Millions of pints of milk are thrown away each year, often just because the label says it’s expired. But according to a professional chef and YouTuber, it could still be perfectly fine and turned into something delicious instead. Cristian Feher, a chef and food expert who runs the YouTube channel Food Chain TV, says people are wasting good dairy without checking if it’s actually gone off.
In his video titled ‘STOP throwing out EXPIRED MILK! Do this instead and save money’, he said: “Just because something says it’s expired, it’s not necessarily expired. You’ve got to stick your nose in there and smell. If it’s still good, it’s still good. If it’s not, your nose will let you know.”
Instead of throwing milk or cream away, Feher says to turn it into homemade yoghurt.
“So if you have milk or dairy products in your fridge and they’re about to expire, don’t throw them out. Here’s what I do,” he said.
He begins by pouring all his dairy into an electric pressure cooker. “Whether it be milk, heavy cream, half and half, this will work. If you have a combination, this will still work,” he explained.
“Okay now here is where we’re going to save money. Most of us probably have some yoghurt sitting around in the fridge somewhere.
“And any yoghurt will work, even flavoured yoghurt will work. So you just grab one little spoonful of yoghurt and you add it to your cow juice.
“Give it a little stir. And in case you didn’t know, yoghurt is made by adding bacteria to milk and then once those special bacteria eat the milk, then they turn it into yoghurt.”
He also adds a pinch of sea salt and a tablespoon of vanilla extract before closing the lid.
“Notice that I leave the valve off because this doesn’t need to be sealed tight. There can be a little tiny bit of air circulation, not a big deal.”
Feher uses the yoghurt setting on his pressure cooker, which keeps the temperature around 100-110F (around 40C), perfect for the bacteria to grow.
He says the yoghurt can take anywhere from 12 to 24 hours depending on the fat content.
“I like my yoghurt really, really tart,” he said, leaving his to ferment for 18 hours.
The end result, he said, is far better than anything you can buy: “All the bacteria have eaten the milk and left behind this beautiful, silky, rich yoghurt. I guarantee you this is so much better quality than any yoghurt you can buy at the grocery store.”
“Can you imagine throwing out all that milk because it was about to expire? Now you can turn it into beautiful yoghurt.”
Feher chills his yoghurt before serving it with chopped fruit and a drizzle of sweetened condensed milk.
“The world is your oyster,” he added. “It was so good, so incredibly tasty, silky.”