Making Yogurt

The homesteading continues!

After several friends mentioned that making yogurt is easy as pie (Which, personally, I don't consider all that easy. I have a hard time making a nice crust.), I thought I'd give it a whirl.

In the end, Eric became the one giving it a whirl and I was assisting. However, homemade yogurt was created in our house and we've been working on perfecting it ever since. I think we've finally reached a good point in our trials. We now have a thick yogurt, not too tart, that is relatively easy to make and sets up in three hours.

Unfortunately, since both of us have a scientific bent, we like a little precision when it comes to dealing with bacteria laden foods and we like to use things like thermometers and aseptic techniques. Nonetheless, take heart! It turns out fantastic yogurt time after time.

We started with this guy's recipe and then fiddled with it to get a thickness we liked.

For 1/2 gallon of yogurt you will need:

• 2 quart containers, with lids
• 1 8 oz container, with lid
• 2 cup liquid measuring cup
  
• a candy thermometer
• a ladle
• stirring spoon/fork
  
• a small insulated cooler
• a heavy bottomed pot, with lid
• 1/2 gallon of milk (We like whole milk.)
• 1 to 3 tbsp powdered milk (Amount depends on the thickness you like. No powdered milk at all gives you drinkable yogurt. Three gives you a nice, thick yogurt.)
• 4 to 8 0z of unopened, plain yogurt with live, active cultures (This is your starter culture.)

My additions are in italics below.

1. Sterilize your jars, ladle, measuring cups, and spoons. If you are unconcerned about aseptic technique, just make sure they are squeaky clean.
   
2. If using powdered milk, whisk it into unheated milk until completely dissolved. We like to use 3 tbsp. If skipping powdered milk, your yogurt will be of a drinkable consistency, which is also nice.
   
3. Heat milk to 85-90^oC in double boiler (185-195 ^oF). If using a heavy pot, stir frequently to prevent sticking (He's not kidding, that stuff will burn on the bottom. If it does burn, just be careful while ladling the yogurt mixture into your quart jars to not rip up the burnt milk skin. Bleah!). Keep covered.
4. Remove from fire, place covered pot in pan of clean cool water (We use the kitchen sink. Fill with cold water and stir until you reach the proper temp.) until stirred milk is very close to 55^oC (130^oF).
5. Ladle 1 cup warm milk into 2 cup liquid measuring cup.
   
6. Stir up yogurt starter with a clean fork, add to 55^o C milk (In measuring cup, making a slurry, then add mixture to pot of warmed milk.), stir thoroughly, (temp should drop to 50 ^oC (122 ^o F) or just below). Pour still warm mixture into the two bottles, plus the smaller 8 oz jar. Cover immediately with the sterile lids.
7. Place filled bottles in cooler, add enough 50^oC (122 ^oF) water (We use the hot water left over from sterilizing the bottles. You can add additional cool water to bring it down to the correct temperature.) so that bottles are surrounded, but the water is well below the lid rims. The starter jar will have to be placed on a support to keep its lid above the water. Close the lid on the cooler to keep the heat in.
   
8. Do not disturb the yogurt and it will be finished in 3 hrs, provided the temperature does not drop below 40 ^oC (104 ^oF).
9. After 3 hours, remove jars from cooler and place in refrigerator, being careful to not jostle the jars.
   
10. Refrigerate until needed.

For more firm yogurt, add 2 Tbl powdered milk to the ½ gallon of milk prior to heating. Either whole or skimmed milk may be used, but whole milk makes richer yogurt.

Note that the 8oz container can be used as the starter culture for your next batch if you sterilized the container first.

The finished product, plus peaches!

It's actually a lot easier to do than it sounds here. However, even if it sounds a lot more complex than you were hoping for, it does give you consistent and repeatable results. And who doesn't like consistent, repeatable results?

And yummy yogurt!

You know who else likes yogurt?

Babies.

Yogurt 'stache.

I like to add either jam to my plain yogurt or a small amount of sugar and vanilla and chopped fruit. It also makes very nice smoothies, pancakes (Just swap the yogurt for the milk in the recipe and add a splash of milk to thin it as needed.) or whatever recipes where you'd like to use yogurt.

There are several benefits of making your own yogurt.

1. You get to control the amount of sugar.
2. You determine the flavorings. You probably won't be adding any dyes or high fructose corn syrup to your yogurt, either.
3. You get to control the quality of the milk used. Remember: Yummy In, Yummy Out.
4. If you normally don't like plain yogurt because it's too tart, you'll be pleasantly surprised at how mellow this yogurt is.
5. No more unrecyclable plastic containers!
6. More when you need it, plus a few hours.
7. Breakfast! Lunch! Healthy snacks! Dessert, even!
8. The price is right. For the cost of one half gallon of milk and some time, you can have a lot of yogurt.
9. You'll suddenly discover new ways to use yogurt in your baking.
10. Did I mention that it's yummy?

Try it and let me know what you think!