I have never liked yogurt, even the sweetened fruity kind. I’ve tried to like it a few times over the years, but only succeeded in making myself gag. I recently read “Super Baby Food,” by Ruth Yaron (fabulous book, by the way), which dedicates an entire chapter to yogurt. At first I just skimmed over this section because I had no intention of including yogurt in my family’s diet. But I got interested when she said that she never liked yogurt either until she tried making it homemade. Who knew you could make yogurt at home? I didn’t know that it was possible! But it sounded like fun, is insanely cheap (store-bought natural yogurt is 5 or 6 times more expensive than homemade!), and extremely good for you. Seriously. Extremely good for you. So, using Yaron’s yogurt chapter as a guide, I have successfully made yogurt 4 times in the past 2 weeks.
Here’s what I do:
-Fill 4 half-quart jars (I use La Victoria salsa jars) with milk (I use 1% but you can use fat free or whole or whatever you prefer). Leave a little room at the top for stirring. Put the jars in a large kettle and fill the kettle with water, to about an inch below the top of the jars.
-Put a meat thermometer in one of the jars. Bring the water to a boil and keep it there until the milk reaches 185°. While this happens, put some water in the crockpot and turn it to the “keep warm” setting.
-Take the jars out of the boiling water and set them aside to cool. They need to cool to around 110° (no less than 90° and no more than 120°). This takes around an hour. Keep the jars covered and stir them occasionally with the thermometer or a sterile spoon.
-Check the temp of the water in the crockpot. Make sure it is between 90° and 120°, 110° is ideal.
-Stir about 1 TBSP of starter yogurt into each jar. Make sure your starter is plain and make sure it has live bacteria in it! Most yogurt from the store is pasteurized so the bacteria are killed. If it has live bacteria, it will say on the package. I used Oikos for my first starter.
-Cover the jars and put them into the crockpot of warm water. Leave them to incubate for 4 – 5 hours. Check the temperature periodically to make sure it’s in the right range.
-When the yogurt is done, put it in the fridge to cool. If you want thicker yogurt, pour off the whey after it cools.
How fun is that?? It takes some time but most of it is hands-off…you don’t have to be in the kitchen with it. Mix in vanilla and fun fruits or chocolate or whatever you want! But before you flavor it, make sure to save enough out to use as a starter for your next batch. It tastes great (even I think so) and is so super easy. And if you haven’t looked at yogurt nutrition facts lately, you should. It’s crazy how healthy it is. There is a lot of variation to yogurt making, depending on how you incubate it and what texture you’re going for, but these steps are working for me so far.
