Quote:
Why would you mess with those things. Surely you have a cooler and a few quart jars.
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YOGURT RECIPE
By MissPrissy on BYC
First you need a good starter of plain yogurt culture. You can buy it dried, but the best way is to buy a container of good yogurt that you like to eat. Plain yogurt. Nothing with fruit or other flavors in it. I use Stonyfield Farms Organic plain yogurt. It has 6 different types of active yogurt cultures in it.
If you want a thick yogurt you will need a small box of powdered milk.
Cow milk or goat milk will make good yogurt.
Using quart-sized mason jars - Sterilize the jars and lids.
1 quart of milk mixed with 1/3 cup powdered milk.
Using a candy thermometer heat the milk slowly to 185 degrees.
Remove from heat.
Allow to cool naturally (or set pot in a ice water bath and carefully watch the temp -it will drop fast while stirring) to 110 degrees.
Stir in 2 heaping tbsp of your plain yogurt. Mix well until all is dissolved.
Pour the mixture in your quart sized jar. Wrap in a dishtowel to insulate.
Using a second jar, fill it with boiling water. Wrap it in a dish towel to insulate.
Place both jars in a small cooler that you have heated with hot water****. Allow the yogurt to cure for 10 - 12 hours. When the milk is set to a solid, it is ready. Refrigerate and serve cold.
If you do this in the morning, you will have fresh yogurt for the following morning.
****Do not leave water in the cooler. Fill the cooler with hot water while you are preparing everything then pour it out. You simply want a warm place to incubate your yogurt cultures.
********** I rewrote it for making a gallon. See below:
MAKE INEXPENSIVE YOGURT THE EASY WAY
You will need:
A small plastic, insulated cooler that will hold:
4 one-quart jars/lids for yogurt/milk OR 2 half-gallon jars/lids for yogurt milk
2 more quart jars to be filled with boiling water
A very large pan to first boil water and then heat milk to 185* F.
Ingredients:
One gallon of milk (1% to 4%)
One cup (or two heaping tablespoonsful per quart if not making a whole gallon) of PLAIN yogurt with live culture
no flavor
no fruit
Stonyfield Farms Organic plain yogurt OR Traders Point Creamery plain yogurt are both excellent and are sold by Marsh and other large chain stores for $5 quart.
I used an Igloo 26-quart cooler that K-Mart sells for about $20.
After the large pan of water is boiling, dip all the jars/lids in for several seconds to sterilize everything.
Pour the large pan of boiling water into the cooler and into two quart jars. Put the lids on the jars loosely. Close the coolers lid with the two jars filled and the rest of the boiling water in the bottom of the cooler.
Set the cooler aside to heat up and proceed to make the yogurt.
After cooling the large pan, use it again to heat one gallon of milk to 185 degrees (I used Anne's meat thermometer because I couldn't find a "candy" thermometer in two stores). Place the hot milk pan in a sink filled with ice water and let it cool to 115 degrees (took about five minutes with ice on outside of pan). Stir in one cup of plain yogurt into the 115* F milk. After mixing well, pour the milk into the four sterilized one-quart glass jars or two half-gallon jars and put on the lids (not tight).
Go back to the cooler, set the two quarts of hot water aside for a moment and empty the hot water out of the bottom of the cooler. Set the jars of warm milk/yogurt mix into the cooler with the two jars of boiling water and closed the lid.
After ten to twelve hours, take out the bottles of milk (finished yogurt) and put them in the refrigerator to cool.
Thats it:
For the cost of a gallon of milk, you have four quarts of yogurt that are identical to the cup of expensive plain yogurt that you bought. Save a cup of your new yogurt to make another gallon when this one is almost gone.
