Homemade Yogurt **Updated** Cheese and Buttermilk

[jkm]

Amazon sells a great Salton yougurt maker, takes me three minutes to heat milk in microwave, in plastic ZIP container, cool it, add starter in an hour or so, let sit for 11 hours.


I buy a containers of fresh yougurt, Nancys, feeze an ice cube tray and then have plenty of starter.

I use only organic milk, the crap cows are getting as feed is nothing I want to drink! I also go to the farm and buy from the cow, unpastriesed milk with cream, the cream becomes ice cream and the rest yougurt, eat like the french, real food.
I have a job, am not a hippie , eat local fresh food and am tired of the garbage in american/CHINESE processed food.
We used to be a nation of people that could cook and eat real food..... sigh....

 

[MissPrissy]

Quote:
Exactly! I learned to cook at the elbow of my Grandmother and my mother from a very early age. When I was too young to do actual cooking my grandmother put me in charge of making the salad. In the summer a salad was served at dinner every day.

I grew up in the tradition of the deep south. The midday meal (serves anytime between 1 and 3 pm) was the big meal and supper was a lighter affair in the late evening. We grew a garden every year and canned, preserved, pickled and froze everything that we could get our hands on. It is what we ate in the winter. It is a habit/tradition that has always stuck with me.

I have gone through a lot of time (and sometimes expense) to teach my girls where real food comes from. There is a cost beyond ponying up at the cash register in a big grocery store. We treat our animals well and care for them in their lifetime. When the time comes those respected and nurtured animals care for us. They are food on our table.

It is the same with our garden. The sweat dripping from your brow on a hot summer morning as you pull weeds is one of the prices we pay for those succulent and delicious offerings that fill our plates.

My girls (ages 20, 12 and 9) really enjoy our garden and the efforts we make to do things ourselves. I want them to be able to carry on these things as they move into adulthood and begin to nurture their own children. My son is 17 months old but we take him out with us. He toddles along the garden rows and puts on his muck boots to play in the barn.

Teach the children while they are young and they won't forget it. They may walk away from it for a while but they will come back to the things they know and learned they could trust.

We are average middle class folks. Nothing special here. Although some people think we are odd because we chose a differnent path to follow and refuse to rely on corporate america for everything on our table. To them I ask if they are afraid of a little hard work? Isn't anything worth having worth working for? I don't get many answers in return. LOL

 

[cookinmom]

This is such an awesome thread!
Miss Prissy,how 'bout sharing some of those cheese recipes next? Making cheese is one of those things on my list of 'things to do before I die'.

 

[mlheran]

Quote:
I second that!

And I'm looking forward to making some yougurt of my own -thanks for the recipie! I finally managed to get a canning pot (with the rack) at the thrift store, and this summer I'll be canning everything I can get my hands on! Everyone should grow/make/store at least some of their own food, it's immensely satisfying.

 

[SeaChick]

Have you guys read Barbara Kingsolver's "Animal, Vegtetable, Miracle" about how she and her family spent a year eating nothing that wasn't home-grown or at least local? I have to get that book!!!!
Stacey

 

[BirdBrain]

It turned out great.

It wasn't as firm as I had hoped, and by the time I "doctored" it up with all the extras that everybody ordered it ended up more like the drinkable yogurt you get at the store, but it was delicious...okay, it is STILL delicious because there is still some left----there better be since I made a whole gallon.

I am wondering if you can add the flavorings before it sets. I am also wondering if I use something like splenda or something similar instead of sugar if it will be less runny. Has anyone tried that? Does adding instant pudding for flavoring help in firming up the yogurt?

 

[lurky]

I had read that gelatin can be added to thicken it up. Mine was not very thick either, but i think it would be good either way. I think it just tastes better because you know you made it and your proud of yourself

 

[SeaChick]

Maybe it didn't firm up enough because you made a larger quantity..... Perhaps needs longer to "cure" in bigger batches? Just a thought.

When we made it on the boat,it would sometimes be runnier if the "starter" was not as fresh, not enough starter, or not warm enough during curing.

 

[MissPrissy]

Add a bit more milk powder if you want it thicker. Mine is pretty thick - like pudding. Also snuggle in an extra jar of hotwater to extend the warmth for growing the culture.

I had upped mine to three quarts of boiling water since I make 3 quarts of yogurt at a time these days. The constant steady heat is what causes the cultures to develop and thicken the yogurt.

I have read the book by BK. This is my assessment and opinion of what I read -

It was okay. It was a bit preachy, her politics aren't so much to my liking. The recipes weren't that original. It would have been better if she had focused more on what they were eating, growing, planning, raising the turkeys and chickens, etc. Instead of giving lectures on what she finds as American's biggest faults with a holier-than-thou snobbery attitude.

While they did for the most part eat local for a year there were some things they couldn't get and chose not to do without. They did eat out at times in restaurants at home and when they traveled. She remarks in the book that people often looked at them in restaurants as if they had caught the cat with a mouse. They did restrict themselves to what was in season as much as possible. This I applaud.

She is not an average middle income American. She and her husband have garnered some wealth. The ability to purchase her livestock and lay in an entire years worth of organic feeds takes a bit of money. Not to mention before they started the one year of trying to eat local they spent the previous year remodeling and bringing their old farmhouse into the modern world. Plus the organic seed and everything to can, freeze and dry most of their diet for 1 year. Which I am NOT knocking. I am just pointing out they had the cash capitol that a lot of people do not have to set themselves up and get started on a successful journey.

For us we have reached a point were we want for nothing much. After nearly 30 years of housekeeping I pretty much have every idea of kitchen utensil for any job at hand (except a meat grinder! I want one!). There isn't many gardening tools or small tractor equipment that we don't have either. We could jump in as she and her family did and be well ahead of the game. But alot of people cannot without much expense. I don't think it is fair of her to judge so many people who have NEVER seen a seed planted in the ground and would have very little idea of how to go about growing their own foods even in a very small scale operation for just one season. Not to mention not everyone is an experienced cook who knows how to safely can vegetables. It is not really a process you jump into without knowing a little something and having good recourses to look to for information and instruction.

Borrow the book if you want to read it. It is not one I would buy. (I did not buy the book. Someone sent it home from work with my husband thinking I would enjoy reading it.)

*edited for typos.​

 

[ozark hen]

Miss Prissy, please tell us how to make cheese. here I am at age 64 and I have never canned or anything!! I was raised a city girl and moved to the country nineteen years ago...think that should have been long enough for me to start planting and canning? ha I have now retired and want to do the things I never got to do. I have a bunch of tomatoes I want to put up and want to do it safely. do you have a tried and true method? I turn to you after experiencing the wonderful yogurt. I now make a lot of things homemade but haven't done it all yet. ha Your synopsis of the book made me realize it wouldn't be to my taste either.