Sunday, August 1, 2010

Yogurt

Making yogurt can be very simple if you use a store bought yogurt as your starter. All it takes is a good sized dollop of yogurt with active cultures. Make sure you choose one that doesn't have any sweetener or fruit mixed in, just plain yogurt. Choose a variety that you already like because the resulting yogurt will take its flavor from what you use as a starter. This was my first attempt at making yogurt. It came out well but I think next time I will use a little less milk so that I end up with a slightly thicker end product.


As with the vinegar cheese, I started with two quarts of fresh, raw milk. I added 2/3 C of powdered milk to mine to help thicken it. I started by heating the milk slowly until it reached 185 F. I then allowed it to cool down to 110 F. I just let mine sit and cool on the counter while I stirred it occasionally but if you want to cool it faster, you can put the pot in a sink of ice water. Just keep a close eye on it because it will cool down very quickly if done that way.

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After it was cooled to the correct temperature, I added a few heaping spoonfuls of the plain yogurt I was using as a starter.

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I have a yogurt maker, so after the plain yogurt was stirred in, I simply poured the milk into my yogurt maker, put the lid on, and left it to sit on the counter. I have heard of electric yogurt makers, but the one I have isn't. It is like a mini cooler. It has a removable plastic bucket where you pour in the milk and the bucket sits inside a styrofoam housing. All it does is keep the milk at the correct temperature for the yogurt cultures to incubate and turn all the milk to yogurt.

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The mixture sits in the yogurt maker for 7-10 hours. When it is done, I simply spoon the yogurt into the container of my choice. Very easy and delicious!



You can easily make yogurt without a yogurt maker though I have not done it this way. These directions are taken from a thread at backyardchickens.com and are not written by me:

Pour the mixture into a quart sized jar. Wrap in a dishtowel to insulate.

Using a second jar, fill it with boiling water. Wrap it in a dish towel to insulate.

Place both jars in a small cooler that you have heated with hot water***. Allow the yogurt to cure for 10 - 12 hours. When the milk is set to a solid it is ready. Refrigerate and serve cold.


***Do not leave water in the cooler. Fill the cool with hot water while you are preparing everything then pour it out. You simply want a warm place to incubate your yogurt cultures.

1 comment:

Deborah said...

VERY cool! I've been talking about making yogurt. I will bookmark this and come back to it when I'm ready. Thanks!!