Yogurt Day

In an effort to control my diet to the extent of knowing what ingredients, chemicals, or possible unknown contaminants I may be consuming, I am determined to make as much food from scratch as possible and stay away from canned, jarred, pouched, or any other processed foods out there. Most of what I am making does take some time and is not possible for some who just plain do not have the time or desire. However, when you ask yourself if you know what you are eating and cannot answer or pronounce some of the additives, then you may be harming yourself. This of course, is my opinion, and I have no scientific basis for my statement. When it's all over and done, I personally want to know what I am consuming.


With all that said, here is the recipe for the yogurt I made. It is an excerpt from Ricki Carroll's "Home Cheese Making". Here's a link to more info on making yogurt from her website. 


When I was finished, I decided I would use the yogurt maker in the future. Same ingredients just less hands on. The following is the "manual" method.


Equipment needed: Candy thermometer, non reactive (stainless steel) 3 quart or larger pan, glass container for storage, and if making Greek style yogurt: cheesecloth, rubber band, wooden dowel or spoon and large bowl.


1 quart any fat percentage organic milk (I used Organic Valley, whole milk)
1/4 cup milk powder, optional (used for thickening)
1 T. thickener as an option to using dry milk or in addition to, optional (such as carrageenan, pectic, or gelatin)
1 packet yogurt starter or 2 T. yogurt with live cultures


1. Combine milk, powder, if using, and thickener, if using, in non reactive pan and heat to 180 - 185 degrees F. using thermometer to monitor progress. This takes about 20 minutes on medium heat.


2. Let milk cool to 116 degrees F. Add starter, mix well.


3. Keep covered, at 116 degrees F. for at least 6 hours (mine did not set until about 8 hours), or until set to the consistency of thick cream. (I could not fit my pan into the oven warmer, so I transferred my mix to a glass casserole dish with a lid.)


4. Transfer to glass container, refrigerate and serve cold. This will keep, refrigerated, for up to two weeks.

5. If desired, keep 2 T. for the next batch. When it stops working, open a new packet of yogurt culture and start again.


Note: You can use store bought yogurt with live cultures in place of powdered yogurt starter.


Observations. tips, tricks, etc.: 


A. In my kitchen, the time to cool from 180 degrees F. to 116 degrees F. was about 45 minutes. I later read on Ricki's website that the cooling process should be as quick as possible and stop a few degrees before 116 F. (around 120) to accommodate the drop in degrees when you transfer to another container. She was using some container with a heating element. I am using the oven warmer set to the lowest and then monitoring to make sure mix stays at about 116 degrees F.


B.  Used half gallon of whole organic milk (twice the recipe) with just a 1/4 cup of dry milk powder. 

C.  I used store bought yogurt as starter. I used Fage (pronounced fa-hey) brand which I trust as an organically produced yogurt without chemicals or additives.

D.  After 8 or so hours, poured yogurt into cheesecloth. Drew up four corners of cheesecloth and tied with rubber band. Attached to wooden dowel (can use anything long enough to span bowl) and placed over bowl to catch draining liquid making sure cheesecloth was suspended high enough to avoid touching dripping liquid.

E. Strained for another 12-24 hours to get "Greek" style very think and creamy yogurt cheese.


F.  This is a very mild yogurt and tastes so yummy.