Terminal Verbosity

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Make it From Scratch – Yogurt

Posted on | May 1, 2008 | 7 Comments

Although I’m not as yogurt-obsessed as Suzanne over at Live Active Cultures is, I am picky about my probiotic goodies and have been perfecting my low-maintenance (i.e. no fancy yogurt maker or complicated steps) yogurt recipe over the past six months or so. I think I’m ready to go prime-time with it, so here goes:

Ingredients:

1/2 gallon 2% or whole milk (you could try this with skim or fat-free, but I haven’t!)
1/4 c plain yogurt (try Greek yogurt sometime for something fun and different!)

Instructions:

Heat milk over medium heat in a large soup pot. Stir occasionally to prevent the milk from scorching. Once the milk reaches a simmer, stir constantly until the volume is reduced by about a third, which takes about 30 minutes. Note that this step is not mandatory, but will give you a thicker, creamier yogurt. If you like your yogurt rather thin, just heat the yogurt to a simmer, simmer for a few minutes, and proceed. Remove milk from heat and transfer to a glass bowl with a lid. Let the milk cool until it’s around 120 degrees.

Yogurt-making is not an exact science, so I usually do this without a thermometer and just wait until I can stick my finger in the milk without yelping. When it reaches that warm, but not too hot stage, add the yogurt starter (which can be a quarter cup of leftover yogurt from the previous week’s batch once you’re making your own yogurt all the time–this stuff improves with age just like sourdough starter!) and put the lid on. Let it sit at room temperature for 8-12 hours or until set and then transfer to the fridge.

Note: If your house is really cool in the winter months, consider wrapping a towel around your glass bowl to keep it warm enough for the cultures to multiply. Likewise, I try to always make yogurt in the evening in the summers so that there is not a lot of direct sun warming the kitchen up too much.

I serve this either with home-made granola or with a spoonful of jam and the kids love it. It’s also great for smoothies, although because it lacks the stabilizers and other junk sometimes added to store-bought yogurt, it liquefies rather quickly in the blender. It will last about a week in the fridge, longer if your milk is really fresh.

But wait, you say, I’ve been paying $5 a tub for organic yogurt these past months or years, surely it can’t be this easy. It is this easy and even if you use organic yogurt for starter and organic milk for your base, this is seriously cheaper and takes less time that it would take you to run to the store to restock! And it doesn’t require disposable packaging, and it isn’t loaded with sugar, strange chemical stabilizers, or artificial flavors. Did I mention that it’s delicious?

View this week’s other fabulous “Make it From Scratch” carnival entries at Creatively Me!

Category: Environment, Family, Make Your Own

Comments

7 Responses to “Make it From Scratch – Yogurt”

  1. Hatchet
    May 2nd, 2008 @ 9:12 pm

    What?! Noooo! Really? Is it THAT EASY?

    I’ve been wanting to make my own yogurt, even borrowed a friend’s very old yogurt maker thingy (just looks like some glass cups to me, what do I know!) to give it a whirl and then left them sitting there, unused.

    Really?

    I…I have to try it! Tomorrow I’ll pick up some starter yogurt. Cuz, you know, I ain’t got nuthin’ ELSE goin’ on in my life right now or anything. Thanks!

    I actually tried making butter the other week and that was interesting, too. Kind of expensive, using straight cream, but you also get buttermilk, so that’s cool. How long is the buttermilk good for, do you suppose?

  2. Julie
    May 4th, 2008 @ 4:42 pm

    I was wondering about the buttermilk myself, actually. I’d guess it ought to be used within a week after opening the cream…I heard you can feed it to your tomatoes (lots of calcium)–could be the solution to my under-feeding problem with my seedlings ;)

    Seriously, though, I’ve been using the buttermilk in pancakes and bread and it is oh, so yummy.

    Oh, and making the yogurt IS that easy. You should try it!

  3. crunchy domestic goddess
    May 11th, 2008 @ 3:36 pm

    ok, i’ve procrastinated long enough. i’m ordering some extra milk this week and am going to give this a whirl. thanks for the tutorial. :)

  4. crunchy domestic goddess
    May 11th, 2008 @ 3:39 pm

    question – i don’t think i have any glass bowls w/ lids. could i use a ceramic bowl (er, um, casserole dish) w/ a lid instead? do you think that would work ok? thx!

  5. Julie
    May 13th, 2008 @ 3:37 pm

    I have read you should avoid metal (although I can’t remember why!), so I think a casserole dish would be fine. I think I’ve also used plastic tuperware (*gasp*) before ;)

  6. Crunchy Domestic Goddess
    May 15th, 2008 @ 8:51 pm

    thanks. yeah, i figured i could do plastic since that’s what i have, but i don’t think i want the hot milk leaching from the plastic so i’d rather not if i can find an alternative. :) i’ll let ya know how it works out.

  7. Julie
    May 22nd, 2008 @ 8:33 am

    If plastic is your only option, I would recommend letting the milk cool to 120ish degrees in the pan (which will definitely take longer because the pan retains some heat) before adding it to the plastic container. The cooler the milk, the less chance of leaching from the plastic.

    I have made yogurt in my 8-cup Pampered Chef measuring cup too. It has a lid, but if you have one that doesn’t, cling film that doesn’t touch the surface of the milk will help keep the yogurt fresh.

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