Homemade Yogurt **Updated** Cheese and Buttermilk

[MissPrissy]

I have no clue, nutmeggie. I would say either use yogurt or buy a proper culture.

 

[CathyB]

Thank you so much for suggesting that I give this a try. I was so proud of myself that I made this yogurt! It was so easy and very tasty. I am going to try a little more powdered milk next time because it was not as thick as I would have liked. I used skim, or nonfat, milk in my yogurt. Could that be the reason?

 

[goatkeepers]

Yeah, Cathy.

Whole milk makes it a lot better.

 

[CathyB]

Thank you Goatkeepers for answering that question! I do not know if I can do whole milk maybe I can do 1% or 2% and see if that helps!

 

[MissPrissy]

The farther removed from whole milk you get the more powdered milk it takes to make it thick.

Stay away from ultra-pasturized milk and milk products because you can't make much of anything out of those - they hardly even qualify as milk. Yikes.

 

[CathyB]

Thanks MissPrissy. When I go to the store tonight I will look to see if it is ultra-pasturized. I go to Wegmans and always buy organic, never thought to check anything else. My organic skim made nice yogurt. Not as thick as I would have liked, but yogurt none the less! I will maybe try 1% this time and add a little more powdered. If that does not do it I might have to up myself to 2%

 

[Backyard Buddies]

CathyB -

I'm making my yogurt with a standard (not ultra) pasteurized, 1% milk without any problems. I've found that two things tend to affect the thickness and the amount of time of my yogurt. For some reason, my yogurt has a harder time setting on colder, drizzly days. It works, but it just takes longer. I'm not sure why that would be since it's kept in the controlled environment of the personal cooler. Also, the freshness and type of the starter is important.

I've tried probably 5 or 6 different starters and the hands-down favorite is the French Creamline yogurt by Trader Joe's. It sets up well, thickly, and is a really smooth tasting yogurt. The worst was the one that I bought at the health food store that had 8 live cultures. It set up thin and sour. The French Creamline yogurt tastes closer to a sweet sour cream than some of the other starters. It makes really, really tasty yogurt.

I don't use MissP's recipe exactly. I simply dump my milk into my pan to the level that fits best. It turns out to be closer to 6 - 7 cups of milk. I then add about a 1/2 cup of the dry milk. When it comes time to stir in the yogurt, I use 3 *heaping* tablespoons of the yogurt starter.

Other than a couple of instances when I was adding other stir-ins, my yogurt has turned out fine with the 1%. Don't give up just yet on making it work for you.

 

[FloridaChickenChick]

Can someone clarify something for me (I tried to read every post but it's a VERY long thread and the phone kept ringing...trying to BYC at work is not productive!)?

Do the jars of hot water stay in the cooler while the yogurt is processing? Or do you remove the jars of water when you put the yogurt in?

I'm going to get the stuff I need on my way home so I can have yogurt Sunday morning!

We go through TONS of yogurt around here since we've become smoothie freaks.

MP, thanks so much for sharing all you know.

 

[Backyard Buddies]

Yes, keep the jars of hot water in the cooler with the yogurt. The water is what is helping to maintain the temperature needed to set the yogurt. Just be sure that they're wrapped so that the jars aren't touching.

Let us know how you like it!

 

[FloridaChickenChick]

Woo hoo! Okay, I thought that's what it meant.

Thanks so much!