Some recipes on our website include yogurt as an ingredient. If you’ve ever cooked with yogurt before – and particularly if you’ve added it quite early in the recipe – you might have noticed that yogurt can curdle or ‘split’ when used in this way.
To prevent this happening, only use full-fat yogurt (in other words, yogurt made with whole milk). Full-fat yogurt is not only better for your baby, but the higher fat content also “holds it together” during cooking. Low-fat yogurts do tend to split!
If there is no full-fat yogurt available and you are forced to use a reduced fat alternative – or if you’re still having problems with full-fat yogurt – then there are a few things you can try to prevent it from curdling…
- Before you prepare any of your other ingredients, remove the yogurt you will be using from the refrigerator and allow it to sit at room temperature until you come to use it. The chances of it curdling are much higher if you add it to the pan straight from the refrigerator.
- As you add the yogurt, try stirring in a little flour
- Stir the food constantly as you add the yogurt – I’ve never had any problems with curdling as long as I’ve remembered to keep stirring!
- If all else fails, try using sour cream instead of yogurt – but only use around half the amount that the recipe calls for (so if the recipe asks for 2 tbsp yogurt, use just 1 tbsp sour cream).
If YOU have discovered a great technique for preventing yogurt splitting when you cook, then please do leave your comments below.
