Making yogurt

I found out tonight that the "Active Cultures" on yogurt means its a fermented item! Thats exciting. I guess it only takes about 6 hours to ferment too.


Anyone have any experience with making yogurt? I might have to make a batch.

My question is, I only see people making it plain. At what point would you add strawberries if you were to do such a thing?

My mom used to make yogurt a lot- it's pretty easy. Try searching Boingboing.net and Lifehacker.com- they both had a recent article on making yogurt.

Also try asking this in the cheese making forum- it actually may already be in there.

You'd add the fruit at serving time.

Yogurt is pretty easy, it just requires a steady temperature. You can use a slow cooker on low, or an oven turned off but the pan with hot water. I'm going to be trying some yogurt with goat's milk, just to see how it tastes.

In Indian cuisine, if they want to make a yogurt based dish for dinner, don't they usually just leave a bowl of milk out in the morning to catch wild cultures? I don't think you'd get a most consistent results but it may be worth a try with a small batch, or even with a starter taken from some store bought yogurt. Just make sure it's not pasteurized or anything. I've never tried to make yogurt, but from what i've read that room temperature or a little bit warmer (80 degrees-ish) will give you decent results, but don't quote me on that. You can also buy little yogurt fermenting boxes, which is just a temperature controlled trey with a lid. I think i've seen it in SkyMall or something, so it's probably gimicky. I don't know if you would need anything special like that.

Yogurt:
4L milk (I like 2%)
One container organic style yogurt (ie live culture)
one cup powdered milk (I like to up the milk solids in mine - this is optional)

Heat your milk mixed with powdered milk up to scalding temp (just below boiling) this pasteurizes out all the unwanted bacteria in the milk. Cool to fermentation temp (25-35 celsius) Add your starter - live yogurt. Keep the temp steady using your favourite method (insulated cooler, water bath, brew belt etc). Ferment for at least 4 hours but up to 24 hours (this is "to taste", the longer it goes, the more sour the yogurt will get).
If you want a more solid product, take the finished yogurt and dump into a cheesecloth lined strainer in the fridge and let drain - If you let it go long enough you will have soft cheese.

I'm not a yogurt fan but I've helped my wife make it before. What we do is take 1/2 gal or gal of milk and add packet or half packet of dry powdered milk to it. Heat that up to about 200 to pasteurize (I'm not sure this is really necessary unless your using some non pasteurized milk)

Cool down in a water bath (or let cool down naturally) to 110-120 and stir in your yogurt culture.

With the oven light on my oven stays at about 80. We move the covered pot into the oven and leave it for a while, usually overnight.

With the oven light on and the the warm milk the temp never gets below 90-95

Using the powdered milk seems to make a thicker product

Edit: We've also taken half the yogurt and made yogurt cheese by putting some cheese cloth in a colander and setting that over a bowl in the refrigerator. This is something I'll eat, it ends up being similar to cream cheese.

My LHBS sells all different types of make-it-yourself kits including cheese and yogurt kits. They have a website its Fermented Foods You Can Make Yourself. They also have good info on the website!

When I was in college I made yogurt all the time. I would scald a quart of milk and cool it to ~120*F. Then I would stir in a heaping tablespoon of active culture yogurt from the grocery store, dump it into a thermos bottle, and put that in the fridge. The next morning I had perfect yogurt. When I got to the bottom I'd harvest a few tablespoons for the next batch, and that worked for a few generations after which I had to start over with a fresh culture since the yogurt would start to get thin and sour.

giligson said:

Yogurt:
4L milk (I like 2%)
One container organic style yogurt (ie live culture)
one cup powdered milk (I like to up the milk solids in mine - this is optional)

Heat your milk mixed with powdered milk up to scalding temp (just below boiling) this pasteurizes out all the unwanted bacteria in the milk. Cool to fermentation temp (25-35 celsius) Add your starter - live yogurt. Keep the temp steady using your favourite method (insulated cooler, water bath, brew belt etc). Ferment for at least 4 hours but up to 24 hours (this is "to taste", the longer it goes, the more sour the yogurt will get).
If you want a more solid product, take the finished yogurt and dump into a cheesecloth lined strainer in the fridge and let drain - If you let it go long enough you will have soft cheese.

Click to expand...

Thanks, I may just try this.

How about Greek yogurt?

How about making it in a garbage can with a heating pad?

Gotta love Alton Brown....segment is in the middle of the video.

[youtube]DznKjP7p4-A[/youtube]

You can pick up a yogurt maker pretty cheap. i picke one up for about 30 , it came with glass containers. Its just a little warmer that keep heat constant. Easy to make.

I've got some in a ceramic bowl from a crockpot sitting in my MLT with hot water. I think that should keep it warm enough overnight. I wrapped the MLT with a blanket too so the heat would stay in all night. It should work fantastic. By the way, Greek yogurt is nothing more than regular plain yogurt strained to get rid of some of the whey giving you a thicker product.

My first attempt at yogurt was a huge success. I'm sold. The water in the MLT was still very warm this morning and the yogurt turned out great!

We have also had huge success making yogurt. We love how easy it is and how good it tastes. Our little girl (14 months) can't get enough of the stuff. We put up a couple pages on how to make it here:

How to make homemade yogurt.

At the bottom of that page you'll also find a link where we compared two "passive" (non-electric) yogurt fermenters. One is a low-tech jug cooler plus some extra insulation, and the other is the fancier yogotherm.

Making Greek yogurt, you have to use cheese cloth stain plain yogurt for about 3-6 hours.
see Homemade Greek Yogurt
Fruits yogurt, is add fruits and sugar at the serving time.

I make mine in the cooler overnight. It's easy, and I've never had a batch flop. I make it right in mason jars. I put two pint jars, filled with milk in a pot of water (just keep water level below the neck of the jar....maybe an inch or so), medium heat until milk is 185 degrees, remove pan from heat, and cool milk to 115. As soon as I start heating my milk on the stove, I temper 2 or 3 quart jars. I also set my oven at 230 degrees, and boil an extra pot of water. Once my pot of water is boiled, I fill my quart jars with the water (be careful handling them, the suckers are hot!), put lids and rings on them, and place them in the oven, so they stay nice and hot while my milk is heating and cooling. As soon as milk is 115, I put a tablespoon of yogurt starter (plain yogurt) in each pint, give it a gentle stir with a plastic spoon, cover with lid and ring, and transfer to my cooler. I nestle the yogurt bottles with my hot water bottles (from the oven), and cover with a towel. As long as the lid isn't lifted, and the cooler is in a relatively warm room, you'll have yogurt in 10-14 hours. Put your yogurt in the fridge, let it cool down, and solidify a bit...boom, homemade yogurt! Make sure you save out a couple tablespoons of your homemade yogurt (in a separate container) to use as a starter for your next batch. As long as you use your starter within a week, it stays alive, and your yogurt will get better and better. I'm on my fourth batch of yogurt, using my own yogurt as starter, and it's fantastic You can flavor it as soon as it's cooled down. Puréed fruit is nice mixed in. Vanilla yogurt, just add 1 teaspoon of vanilla, and a teaspoon of two (depending on how sweet you like it) to each pint, and stir. Homemade yogurt trumps store bought, in my humble opinion, and it's easy and fun to make Sorry for the huge post!


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