinegar in a glass measuring cup.
2. Add in milk (2% or richer) to equal 1 cup. Stir.
3. Let stand for 15 minutes until it looks like its beginning to curdle or slightly curdled.

Now, that sounds really easy and raw! :)