I made a discovery yesterday. 3 days ago I’d had some of those Cheerios with the dried strawberries in them, and in my laziness left the bowl, with some milk still in it, under the coffee table and forgot about it. When cleaning up yesterday I found the bowl and saw that the milk had thickened to a yogurt-like consistency, and it smelled sweet. Seems that I might have made yogurt! I’m not gung-ho about sampling it, but I am curious, if one were to eat it, would it be safe or would it kill ya?
Just my WAG here (wanted to post early before you actually ATE the stuff…) yogurt isn’t just spoiled milk. It’s got “active yogurt cultures” in it. Special bacteria - not the bacteria that floats around your coffee table. If you want to actually MAKE yogurt, you either need to get some of these bacterii or start off with a “base” of store-bought yogurt.
Yogurt by itself is not sweet. It’s pretty gross without sugar 
What you’ve got is more like spoiled, curdled milk and strawberries. At best, it’s sour cream. But I don’t think you put unpasteurized milk in your cereal, didja?
Oh no, I wouldn’t actually eat it…I’m just curious. I wasn’t sure if that kind of bacteria had to be introduced or if the combination of milk and sugars would “grow” the bacteria…But, good to know anyway! At least it didn’t stink…then, anyway…
Hey, I just thought…if bacteria has to be introduced to make yogurt, how do cultures with little or no modern technology do it? I don’t think they would have a store of bacteria on hand…?
Oh, there’s bacteria in milk as it comes out of the animal. That’s the original source of all of these food products, and their distinctive flavors/textures. Yogurt is traditionally made from ewe’s milk, since that has the bacteria in it that, well, changes milk to yogurt.
Nowadays, we pasteurize our milk before drinking it, killing the bacteria in it. The reason is that, along with the neat-o bacteria that let milk turn into sour cream, yogurt, buttermilk, etc., there are also bacteria that can kill you. The products of this type that you buy in your supermarket are ‘cultured’-the producers have a stash of the ‘good’ bacteria which they use to ‘seed’ the pasteurized milk or cream. This also lets you, for example, make yogurt from cow’s milk by adding the ewe’s milk bacteria cultures.
If you really want to make your own yogurt at home, you have three basic options. One is to get raw ewe’s milk and let it sit at the right temperature for the right length of time. This method is not recommended by the Society of People Who Don’t Want You To Eat Things That Might Kill You. (Killjoys!) You can take pasteurized milk & add a yogurt culture, then do the same thing. Or you can do it the really fun way-buy some yogurt that advertises ‘active cultures’ and use that as a ‘starter’. Save a little from each batch to use as starter for your next batch (kind of like making sourdough bread), and you’ll have yogurt for life!