What is yogurt?
Okay, Jam. Today, we're gonna answer the age old question.
Jam:Which one?
Melissa:What is yogurt? Oh. And sour cream.
Jam:I have an answer for you.
Melissa:You do? Mhmm. What is it? Yummy. I was not expecting I was like, no.
Melissa:He knows. Alright. Well, this question was asked by, listener Sam in and r on Instagram, and we are gonna dive into all kinds of information about Fermentation.
Jam:Nice. Very cool. Let me do it.
Melissa:We're gonna talk about what's yogurt, how is it different from sour cream, and, we're gonna even get into a little biochemistry, so let's get into it.
Jam:Okay. Deal.
Melissa:Hey. I'm Melissa.
Jam:I'm Jam.
Melissa:And I'm a chemist. And I'm not. And welcome to chemistry free life.
Jam:The podcast helps you understand the chemistry of your everyday life.
Melissa:Okay. So this before we start, I wanna dedicate this episode to our listener, Elizabeth p. She joined our Patreon this We
Jam:Yes. Joined our super cool Chem Unity of patrons.
Melissa:Welcome. We're so happy to have you here.
Jam:Thanks for supporting the show, and We're excited to get to know you as part of a community in the various ways that we get to do that. So thanks for joining and for helping chemistry be Available to be learned and enjoyed by more people.
Melissa:Thank you so much. And so, Elizabeth, this episode's For you, here's hoping you like yogurt or sour cream.
Jam:Or at least are interested in maybe the chemistry of it.
Melissa:Yeah. Maybe.
Jam:Because I don't like sour cream, but I think I'm interested in Understanding it.
Melissa:In knowing what it is? Yeah. Okay. So and this question came from Sam in, and I think it's or August, Agus Mhmm. A.guss maybe on Instagram.
Melissa:And, Sam specifically asked about what is yogurt and how is it different from Sour cream. And he mentioned, you know, we have a a episode on cheese and butter, but he still wanted to know about yogurt.
Jam:Right.
Melissa:And I was thinking the episode on cheese is really good, and it's really relevant. And so that's why we Played that as our rerelease for last week. So this is kind of like a part 2 to that to that episode. Mhmm. Okay.
Melissa:So
Jam:But also sort of like a part part goo because
Melissa:Gross.
Jam:Yogurt's, like, kinda gooier.
Melissa:One of the papers I, or it was like a book chapter, and it was called fermented milks. And I was like, well
Jam:Yeah.
Melissa:I don't like that. I don't like hearing that. Milks. Anyway But
Jam:because there are multiple types of milk you could ferment. So it it makes sense, but in on the face of it, it does seem like, Why'd you say it that way?
Melissa:Well, I think also the different ways of fermenting milk makes fermented milks different Types of fermented milk.
Jam:See what you're saying.
Jam:Yeah.
Jam:So I I was thinking, like, the origin of the milk being different.
Melissa:That is true too.
Jam:Goat, cow. Yeah.
Melissa:You know? But this was all about cow, and we're this is all about cow for us today also. All about cow. Now I want, like, a sweatshirt That says all about cow, and it is as like a cute little cow.
Jam:Something about having it be singular instead of girl. Just makes it immediately funny. I don't know why.
Jam:All About Cow. Like, if
Jam:you ever should have said All About Cows, I'd be like, take it or leave it. You know? But All About Cow is very marketable.
Melissa:Yeah.
Jam:It
Melissa:would be I could just picture it, like and, you know, that, like, nineties kind of, like, royal blue not royal blue, but, like, Tealie blue, like poke I had a Pocahontas sweatshirt that was this color.
Jam:Oh, I know what you're talking about. Yep.
Melissa:And just, like, have it say all about cow and, like, a cartoony cow, like, in a field with, like, some little flowers. First?
Jam:Yes.
Melissa:That'd be so cute.
Jam:Well, it's like there's, like, animals that we would get obsessed with as nineties kids that would be all over our
Melissa:shirts. I don't
Jam:know backtrack.
Melissa:For me?
Jam:Butterflies. You got unicorns. You got horses. Mhmm.
Melissa:Yeah.
Jam:But, like, the idea of it being a cow,
Jam:that's really funny.
Melissa:Okay. So let's Speaking of cows, let's talk about their milk, and let's do a quick review and then get into what yogurt is to answer Sam's question.
Jam:Okay. Deal.
Melissa:So, When milk is taken from cows, this is a bit of a review because we have done the butter episode, the cheese episode. We even did 1 on whipping cream. So
Jam:Mhmm.
Melissa:Just to review, When milk comes from cows, it's just 1 product, and you'll separate that out to different products with different fat contents, and that's standardized by fat content. And cream has the highest fat content, and then, you know, there's, like, skim and all these other kinds that are more or less. The other stuff in milk is, There's mostly water, lactose, sugar which is a type of sugar. Lactose is the sugar in milk, proteins, calcium, and some fats. That's, like, what's all in there.
Melissa:Mhmm.
Jam:And
Melissa:so you take this milk from the cow. You separate it out based on fat content. Extra fat is added back into the cream portion, and that's how we get milk K. That we know on the shelves, and it's also pasteurized. But then to become cheese, we talked about in last week's rerelease episode that, you know, milk has bacteria added to it.
Melissa:This is more to remind Jam because he hasn't listened to it in a while. Milk has bacteria added to it, and the bacteria eat lactose and they produce lactic acid. And then it adds there's enzymes added in to clump the, milk proteins up together to make curd, and then it's aged to beamed cheese.
Jam:Right.
Melissa:Okay. So you all hopefully just heard about that last week. Now let's talk about what yogurt is.
Jam:K.
Melissa:The best way I can conceptualize yogurt for you is it's very part one of making cheese, and that's it.
Jam:Adding bacteria?
Melissa:You add bacteria to milk, which will convert that, the lactose, the sugar in the milk into lactic acid, And that acid gives a little bit of sourness and tartness Mhmm.
Jam:And
Melissa:it will cause the liquid to thicken up in what we talked about in last week's episode. And we won't get back into the chemistry of that today, but that's essentially it.
Jam:Mhmm.
Melissa:And sour cream It's actually made in very much the same way. It's made by starting off with cream instead of milk. Okay.
Jam:So it
Melissa:has a higher fat content.
Jam:Uh-huh.
Melissa:And I think they use different types of bacteria. They're they're all bacteria that will eat the sugar in dairy products and produce lactic acid, but there's different Varieties of bacteria you can use. But we use bacteria to make lactic acid, and, you know, it also thickens. It becomes a little bit more tap Tart, but it has a different final texture than yogurt.
Jam:Okay. Right.
Melissa:But they're both fermented milks.
Jam:Interesting.
Melissa:Gross. Okay. So and that that kind of is your answer if you just wanna stop there. If you're the if you're just here for the the cold hard facts and you don't wanna learn the chemistry, Essentially, cheese, yogurt, and sour cream all start by taking milk or some milk product base like cream, Adding bacteria, which consumes the lactose, it creates lactic acid, and that causes the milk to begin to thicken and it gets tart, And that's it.
Jam:K.
Melissa:So that's, you know, The basic answer.
Jam:K.
Melissa:Actually, also one of the papers I read about the different fermented milks, it was or I think it was the chapter Called fermented milks. It was, it kinda talked about what we talked about, 2 weeks ago when we did our episode on Oh, it just blanked out of my mind. We talked about traditional medicine and what and science, like, Western way of knowing and, like, natural product synthesis. What was that episode? Why did I suddenly forget it?
Jam:I could tell you. Sorry. Oh, we talked about that was cinnamon, didn't we?
Melissa:Cinnamon. Yes. Okay. So this reminded me of that conversation within cinnamon that we had where we were talking about you know, there's this traditional way of knowing indigenous knowledge? And then you can pair that with the Western scientific way of knowing to sort of optimize things
Jam:and
Melissa:the power of those things coming together. And this book actually this book chapter referenced that. They talked about how there's, you know, more traditional fermented milk, which Is ends up being something like yogurt. There's all different types of varieties all around the world, but they can be kind of hit or miss and not very And with Western science, we now understand sort of the underlying fermentation that happens, and we can optimize the output And give more of a consistent product and optimize the different strains of bacteria or whatever. Isn't that cool?
Melissa:Yeah. And it kinda full circle. I was like, oh, we just talked about that. I should bring that
Jam:up. Interesting.
Melissa:So that's that's sort of, like, your basic Overview of what fermented milk is and then how, you know, some of the fun fact I learned about it. But Let's talk about the science here. So now that was your way out if you just wanted the first little bit. Now we're gonna get in deeper.
Jam:Okay.
Melissa:Okay. So in the episode that we did on cheese, we glossed over the process of how the bacteria takes the lactose and turns it into lactic acid.
Jam:Right.
Melissa:We talked about the other chemistry concepts that I'm not gonna talk about today.
Jam:Okay.
Melissa:I'm gonna take this as an opportunity to talk about What happens and how we get the lactose?
Jam:Okay.
Melissa:Okay. So before I do that, I do wanna remind you of something that we have talked about before called oxidation and reduction? And if you took a high school chemistry class, you might have learned, like, This saying called oil rig, which is oxidation is losing electrons and reduction is gaining electrons, or I've also heard, which I don't even For what? Losing electrons oxidation, maybe? Gaining reduction?
Melissa:But in organic chemistry, we don't Characterize it like that.
Jam:Mhmm.
Melissa:What I think of when I think of oxidizing and reduction is oxidizing is gaining bonds to oxygen. So, say, I have a carbon Bonded to an oxygen.
Jam:Mhmm.
Melissa:If I add a bond there and now have a carbon with 2 bonds to that chin?
Jam:Right.
Melissa:But if I have it the opposite way where I have a carbon with 2 bonds to an oxygen and it loses one of those bonds, that's reduction.
Jam:Right.
Melissa:So oxidation, Gaining bonds to oxygen, reduction, losing bonds to oxygen.
Jam:Would that include an a new single bond to a new oxygen?
Melissa:Yeah. Okay. Yes. It would.
Jam:Something didn't have an oxygen. Now it does have 1.
Jam:Mhmm.
Jam:That would also be
Melissa:Yeah. This might be a little kind of advanced, but we talked about functional groups a few times. And there's like if you have an alcohol functional group? So carbon bonded to an oxygen, and that's bonded to a hydrogen. Theoretically, that could be oxidized by adding another bond, and you'd lose the hydrogen.
Melissa:So then that So then that oxygen functional group turns into a different functional group called a ketone, or it's a carbon double bonded to oxygen. Or it could be one called an aldehyde. We also talked about that before where it's a carbon double bonded to an oxygen on one side, and the other side has a hydrogen. And you can oxidize that even further and put an oxygen in between the carbon and the hydrogen. Mhmm.
Jam:So
Melissa:then it becomes a carboxylic acid. So it can kind of, like, Go in steps. I think of it in terms of, oh, we start with just a carbon bonded to 1, oxygen, and then it's Double bonded to that. And now that we add in another oxygen. Yeah.
Melissa:So it kind of keeps going.
Jam:Right.
Melissa:And then the opposite of that is if you have A carbon double bonded to an oxygen and you bring it back down, so it starts out as what we would call a ketone, and you bring it back down to a carbon With a single bond to an oxygen, hydrogen on the other side, that would be an alcohol.
Jam:Right.
Melissa:Okay. So that is the It's a big chemistry lesson for what I'm about to talk about.
Jam:Okay.
Melissa:So I just wanted to refresh you on that, but now I'm gonna put it in the context of these little bacterias.
Jam:Okay.
Melissa:So, Essentially, what happens in bacteria when they're breaking down lactose is something called glycolysis. This is biochemistry, so Our friend, Kaibe, who's the real, biochemist yikes. Hopefully, I do a good job. In the in the process of, glycolysis, it's breaking down glucose and other sugars, like lactose, into smaller molecules. So it's a 10 step process, and it ultimately produces a product called pyruvate.
Melissa:And glycolysis to pry pyruvate, the breakdown of glucose to pyruvate through glycolysis is important because pretty much All cells are able to do this. And it is, to quote my biochemistry textbook, for some tissues such as Brain, kidney, medulla, and rapidly contracting skeletal muscles. And for some cells, glucose is the only source of metabolic energy. So they're able to take that glucose and break it down into products that can be useful in Your metabolism. Like, oh, we're gonna use this to fuel our body.
Jam:K.
Melissa:And the product that it Produces pyruvate. It's it's a versatile metabolite that can be used in several ways in our body. So it's really important. It's a way that we basically take fuel and break it down to be usable in our in all of our different processes in the body. Okay.
Melissa:Okay? So what happens is you have your glucose, and it will break down through 10 steps, and it Create something called pyruvate.
Jam:K.
Melissa:Now here is an opportunity where if, we can have Brie hopefully draw an illustration, It would be really helpful for me to be able to show you this, but for our listeners, and in case we can't get that, pyruvate and lactate Are very similar in structure. In fact, they're identical with the exception of one thing. Pyruvate has a carbon with a double bond and in that same place, the lactate has a carbon with a single bond to an oxygen. Ah. So, basically, lactate is the reduced Opposite of oxidized version of pyruvate.
Jam:Got it. Okay. And so So wait. So just before we move on, just to make sure I get that, The pyruvate. Two bonds oxygen.
Melissa:Two bonds oxygen.
Jam:Lactate? Yep. One bond oxygen.
Melissa:One bond oxygen. There's a bunch more bonds, but in this specific spot, it goes from 2 bonds to oxygen, ketone Mhmm. 1 bond to oxygen, alcohol.
Jam:Got it. Okay. K.
Melissa:So the that is the big difference between those 2.
Jam:Okay.
Melissa:And so in if This process is happening in the absence of oxygen. So say that our cells don't have access to oxygen
Jam:Mhmm.
Melissa:Or maybe these bacteria don't have access to oxygen. Instead of getting oxygen from the air, they will get oxygen from The pyruvate. They will oxidize the pyruvate. No. They will reduce the pyruvate.
Melissa:Yeah. Sorry. I always get those backwards. It will reduce the pyruvate. They take the oxygen away from the pyruvate.
Melissa:That means it's an oxidizing agent. Sorry.
Jam:Mhmm.
Melissa:So the pyruvate will become reduced, Creating lactate.
Jam:Okay.
Melissa:And lactate is, just like we talked about with the MSG episode, It's just a deprotonated version of lactic acid. So if you have, the acid form, I think it was glutamic acid becomes glutamate. Same thing here. Lactic acid becomes lactate.
Jam:Okay.
Melissa:So it's just If you put it in the right conditions, it you know, it's just a negative version. It's just losing a proton. If you wanna learn more about that, you can go back and listen to our MSG episode.
Jam:Okay.
Melissa:And so, essentially, they take lactose is not, is not glucose, so it's not the same starting product. But it can be broken down into something Really similar, and I believe it will enter the metabolic process as that side product. And but it they could maybe just break down straight Lactose. But I don't think so based on what I was reading in my textbook.
Jam:Mhmm.
Melissa:And so do they go through the same glycolysis process, Break down and still get pyruvate, which I thought the lactic acid or the lactose just broke down directly into lactate, but it doesn't.
Jam:Okay.
Melissa:So they go through the glycolysis process, get pyruvate, and then the pyruvate is reduced into the lactate, which is essentially just in their form of lactic acid.
Jam:Okay.
Melissa:And that's how we get lactic acid in our bodies and in our yogurt and sour cream and cheese.
Jam:Interesting. Yeah.
Melissa:What are you thinking?
Jam:Just feels Like I don't know.
Melissa:Like what?
Jam:I'm like, I think I get it, but it also feels like it's so different though.
Melissa:Well, we didn't go into the complex process of glycolysis, which is a 10 step Metabolic process that we would need someone who's really good at biochemistry to be able to simplify down and explain to us Right.
Jam:Right. Right.
Melissa:Well here.
Jam:Yeah.
Melissa:But I think that the idea that that there is a metabolic process that they go through that we also go through
Jam:Mhmm.
Melissa:That produces this side product or this pyruvate, this end product that then can be broken down into the lactic acid? Not really broken down. It's reduced. Yeah. Yeah.
Melissa:The opposite of oxidized into lactic acid.
Jam:Okay.
Melissa:And that's how we get our lactic acid.
Jam:Interesting. Yeah. Yeah. That's weird. But, also, it's kinda cool, but, also, it still feels like there's mystery there, which makes sense.
Melissa:Yeah. Yeah. I mean, you You know, I don't think we have time to go through all of it was chapter 18. Glycolysis was chapter 18 in the biochemistry textbook. So you'd have to go through All 18 chapters before you can really thoroughly get that part, but we'll just do the we just start doing the shortened part.
Jam:Yeah. It's like Yogurt has some min mysteries it wants to hold on to. You know?
Melissa:Yeah. Wanna
Jam:be understood all all at once on the 1st date. You know?
Melissa:I mean, listen. We've done so many episodes. I wouldn't be surprised if eventually we get to that point, but Yeah. Yeah. It's only once we get to chapter 18.
Melissa:So, yeah, I was gonna take a chance to show you. This is what pyruvate looks like.
Jam:Okay.
Melissa:So see here, it has the, carbons with the double bonds.
Jam:Mhmm.
Melissa:And then this is lactate. So see, it still has The carbon with a double bond here, but the other one is reduced.
Jam:Oh, I see.
Melissa:Yeah. And so if you are Listening at home, you can Google pyruvate, pyruvate to lactic acid, and you can see Kind of the different structures and how similar they are. Do they both have a carbon? Carbon. Carbon.
Melissa:This is a carboxylic acid functional group that remains unchanged. That's why we call it an acid. And then we have the carbon with the double bond oxygen here, but over here, it's an alcohol.
Jam:Interesting. So this is probably one of the things that we probably shouldn't talk about right now because it's not the visual aid that everybody has, but why does it not Show the symbol for carbon on those.
Melissa:Oh,
Jam:I just assumed. We never talked about diagrams.
Melissa:Yeah. We haven't ever talked about that. That's a good point in case We do have a visual aid. A lot of times when you're looking at organic molecules, they're just drawn with, like, lines, and they'll have just sort of, like I don't know. Can you put an insert in right here?
Jam:You know,
Melissa:the way TikTok videos can. And it just looks like lines with bins in it, and each one of those Points, each angle where it comes together is a carbon. Mhmm. And that's a shorthand because organic molecules can be really, really K. And drawing in every individual carbon is crazy.
Melissa:Yeah. And each carbon has 4 bonds to it. Okay. So each Carbon would have, if it doesn't have anything explicitly drawn, 3 hydrogens or 2 hydrogens around it depending on where it is in the molecule or maybe 1. But Drawing in all those hydrogens is crazy.
Melissa:So that's actually a carbon with hydrogens.
Jam:Got it. Okay. Mhmm. Got it.
Melissa:Yeah. I didn't ever realize that. That was a good question.
Jam:I was just like, you kept saying, and there's a carbon, and then I was like, okay. Clearly, they're not Levothyroxarbons because I would know with that.
Melissa:You're like, there's no carbon. There's not a c there.
Jam:Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I I was like, I
Jam:trust you. There probably is 1, but I just don't see
Melissa:Yeah. That it's like a shorthand, for organic chemistry.
Jam:Yeah. Did you get what I said, though?
Melissa:No. Sorry. What did
Jam:you say?
Melissa:I probably don't see. Oh, yeah. I missed it because I was trying to teach you.
Jam:Sorry.
Melissa:I missed your dumb joke. Just kidding.
Jam:I mean, I wasn't asking a real question, not for the sake of a joke, and then the joke Came to my mind.
Melissa:Came together. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Jam:Yeah. Yeah.
Melissa:So if I don't know. I I almost wish we could take, like, a quick pause, and I could Hold up like a piece of paper where I draw really large. But, hopefully, Brie could, you know, do that for us potentially, where we have the Lactic acid and the pyruvate, lactic acid, pyruvic acid, or lactate and pyruvate. Mhmm. Whichever one.
Melissa:But also show you something where the carbons are all drawn in and then something where the carbons aren't so you can see that shorthand.
Jam:Yeah.
Melissa:That was a good question. Thanks for asking. That's one of those things that when you teach chemistry verbally, primarily, it wouldn't come up.
Jam:Right. Right. And, yeah, we haven't Needed to talk about that. And I haven't been, like, tested on Internet the more traditional exam where they'd be like, hey. You gotta draw some stuff.
Melissa:Yeah.
Jam:Or, like, whatever. But I remember learning that stuff back in high school, though. I mean, like, at least a little bit of it.
Melissa:Very yeah. Briefly.
Jam:But haven't had to really revisit it.
Jam:That was
Melissa:a good question. Okay. So that's it. That's your lesson.
Jam:Okay.
Melissa:Kind of a shorty because, you know, the glycolysis is a lot. But I do think that the idea that, you know, the bacteria goes through this metabolic process called glycolysis, and then The, pyruvate is reduced to be our lactate, which is basically just lactic acid. That's the big chemistry lesson for you today.
Jam:So when we start out with is so you said it's basically the same with milk or cream. Right? Because it were It's just one of them turned into yogurt, 1 of them turns into sour cream.
Melissa:Based on their fat content primarily.
Jam:Right. So but they start they similar process, but they start slightly differently because of the fact that content difference between
Melissa:And I think they use different bacteria possibly.
Jam:Oh, right. Right. Right. Right. Sorry about that part.
Jam:So they start off the way that we know them. You can buy some cream. You could buy some the milk. And then the you said it's glucose?
Melissa:So there's lactose is the sugar in
Jam:Oh, yes. Yes. Yes.
Melissa:In milk. Yep. But it can be, sort of broken down into something really similar to glucose that Can enter the glycolysis process.
Jam:It needs to get that first.
Jam:Yeah. Got it. Okay.
Jam:And it can be broken out of that, and then that Glycolysis process is when the bacteria takes it through 10 steps and Spits out the pyruvate or not spits out, but that's what it becomes at the by the end.
Melissa:Yeah.
Jam:And the pyruvate is then just One bond to oxygen different from lactic acid, and It would be reduced.
Melissa:Yes. It acts as an oxidizing agent because there's no oxygen to act as an oxidizing agent.
Jam:Uh-huh.
Melissa:So The oxidizing agents get reduced.
Jam:Okay. And then we end up with when that's happened A bunch of times all over the place in milk or in some cream, then it becomes yogurt or becomes Thyroid cream. Because a lot of the lactose to glucose to glycolysis to pyruvate to lactic acid.
Jam:Uh-huh. When When
Jam:it's happened a ton, then now it's something different.
Melissa:Now there's bunch of lactic acid. Yeah. And you gotta listen to the cheese episode to find out why acid has that effect.
Jam:Mhmm. Right.
Melissa:There you go. Or you just did listen to it, so you already know, I guess. Right. Jam hasn't really listened to it yet.
Jam:Right. But I did listen to it once
Melissa:Before. More than once, probably.
Jam:That's true. Yeah.
Melissa:Usually, you listen a few times when you're editing. Yeah.
Jam:So I have listened to it before.
Melissa:Yeah. Yeah.
Jam:And is that also just, like, why I mean, it makes sense that you're making that many changes. They taste so different, but especially because it's like Lactose to glucose. Like, you're messing with the sugary tasting stuff. Right? So, like, it gets you're taking away one thing, but you're also changing it.
Jam:So then it's like that tartness comes in, but, like, yogurt on its own without anything you've done to it is just really not sweet.
Melissa:Yes.
Jam:It is like just tart.
Melissa:Yeah. So a lot like, a lot of the sugar is taken out of it in that process, but also acid is sour. Mhmm. So when we learn about acids and bases, we learn that acids are sour and bases are bitter. Mhmm.
Jam:And
Melissa:so we Like, if you think of a lemon that has a pretty low pH, it's pretty acidic, and it's like sour and tart. So the flavor of lactic acid is also Sour and tart a little bit. Okay. But also you're removing some of the sugar that used to be there also. So it's like a combination of The flavor profile is just gonna change a lot from a combination of lose losing the lactic acid and the or sorry, losing the lactose, Adding in lactic acid.
Melissa:And, you know, it's possible that there's other byproducts that happen too.
Jam:Right.
Melissa:This is just the main one.
Jam:Yeah. Right.
Melissa:So, yeah, it's a it's a double whammy in flavor change.
Jam:Yeah. Interesting. Remember the 1st time I had, like you know, as a kid, I had very sweetened yogurt all the time. You know, like, just Yoplait or go over.
Melissa:Add the sugar back in?
Jam:Yeah.
Melissa:Yeah. Probably just plain sugar in that case.
Jam:I started trying to, like, make, like, a healthy ish sort of smoothie kinda thing In college, I remember buying just, like, plain unsweetened Greek yogurt. Yeah. And, like, I was like, I love yogurt, and I still do. But I was like, I remember being like, I love yogurt. And I just A spoonful of it and just ate it.
Jam:And I remember being like, like, just, like, so surprised.
Melissa:Yeah. But, like
Jam:and I still didn't hate it really, but it's just like, Wow. My childhood of eating sweet yogurt did not prepare me for this flavor. You know?
Melissa:You know, I do love, Not a sponsor, but this this brand called Siggies. Mhmm. And it's skyr, s k y r Uh-huh. Instead of just like a traditional yogurt, but all that is all still fermented milk. So, basically, just yogurt.
Melissa:But they it has high protein and a low sugar content, but I feel like it's a little bit less tart than a lot of Greek yogurt.
Jam:Uh-huh.
Melissa:And, I had little tiny chocolate chips.
Jam:Nice.
Melissa:It's really good.
Jam:Nice.
Melissa:And, also, our friend Sam who asked this question said A lot of times in recipes, he'll swap out sour cream for Greek yogurt, which I have heard people do for different protein and Bad content.
Jam:Mhmm.
Melissa:Well, if you're trying to bulk up, you want more protein.
Jam:Yeah.
Jam:So
Jam:What's crazy is that, I was just thinking About whenever I went to or for that humanitarian nonprofit for years, one of the Place I went to where there are various humanitarian projects going on that I just kinda went and learned about and documented a little bit, was in Central Asia, and they just make their own essentially Greek yogurt, but it's probably slightly different. Yogurt on their own just all the time. Yeah. It's like, oh, yeah. We put some milk.
Jam:We do this. And, like, what they they do it like other things That have bacteria or yeast in them. You know? It was like, oh, you add a little bit of yogurt from your piece batch into it. Yes.
Jam:You know?
Melissa:Yeah. Just like a sourdough starter.
Jam:Exactly. And they would just do that. It was amazing. I mean, it was like I think it it didn't probably because they don't let it happen for a long time, I think it yogurifies Some other way, but it's not quite as tart as, like, the Greek yogurt you complain about from the store.
Melissa:Well, in different
Jam:still some lactose. Yeah. But I remember it being, like just like they chat with breakfast and stuff, and it was, like, so good. Yeah. And they always had it.
Jam:It was, like, just a regular part of so many different meals and stuff.
Melissa:That would be some of the traditional like, a traditional yogurt.
Jam:Yeah.
Melissa:But one of the things I read said different, like, strains of Bacteria Uh-huh. Will give different flavors, but also different times. How long you let it go will also give different tartness levels of tartness.
Jam:Yeah.
Melissa:So that makes sense. So, yeah, I bet that is amazing. And I did read, like, some of the American Chemical Society, I think, or maybe I used a lot of extension in websites as well, which we've talked about that before in our sea level rise episode. They Had information on how to start it, and there were the options were either use a previous batch just like a sourdough starter, a yogurt starter, Or you can buy, like, the colonies of bacteria, like, similar to
Jam:yeast. Yeah. And this is in with kombucha. You leave a little bit of your previous batch, I never reached out to anyone. It's like yeah.
Jam:Interesting.
Melissa:I'm so jealous that you've had yogurt, like, fresh made.
Jam:Mhmm.
Melissa:Did they call it yogurt?
Jam:Yeah. It was just like and it was like, yeah. Want some yogurt? And then I think I remember saying something, but, like, oh, I don't wanna eat all of it. I'm like, oh, we'll just make some more.
Jam:And, like, they told I remember asking I was very interested in this, and I we're asking I can't remember their time frame, but they're like, oh, add some milk to this, use some of the other batch. And then in how many days, it'll be it'll be good to go. But they made it just seem so easy. And I was like, it The way you put it, it is easy. I guess we just are so not used to it.
Melissa:Yeah. You know? We also, I do think yogurt is fermented at a higher temperature. It's one of the things I read, but it made me think of the have you seen Brooklyn 99?
Jam:No. I haven't.
Melissa:There was a character who was Making yogurt at his desk, and he touches it, and it's really hot. And I'm like, yeah. Because the bacteria is putting out energy. I don't know. I don't I don't know if it's an a thermic process where they put out energy, like, heat as well, but Yeah.
Melissa:It reminded me of that when they said they that is a different temperature. And I do think the different temperatures Could also come into play between sour cream and, yogurt as well.
Jam:Interesting. That's a that's funny. Like, that's some hot yogurt. Yeah.
Melissa:Yeah. So, anyway, that's the fun thing I learned about about yogurt and sour cream is it's basically the same. Not really, but you can taste and see the difference.
Jam:But Yeah.
Melissa:It's a similar process, a similar idea. We just start with some kind of milk product, Then you add some cocktail of bacteria, and they're gonna ferment it using this lactic acid fermentation process, And they'll produce ultimately, they'll turn the lactose into lactic acid.
Jam:So But why is yogurt so much better than sour cream?
Jam:Like, how
Jam:can we prove this that that?
Jam:You know what?
Melissa:I feel like I've never heard people talk about sour cream still having live cultures in it.
Jam:That's a good point. Like, yogurt gets a lot of that. It's like, hey. This is good probiotic blah blah blah.
Melissa:Do you think sour cream's not?
Jam:Very good question.
Melissa:It was hard to find the difference. Even between milk and there wasn't a thing that was like, oh, here. I'm gonna break down the difference between cheese and Yogurt for you. I had to go learn about the cheese. I, like, relearned, went and listened to our old episode, and then I went and learned about yogurt separately And drew my own conclusions based on those separate resources.
Melissa:But it there was not a lot of stuff that said, like, oh, yeah. Here's the difference between the types of fermented milk?
Jam:Interesting. Yeah. Wow.
Melissa:So I felt like I didn't get a a satisfying of an answer about cream? Maybe we'll do a whole other episode about what makes it different. Yeah. I kinda feel like I don't even know what it tastes like really because I just Use Greek yogurt because I don't usually have sour cream on hand.
Jam:Yeah. It's like I feel like none of them really had it as in tacos or burritos or whatever. And I always kinda feel like, oh, I don't. This isn't really doing anything for me here. Yeah.
Jam:Occasionally, I've had, like, a, like, a kind of fast food, kind of taco sort of place or whatever, where they just Don't really do a great job sometimes of, like, putting reasonable amounts of things. So it's just like, there's just way too much sour cream in here. I'm just like, I just Dude, it's not even I don't even need this.
Melissa:You know? Dude. Chewy's is a chain restaurant around here that has a tomatillo sauce with with Some kind of sour cream in it? They could deluxe someone to use those, and that is really good.
Jam:That sounds good to me. But it's like when it's like, yeah, we just, you know
Melissa:Here's just a glob something Yeah.
Jam:To your taco
Melissa:Blob is the word that you think of when you think of sour cream.
Jam:I'm just like, now I can't taste the other stuff that's good as well because you put that all over it.
Melissa:Well, that was really fun. I was gonna ask you what your favorite fermented milk was, but we kinda talked about it already. So
Jam:Yeah. I guess you probably know know.
Melissa:I guess and so we should just do a fun thing from this week.
Jam:Okay. Let's do
Melissa:it. What's what's been fun for your week?
Jam:I What a good question.
Jam:You
Jam:got one already?
Melissa:No. I don't. Because I was gonna ask your favorite fermented milk instead.
Jam:Well, I'll I'll just say this. This just kind of gets weird because of the anachronism, the fact that we're recording so far ahead. But, We it was actually for the Thanksgiving holidays, the days off, or whatever. We went and hung out with my, some of my family members that still live in Abilene. And, so that was cool.
Jam:One thing I was gonna share about though is that, we we were trying to look For an Airbnb to stay at because I've got a whole crew now. You know? It's like my wife, my mother-in-law, our 2 kids, And it was like, okay. That's a lot of people. For anyone to have that many have a space in their house Yeah.
Jam:Is a lot. So we were looking at Airbnb, And we're gonna yeah. We're trying to find a good Airbnb. Of course, prices go up near holidays and that kind of stuff. And then my, mom had a friend some friends who were out of town.
Jam:Mhmm.
Jam:And they were just like, oh, y'all can stay at our house, or it won't be there.
Melissa:That's nice.
Jam:So we stayed at this house, and it was, like, Really nice.
Jam:Like, it was like like,
Jam:man, we really got an
Melissa:upgrade here.
Jam:We went
Melissa:Oh, we should not be allowed to stay in this house. Yeah.
Jam:It did feel like that. It felt like, if they knew yeah. I don't know. It just was kinda funny because it went from being like, hey. What's the cheapest Airbnb we could get?
Jam:To being like, Staying at a place, I was like, if this was an Airbnb, we could not afford.
Melissa:We could even afford, like, half of it. Is it that much nicer? Yes.
Jam:But this
Melissa:What was the fanciest thing?
Jam:Okay. I'll tell you. This is not everyone's fanciest thing, but for me actually, I'll tell you 2 things. 2 fancy things. 1, Counter height, or under counter microwave thing.
Melissa:Oh, yeah.
Jam:That when I I was like, how do you use this? Like, I was could not figure out at first. The screen kinda, like, folds down. It kinda folds out. Mhmm.
Jam:And then you press a button, and it opens like a drawer.
Melissa:Oh my gosh.
Jam:You put yourself down into it and then press a button and it closes.
Melissa:That is wild.
Jam:I was like, This is very cool. And that's, like, the kind of thing that I'd I'm very amused by that's
Melissa:Yeah.
Jam:Probably not that much more expensive than another microwave.
Melissa:But it feels really I mean, if you have that kinda you have fancy microwave money.
Jam:Yep. Exactly. And then the other thing is they This this is cool, but, it gets funny. There was, like, in multiple multiple bedrooms, like, a little, kind of just stair system, like, installed in the rooms. Like, it was, like, a couple speakers mounted and, like, a little, like, control thing on the Mhmm.
Jam:Wall. Like, kinda where the needle eye switches. So you could, like, go to some radio stations and just play music in there. And I think there's a way you could, like, Put it to a certain setting and then maybe, like, just Bluetooth connect to your phone.
Jam:Yeah. It
Jam:was kinda just cool. Like, oh, there's already, like, stereo system in here where you can just Connect to it, and all the rooms have it, and it's the same works the same way.
Melissa:Music all through the house?
Jam:I guess you probably could do that.
Melissa:Or you could have your own music in each Room?
Jam:Yeah. I think that's probably their main thing. But yeah. But then I was stepping to the stations on there, and they had, like, 3 radio stations and then 2 channels for connecting your own device somehow That I never really tinkered with. And then they had 1 additional channel, which you would never guess, but was literally just, Like, the audio from Seinfeld episodes.
Melissa:No. Just
Jam:just streaming. Like, just What? Like and
Jam:it was, like, I think a whole episode and just the audio from it, and then when it finished 1, it played the next. But it was
Melissa:like How was that happening?
Jam:I don't know.
Melissa:It almost seems like somebody forgot and their phone was just, like, running, but it wouldn't have worked the whole weekend like that.
Jam:It wouldn't. In fact, I think it'd be More likely, I didn't investigate this at all, but that you know, Seinfeld is syndicatable and is on everything. It's always playing on something. Yeah. But there's somebody at some point, but, like, maybe, like, a it's, like, on a SiriusXM channel, where it's literally just all the sampled episodes playing end to end.
Melissa:That is hilarious.
Jam:But I was thinking, like, one huge value would be, like, I could listen to this and fall asleep to it. Yeah. And I was thinking maybe that's why they have it on there. I was like, what if somebody who lives at this house is a Seinfeld fan? And they're like, oh, let's get that Seinfeld
Melissa:bedtime show.
Jam:On there. Yeah. I'm gonna put it on. If you've seen all the episodes before
Melissa:You don't have to look at it.
Jam:Yeah. You could just listen. And I was like, that's pretty genius if there's a show you like that much that you've watched all of. But I just was like, That means they're so surprised.
Melissa:I just do that with my phone. I just, like, close my phone so it's, like, black and just But keep the thing Yeah. Playing.
Jam:Yeah.
Melissa:Because I sometimes have to listen to stuff.
Jam:And because I'm a Seinfeld fan, I was like, I cannot believe that this is
Melissa:a thing I'm here. So lucky.
Jam:Yeah. It was great.
Melissa:But you haven't seen have you not seen all of it. Right? Because you go slowly. So did you get spoiled?
Jam:I have seen I have I've been saving the finale even though I kinda know some of the stuff that happens, but I've seen every episode, I think, multiplies at this point, but just still have never seen the finale. I kept thinking, like I was doing that thing, savoring it, watching it slowly for a couple of years.
Melissa:Yeah.
Jam:And then I stopped short. I watched the family because I kinda thought, man, once I watched this, I've seen it all.
Melissa:So the finale didn't play while you were there?
Jam:No. And I also didn't really listen to that much of it.
Melissa:Because I guess you had your family there.
Jam:Yeah. And not only the kids could fall asleep to it as much as I could. Yeah. So, Anyway yeah. So that was my 2 fun things.
Melissa:That's fun. Yeah. Well, mine's also kind of anachronistic. So a few years ago, we decided for Christmas that we would give experiences instead of gifts. Uh-huh.
Melissa:Because, you know, nobody needs more stuff. And if you need something, you should just buy the exact one you want.
Jam:Right. Right.
Melissa:So we were each supposed to do an experience every year. Well, it took, like, 3 years to do the experience? Uh-huh. So we're just now did the one for, my sister and her and her husband, did one, my brother-in-law. And it was to go kayaking in East Texas, and it was really cool.
Melissa:We brought well, I guess everybody else canoed, but we brought our kayaks that we had, this is kind of a throwback, but we bought inflatable kayaks and checked them on a plane to go Kayak in lakes in Canada because it was cheaper than renting the ones at these really big tourist sessions.
Jam:And you have to rent multiple once.
Melissa:You'd have to do it multiple times. It but it paid for just If we had just rented 1, this was still cheaper than that. We'd done a few hours with in there. So that that's how we decided to do that. Yeah.
Melissa:So we were able to use our kayaks again. Mhmm. And we went into and I love kayaking. I love to say idea that I'm moving my my body with my arms or legs, like biking or kayaking. Like, I'm traveling
Jam:Yeah. Yeah.
Melissa:Yeah. On my own power with, like, simple tools created by men Yeah. At or by humans. You know? I'm like, this is really cool.
Melissa:So that was fun, but we went I didn't expect I didn't expect anything. I didn't look anything up. I was like, oh, we're just gonna pat on an open lake. That'll be cool.
Jam:Mhmm.
Melissa:No. It was not like that Uh-huh. There was, I can't remember the name of the trees, but there was these Cypress maybe or some really beautiful trees that we, like, went in and out, and it felt like The closest thing I can think of too is when, Luke Skywalker goes to find Yoda in that weird swamp, and there's all those trees?
Jam:Yeah.
Melissa:And it was so beautiful, and the water was really smooth. There's one place called Clear Lake, and the water looked like a mirror of the Trees, but you're kind of, like, weaving in and out of a forest. It almost felt like hiking in a kayak. Mhmm. It was really fun and really beautiful.
Melissa:And, my nephew was there, and my new baby nephew was there, and he's looking Real cute. You know? He's getting to, like, the 6 months cute time. And so
Jam:That's awesome.
Melissa:Yeah. We just had a really great time. So that was our Christmas experience from 3 years ago, and we decided by the time this comes out, I guess it'll have happened That for now on at Christmas, we're gonna each person brings a proposal. Mm-mm. And then we'll just do 1 trip per year based on the proposal.
Jam:Nice.
Melissa:And so I get to, like, put together a PowerPoint.
Jam:Nice.
Melissa:And I can propose anything, and then we just vote on it.
Jam:That's cool. I like that.
Melissa:So that's gonna be fun.
Jam:Yeah.
Melissa:That's my fun thing.
Jam:Nice.
Melissa:Alright. Well, I think this episode is coming out in January, so, We would be remiss not to note that it is now officially 2024 in the future when this is coming out. Uh-huh. And happy New Year.
Jam:Mhmm.
Jam:I hope
Melissa:you all had a good and safe holiday season, and we're excited for a whole new year with with y'all of chemistry.
Jam:Mhmm.
Jam:A whole new year's chemistry.
Melissa:Yeah. 2024, the year of the chemistry.
Jam:Nice.
Melissa:Anyway, so thank you so much for, For Sam and for for writing in the, this idea. This was a really good topic. And thanks again to Elizabeth, And thanks for learning and letting me talk all about the dairy, the fermented milks.
Jam:Yes. Thanks for teaching us about the all the milks And all the fermentedness of it. And,
Melissa:Happy to.
Jam:Yeah. And if you have an idea or a question or a thought or idea, Like, I I said it. Yeah. Like our friends who suggested this one, please reach out to us on our website at kim for your life.com. That's Kim, f o r, your life.com.
Jam:Just share your thoughts and ideas with us. If you'd like to help us keep our show going and contribute to cover the cost of making it, You could join our super cool Kim community of patrons@patreon.com/kem for your life to join that cool cool community. We'd love to have you. And if you're not able to do that, you can still help us by subscribing to your favorite podcast app or rating and writing our view on Apple Podcasts or subscribing on YouTube. All those things help us to share chemistry with even more people.
Melissa:This episode of chemistry free life was created by Melissa Colelli and Jam Robinson. Robinson is our producer, and this episode was made possible by our financial supporters over on Patreon. It means so much to us that you wanna help make chemistry accessible to even more bowl? And those supporters are Elizabeth, p a, Brie m, Brian k, Chris and Claire s, Chelsea b, Derek l, Emerson w, Hunter r, Jacob t, Christina g, Katrina h, Latila s, Lynn s, Melissa p, Nicole c, Rachel r, Sarah m, Steven b, Shadow, Suzanne p, Timothy p, and Venus r. Thank you all again for everything you do to make chemistry free life happen, and extra special thanks to Brie who often creates illustrations go along with episodes of chemistry free life that you can see over on our YouTube channel, and you can find how to support and follow Brie in our show notes At entropic dart art station.comor@mcallisterbree on Twitter.
Jam:Oh, yeah. And if you'd like to learn more about today's chemistry lesson, you can check the references for this episode in our show notes or the description of the video.
Melissa:He almost forgot. And now we say, yay
Jam:chemistry. Yeah.
Jam:I was, like, ready to
Melissa:go. So yay'd. You're so ready to be
