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Making Yogurt

Yogurt is simple to make yourself. It can be made with any type of milk: goat, cow, sheep, 2%, 1%, skim -- you can even make it from 100% powdered milk, or even soymilk. You don't need to purchase any special "yogurt maker," though they can make the process even simpler.

 

To make yogurt, you begin by heating about a quart of milk in a saucepan or microwave to at least 180 degrees. (Don't let it boil.) I didn't stir the whole time and the milk got a brown skin on the bottom, so be sure to stir! Also, all I had to measure with was a meat thermometer. I don't think it measured correctly because the milk started to boil when it wasn't close to 180 degrees.

cooking yogurt

Next, remove the milk from the heat, and let it cool to about 110 degrees. Again I was still using the meat thermometer so I don't know if it really was 110. Because of the skin, I poured the milk through a metal strainer into the container. Then, finally, stir in about 2 tablespoons of fresh, plain yogurt until well blended. This adds the necessary bacteria to your milk, and is called the starter. I used organic yogurt for the starter and stirred it in with a whisk.

Now the milk with starter needs to incubate so the bacteria can grow and change the milk into wonderful yogurt. I have a very inexpensive, non-electric Fresh and Natural brand yogurt maker I got from ebay. It is basically a large thermos which will keep the milk at the proper temperature for about 12 hours. If you don't have a yogurt maker, try any of the methods below to incubate your yogurt.

The finished yogurt is delicious! It tastes so smooth, even without any sweetener or flavorings, or fruit. Not at all like the bitter yogurt in stores. I mixed some with a bit of honey and some bananas, which was pretty good. But really it tastes so good plain that I'll just add fruit, and leave out the honey. Yummm!

Some Ways to Incubate Yogurt

  1. Pre-warm oven to 200 degrees Fahrenheit and turn off. Use an oven thermometer to monitor temperature -- do not let it drop below 100 degrees Fahrenheit. Turn oven on for short periods during incubation to maintain a temperature of 108 degrees Fahrenheit to 112 degrees Fahrenheit.

  2. Line an ice chest (picnic cooler) with aluminum foil. Place some jars or plastic pitchers filled with hot water (about 140 degrees Fahrenheit) inside the ice chest with the yogurt container(s) and cover ice chest with a tight-fitting lid. Allow space between jars and container(s) of yogurt. Don't peek or you'll let all the heat out.

  3. Nestle several cardboard boxes inside each other, placing crushed newspapers between each box. Continue as directed in Method 2 for ice chest.

  4. Another simple way to incubate a small amount of yogurt is to pour the yogurt mixture into a wide-mouth thermos and cover with a tight lid. When the yogurt is ready, loosen the thermos lid before storing it in the refrigerator so the yogurt can cool rapidly.

  5. Set filled container(s) of yogurt on a towel-covered heating pad set on medium heat in a sheltered corner on a kitchen counter. Cover the jars with several towels.

Take a look at some great books about making yogurt at the Chickensense Bookstore.


Helpful Yogurt Web Sites

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