Anyone make their own yogurt?

[Sara Noel]

From scratch or with a yogurt maker? I am wonderng how the taste is. Post a recipe if you have one please.

TIA,
Sara

[rainbowgc]

Making Homemade Yogurt

Yogurt is delicious and very nutritious--high in protein and
calcium. I eat it daily, and have found that I can "make" my own
for about 1/4 the cost of store bought. A quart of store brand
plain fat free yogurt costs $1.99, and I can make it, for very
little effort, for about $0.50/quart.

First, you will need to buy some plain yogurt to use as a
"starter"--it must states "Contains Live Active Cultures" on the
container. A small amount of these cultures will enable you to
turn plain milk into yogurt.

Put 2 TBSP of the yogurt in a small bowl on the counter to come to
room temperature. Put the remainder of the yogurt into an ice cube
tray, about 1 TBSP per section. Freeze; you can thaw and use this
for later batches (2 TBSP yogurt per quart of milk). After the
cubes are frozen, you can put them into a gallon sized ziploc bag
to store in your freezer.

To make one quart of yogurt, you will need:
A heavy saucepan
Candy Thermometer
A thermos, at least 1 quart in size
1 quart (4 cups) skim milk
1/2 cup dry instant skim milk
2 TBSP plain yogurt at room temperature (with live active cultures)
Other additives as desired (see end of recipe for suggestions)

Mix the milk and dry milk in the saucepan. Over medium low heat
and using candy thermometer, bring milk to 180 degrees. Stir
frequently, and turn down heat if milk is heating too fast. When
milk reaches 180 degrees, remove saucepan from burner--you are
waiting for it to cool to 115 degrees.

While it is cooling, you need to preheat the thermos. An easy way
to do this is to boil about 12 oz of water in the microwave and
pour the water into the thermos. Close tightly. Empty out the
water just before filling the thermos with yogurt.

When the milk cools to 115 degrees, remove 1/2 cup of milk from the
saucepan and mix thoroughly with the 2 TBSP of yogurt you set out
earlier. Then combine the yogurt-milk mixture with the milk in the
saucepan thoroughly. Pour mixture into preheated thermos.

Let thermos sit out on counter for 4-8 hours--the longer it sits,
the tarter the yogurt will be. After 4-8 hours, open the thermos
and you should have *yogurt*! You may have to shake the thermos to
get the yogurt out. Put it into a container and refrigerate.

You can use 2 TBSP of your "homemade" yogurt as a starter for your
next batch; after 2 or 3 chained batches of yogurt, it may start to
get runny, and you will probably want to use your frozen yogurt
cubes to start your next batch(thawed and brought to room
temperature).

My favorite way to eat it is to blend in wheat germ and dried fruit
bits. You can also add sugar to the milk when heating it, and add
vanilla flavoring right before putting into the thermos. Other
flavorings such as applesauce or jelly can be added right before
serving.

Enjoy!

[mustang80]

How about frozen yogurt? I just got a cookbook at a yardsale for making frozen yogurt! If you want a recipe, I can post one, LMK what you have in mind!

[Sara Noel]

Thanks rainbowgc
That's just what I was looking for. I can't wait to try it. I'll let you know how I do.

Sara

Thanks yolo also. I hadn't even heard of using a heating pad, so that was really interesting. I really enjoy making things from scratch.

[baf3girls]

I am interested in making my own yogurt but need the recipe. Does anyone have one that works? There is a sale on yogurt this week and if I need starter now would be the time to get it.

Thanks
Beth

[Sara Noel]

Yogurt takes a little bit of time to make. Not actual ‘working on it’ time but time for it to sit and culture. Yogurt is a cultured product, much like cheese. It is a very easy and economical to make.

Before you begin there are a few things to make sure you have on hand and a few things to know and understand about the process. Most of what you need you will be able to find in the grocery store.

You need to begin with “starter yogurt”. Starter yogurt is yogurt that has been made with active live cultures; this is the friendly bacteria that will turn your milk into yogurt. You can buy a small container of yogurt at the grocery to use for this purpose. Make sure that the container says “Made with live cultures” or something of this nature. You want to buy plain yogurt, not flavored. Each time you make yogurt you will need some starter. You can use your own starter, but over time it looses its potency and your yogurt will not turn out. So I always begin with store bought yogurt. You can freeze your starter yogurt in ice cube trays so that it is convenient to have on hand.

As far as tools for making yogurt go, you will need a thermometer. A candy thermometer bought from the grocery store will work just fine. You will need a large pot to heat up your milk and then something to incubate your yogurt for about 12 hours. The temperature of the yogurt must stay between 90 and 110 degrees during this incubation time.

There are a variety of ways of maintaining this temperature. If you have a gas stove, putting your yogurt in the stove and leaving the pilot light on may be enough. Make sure you have a thermometer in the oven so you can keep an eye on the temperatures. If you have a stove that you can set at around 100 degrees, this works also. Another method that works is to use a small styrofoam ice chest. While you are making the yogurt fill up the ice chest with hot tap water. Right before you set the jars in the ice chest empty the water, place filled jars in the ice chest, and fill with 110 degree water up to the bottom edge of the lids. Put the cover on and place a blanket over this. After about 4 hours check to make sure the water is still the right temperature (between 90-110 degrees). If the water is cooling down, dump half of it out and replace with 110 degree water and cover again. Check every 1 ½ hours or so to make sure the water is staying warm. If the temperature of your yogurt gets to high or to low then it will kill the culture. So it is important that during the incubation period that your temperature stays between 90 and 110 degrees.

Here is my easy and tasty homemade yogurt recipe

Homemade Yogurt


8 cups milk, cow or goat (I raise Nubian goats and use my own goat’s milk most often, but have made lots of yogurt with cow’s milk from the store) 1/3 cup powdered milk (this is optional but will make a thicker yogurt) ¼ cup pure maple syrup, optional for sweetened yogurt ½ cup starter yogurt

Before you begin wash 2 – quart sized canning jars. If you want to use 4- pint sized jars instead that would be fine too. Have the metal rings and lids ready to cover the jars when you are done.

Pour your milk into a large cooking pot. Heat the milk up to 185 degrees. Allow the milk to cool down to 110 degrees. The cooling can take a long time. If you want to speed the process up fill your sink with cold water and place the pot of hot milk in the water and stir and stir. The temperature drops fairly quickly this way, so make sure to have your thermometer handy to keep checking.

After you reach 110 degrees add the remaining ingredients and stir until everything is dissolved very well. Pour this mixture into your ready and waiting jars. Put the lids on and put them into what ever place you are planning to incubate and culture them. Leave them there for 10 to 12 hours. Try not to disturb the jars to much. When the yogurt is firm it is time to remove them and put them in the refrigerator to get nice and cold. Usually 12 to 24 hours. If you make and incubate the yogurt during the day it can refrigerate overnight and be ready for breakfast the next day.

If you would like flavored yogurt you add fresh cut up fruit or a little bit of flavored jam when you are serving your yogurt.

[Valerie in WA]

This is my fourth attempt at making yogurt using yogourmet 'starter' which are freezedried granules of the 'good' bacteria. The problem that I'm having is that the whey separates out and cannot be stirred in.

I follow the instructions to a 't'. They are:

1. Heat one litre or quart of milk to 82C (180F) or bring to boiling point. Then let cool down to 42-44C (106-112F).
2. Dissolve 5g of starter with a small quantity of lukewarm milk in a cup, then pour back into the litre or quart of milk. Mix well.
3. Incubate 4 - 4.5 hours, or until yogurt has reached the desired firmness.
4. Refigerate to stop incubation.

In step 1, I use a thermometer to bring it to 180F, and to watch the temperature decrease.
In step 2 I mix thoroughly, but gently. I don't shake it up.
For step 3, I incubate in canning jars set in a crockpot of water, using a thermometer to veryify a temp between 105-115. I do NOT disturb the jars.

Any guesses as to why I'm having trouble?

TIA.

[Susanscraps]

My DH takes yogurt everyday in his lunch (I buy the 32 oz containers), and my kids love it too. Just wondering if anyone has made their own yogurt? I know there are yogurt makers, but don't know anything about them!

[Odilia]

I make yogurt at least 2x a week. I don't use a yogurt maker. I use a small cooler to incubate the yogurt. I put the yogurt into glass jars, place them in the cooler, and add warm water (115F) to the jar rims. In about 6 hours, it's yogurt!

[nuisance26]

~I picked up a yogurt maker for less than a dollar at a yard sale this year. It makes delicious, creamy yogurt for about half the price. I use the recipe in the TG.~

[monkeywrangler71]

Originally Posted by Odilia

I make yogurt at least 2x a week. I don't use a yogurt maker. I use a small cooler to incubate the yogurt. I put the yogurt into glass jars, place them in the cooler, and add warm water (115F) to the jar rims. In about 6 hours, it's yogurt!

Odilia, I don't want to buy a yogurt maker but I want to try making yogurt. If you get a chance, do you think you could post a recipe, instructions, advice, etc. ? Milk is expensive and I don't want to waste it by trying this without really knowing what I'm doing. I would really appreciate your insight.

[Odilia]

Originally Posted by monkeywrangler71

Odilia, I don't want to buy a yogurt maker but I want to try making yogurt. If you get a chance, do you think you could post a recipe, instructions, advice, etc. ? Milk is expensive and I don't want to waste it by trying this without really knowing what I'm doing. I would really appreciate your insight.

I started using the instructions from TWG and powdered milk. I had really good luck and a few flops. Even the flops were ok, though, because they make good popsicles or pancakes, etc. The flops don't get wasted!

Now, I have a cow, so I use fresh, whole milk, but I use the same basic procedure. I am pretty loose with my procedure, though, because I've found I get good yogurt whether or not I heat the milk to 185F or not. I don't know if this is because I'm using fresh milk or not, but after making yogurt for years, I've found it's just not as fussy as I thought.

The basic procedure:

Bring milk to 185F.
Cool to 115F
Mix small amount of heated milk with yogurt starter. Mix well.
Mix yogurt starter/milk into the rest of the heated milk.
Pour into clean jars and firmly secure lids.
Place jars into cooler and add warm water (115-120F -- no hotter than 120F).
Check after 6 hours. Yogurt should gel in 6-10 hours.
Store in the fridge.

I like to make a half-pint jar to keep to start the next batch.

I've had good luck starting with store-bought yogurt, but once I tried a freeze-dried starter, I've never had a failed batch. I've been using yogurt incubated from that original freeze-dried starter for over a year and a half. I got the reusable culture from Lehman's: http://www.lehmans.com/shopping/prod...keyword=yogurt

[Becci]

Originally Posted by monkeywrangler71

Odilia, I don't want to buy a yogurt maker but I want to try making yogurt. If you get a chance, do you think you could post a recipe, instructions, advice, etc. ? Milk is expensive and I don't want to waste it by trying this without really knowing what I'm doing. I would really appreciate your insight.

I understand that you dont want to purchase a yoghurt maker but it will be cheaper in the long run considering the price of milk.
I live in Australia so my prices are in $A. You can purchase the yoghurt maker for about $20. Then the yoghurt mixes (which make 1kg) are under $3 each. We pay well over $4 for a 1kg tub. you can get natural yoghurt and all sorts of flavours. They come sugar free but you can add sugar if you wish and they come in full fat or reduced fat too.
I love them. You 'cook' them for 6-12 hours but if you like your yoghurt less tangy you can reduce the tangyness by only 'cookin' for the minimum time.
Very versatile and much cheaper then bought yoghurt.

[foxxyroxie]

I honestly haven't been daring enough to try this. I got this recipe from a fellow FV-er. I might try this later this week though. I'm craving some yogurt now too.

*** *** *** ***

CROCKPOT YOGURT

1 quart milk (2%), homogenized
4 teaspoon yogurt, plain
4 teaspoon sugar, optional

Heat the milk in a saucepan until lukewarm; if the milk is too hot at this point, it will destroy the culture and the mix will set. Put the yogurt in the crockpot and stir in the sugar and milk thoroughly. Cover with a clean dish towel (do *not* cover pot). Heat on low 1 hr. then turn off the pot and leave undisturbed for 2 hours. The yogurt should now be just set. Lift the pot from base, cool then refrigerate.
Flavorings should be added after yogurt has set. Flavorings such as powdered coffee (2-3 tsp.), powdered milk drink flavorings (2-3 tsp.), cocoa, chopped fruit, honey, vanilla extract (1 tsp.), and various types of extract can be used (try 1 tsp. to 1 qt. of yogurt)
NOTE: This can only be made in a crockpot that can be removed from base. Yogurt doesn't like to be disturbed when setting. Try draining 1 pt. of the set yogurt overnight in cheesecloth. You end up with "Syrian cream cheese". You use it (cold) the way you use regular cream cheese.

[elphaba]

I finally got around to making a batch of homemade yogurt. Wow...was that easy! I used a quart of reconstituted dry milk plus a 1/2 cup of of dry milk powder and a 1/4 cup of plain yogurt for the starter. I scalded the milk, cooled it down and then added the plain yogurt. Put the whole mixture in a clean plastic bowl with a cover, wrapped the whole thing in a towel and set it next to my wood stove. About 5 hours later I had the thickest, creamiest yogurt ever. I was so shocked how easy it was. I added some Splenda and vanilla to part of the batch and some crushed strawberries and Splenda to another part. Kids loved it! Even DD #1 who doesn't like yogurt of any kind. This is great...we use alot of yogurt for smoothies and I love the stuff. I just feel better making it myself, knowing exactly what went in it and how fresh it really is. Best thing is I didn't buy a yogurt maker although I was dying to. Turns out I don't even need one!!
I just had to share my kitchen success...it's the little things that make me giddy!!