Easy Home Made Yogurt

Making home made dairy products may seem intimidating at first but I can tell you most are so easy its worth a try.  Probably the best thing to start with is yogurt.  Not only is yogurt  incredibly easy to make at home it is healthier and allot cheaper than store bought too!  Homemade yogurt can be made with fresh milk from a cow (I did when we had our milk cow) or milk from the store, or even powdered milk. Then you just mix in what sweeteners you like and fruit and there you have fresh, healthy, cheap yogurt.

 The first thing to choose is what kind of yogurt you want to end up with.  Go to the store and try several different plain yogurts and you will be able to taste differences in flavor and consistency.  This is because there are dozens and dozens of yogurt cultures, and each on produces a different flavor and thickness of the finished product.  So pick the yogurt you like the flavor and thickness of the best.  I used a Greek yogurt this time but I usually used tillamook because it produces a sweet, mild, and thick yogurt.  You can experiment to find the yogurt you like best.

Now this recipe may seem very unscientific but it's just that I've made it so often that I don't need to look at the book anymore.  Where I learned it is from my favorite book of all time for all homesteading knowledge.   Carla Emery's Encyclopedia of Country Living.

This book will give you all the temps, times, etc that you need for yogurt making but this is how to do it.

What you'll need:

Large non reactive saucepan
Large non reactive bowl that will fit in your crockpot or several sterile quart mason jars
1 Gallon Raw, Store bought, or powdered milk
1 pint plain hopefully organic yogurt with live cultures from the store
Large crock pot with a warm setting


So how to do it.

Take out your yogurt starter from the fridge and let it sit for about an hour to come to room temperature.  This helps the live cultures in the yogurt do better once added to the warm milk.

Turn your crock pot to warm and fill half way with hot water from the sink.

Then take your milk and pour it into a non reactive saucepan like stainless steel. If you are using store bought milk just warm it up till just warm to the touch but if you are using raw milk do next step.

 Scald your milk to kill any other bacterias that you don't want competing with your yogurt culture.  Then cool to warm to the touch of a clean pinkie finger.  

Then pour into a non reactive bowl made of glass or stainless steel.  Add your yogurt from the store and mix well with a wire whisk.  I use one of those small yogurt cups per gallon of milk.  Whisk in well and then cover with saran wrap, do not use aluminum foil! Or pour into clean quart mason canning jars.  I find the mason jars work the best and you can put them right into the fridge when the yogurt is done. 

Next set the bowl or jars into the crock pot being careful that the water doesn't overflow.  If need add more warm water to the crock pot.

Now just let sit.  Try not to agitate the milk and do not stir it.  This will mess with the setting process.  In about four to six hours, sometimes more, sometimes less,  you will see the the milk has magically turned into yogurt and is thick and solid looking.  The longer you let it "cook" the thicker it will become but it will also become more tangy so beware if you like mild yogurt.

Take it out of the crock pot and put it in the fridge to cool overnight.  Next morning enjoy your home-made yogurt!  This should keep in the fridge for at least two weeks.

I use my homemade yogurt for tons of things.  I use it in place of buttermilk, sour milk, and sour cream in all my baking recipes.  It doesn't change a thing  in the finished product and is so much cheaper for me to use my own homemade than buying store bought.