A Good Complication

As soon as I was pulling it out of the oven, my heart sank. The characteristic smell I’ve come to rely on was absent – the first indication that something was wrong. I removed the cloth covering the two filled bowls and hestitated, confused at the sight and cautious hope filling me. But, I stuck my nose into each bowl, and the bread-like smell was unfortunately another bad sign. Stirring the bowls’ contents revealed far too many bubbles, making it clear: another wasted batch.

That’s the thing with getting derailed: what do you do when a habit, a well-worn path, falters and exposes how reliant you’d become on its structure? I’d been making yogurt for months using a ‘mother’ colonizing spoonful of pre-existing yogurt to spark fermentation in regular old boxed soymilk. Let me explain – all you do is heat up the milk and add some yogurt. Put it somewhere warm for 12 hours (the oven, off), and voila, it’s done. If you’re buying and eating grocery store yogurt with any regularity, it can get expensive, so why wouldn’t you make it youself? It’s so easy. Until it isn’t.

That was the second batch in a row that failed, meaning that the pint of soy milk used is wasted and thrown away – never a good feeling. Between the first failure and the second, I tried to diagnose it. Did I not heat up the milk enough, or did it have something to do with the mother sample? (Why) was some other bacteria thriving instead of my desired cultures?

So, I was consigned to buy more milk and new yogurt and try again – and it worked! Yogurt is back in my diet, which is a relief, but also a sign that I’ve grown too comfortable with my meals, neglecting the inclusion of other recipes and meals. But, it’s just so good. I pair it with a simple granola that I make and throw in some peanuts and raisins to round it out, and it is heavenly. However, I have been thinking I ought to cook more, and this temporary derailment planted another seed in my mind that will hopefully get me closer to doing so.