Making Your Own Yogurt
Blog reader, Shawna, graciously sent me a link to a homemade yogurt recipe that can be made without a machine. Have any of you done this before? I am seriously considering trying it. I'll let you know if I do. Any other recipes or hints or suggestions from those of you who have done this before?
posted by Crystal Paine at 12:22 PM
14 Comments:
I made the one in "French Women Don't Get Fat." It was too liquidy. I think it needs to be put in cheesecloth. I have had a yogurt machine for a couple of months but have yet to find time to use it. :(
Sorry, Crystal, I don't have any suggestions as I've never made it before. But I did sample some one Sunday at our home church gathering a few years ago.
The mom who brought it had a huge tray completely filled with little paper cups of homemade vanilla yogurt. I heard it was made from goat's milk, so to be honest I wasn't going to even touch it.
Someone talked me into it...and I was sold! It tasted like dessert--very yummy. So it was a positive experience, and I think it might be worth trying making your own. :)
I wrote my comment above before clicking over to the link you had for the yogurt recipe from Fuller Farms.
Hmm, on second thought, maybe I'll just wait and see if I can get some homemade yogurt whenever I visit someone again. :)
My mom and I used to make our own yogurt (from cow and goat's milk), and it turned out really well...It is very simple and I like it very well. We normally ate it on granola, or in fruit milkshakes for breakfast.
My missionary friends in Uganda taught me how to make yogurt this summer- you need whole milk, and some "culture" stuff (wish I knew a brand name, but this was Uganda- but its just some sort of enzyme that you can probably get at health food stores)- you throw the culture in with the milk, regrigerate over night in a thermos, and have yogurt the next morning...
Some tips:
Keep things very clean and use glass and stainless steel. (no wooden spoons to stir it)
You are working with good bacteria here and even setting your spoon down on the counter that was not quite clean and stirring your yogurt can introduce the wrong one and you will have slimy yogurt. Yogurt is pretty easy, but I used to make cheese alot and that was really senstive.
Also temp. is important. If your milk is too hot you will kill your culture. If it is too cold, It will take longer to set and will be sour. My mom used to make 3 gallons of yogurt at a time. If you get the temp right then you will not have whey on the top of the yogurt. When you are letting it set, it is important to not let it get too hot or cold also. Mom had a dehydrator she could take out the shelves and set the jars in there and keep it at the perfect temp. or some people use a gas stove with a pilot light.
Using stainless steel or glass is important as aluminum (not only is not good for you) but it affects the milk somehow.
I've made our own yogurt several times. I found it very simple to do. I made it in jars that I left in our oven overnight (we had a gas oven with a pilot light).
I also tried a crockpot version that didn't work well at all.
And I've made it in jars wrapped on towels with a heating pad underneath- this also is likely to be too warm (or was for me), although you could just put more layers of towel between heating pad and yogurt jar.
Making yogurt is very easy. I just put the milk in the pot and warm it up just until it foams up, than I cool it in a sink of cold water until I can put my finger in to the count of 10, add the culture (you can use store bought yogurt, a couple of spoons) and than pour the milk into a glass jar or I use a round casserole dish, put on the lid and wrap in towels for most of the day or over night.
Hope this makes sense! :)
Crystal-
Everyone that I know who makes it goes on and on about how easy it is. Be sure to email Chris at Fuller Farm, if you have any questions. She is great and a real encouragement.
Shawna
My mom makes yogurt frequently. To make it thicker, she adds powdered milk or evaporated milk.
If you don't have a gas oven, the top of the fridge can be another warm place for incubation, or the water heater if yours is inside the house.
Also, I don't think you need to scald the milk unless you get it fresh from the cow. I think the scalding step is leftover from back when milk was fresh from the cow and had natural enzymes & bacteria that needed to be destroyed so they wouldn't compete with the yogurt culture.
That recipe sounds like it should work quite well! I've made yogurt in the past. One thing you have to remember is that it's not going to be exactly like storebought yogurt!
We make yogurt every week or two. We've done just about everything wrong there is to do wrong (!), but it's very rare that the result isn't good. We heat the milk to 180 degrees (but we've accidentally gone way higher than that before) and stir it occasionally (I'd never heard that about the wooden spoon...we always use a wooden spoon!). Then we cool it down in a sink of icy water. You can also just let it sit to cool down, but cooling it down quicker seems to produce thicker yogurt. We stir in about 1 cup of yogurt (just regular from the store--not vanilla or anything). We pour it in jars and leave it in a *slightly* warm oven for 4-6 hours (we've left it way longer than that, but 4-5 hours is all it takes).
Speaking of accidents, we finally made a sticky note to put on the oven to remind us when yogurt's in there. We've broiled plastic containers at least 2-3 times. =) (I know, it looks like we'd learn...!)
Just my two cents...it's really easy!
Thanks for the link and the kind words.
I have been able to get a thicker yogurt by simply adding more yogurt culture.
If you make it once and it doesn't turn out just keep experimenting. I have this knack for having to make lots of mistakes before getting it right. So press on if you can. Blessings!!
This is the recipe I use, too!!! I love the way it turns out and my four children from ages 18 months to 12 years loves it, too. The only thing I do differently is that I use 8 ounces of yogurt culture instead of 4. Let us know how it turns out for you...
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