The Little Red Hen (I'll do it myself)

Does anyone make their own yogurt ? I'd like to know how you make yours, whole milk or skim, that kind of thing. I have recipes. I want what works for you. I'm thinking about making crockpot yogurt. Do you use sweetener?

[2jaiz]

I have been making my own yogurt for several years. Here is how I do it - I have never had a batch go wrong with this method. It looks long and complicated but it is very easy.

HOME MADE YOGURT (makes approx 14 cups Greek style)

You will need

•4 litres milk (skim, 2%, 3.25% whatever you prefer)

•1 cup instant skimmed milk powder (makes it thicken more)

•½ cup store-bought natural, live/active culture plain yogurt (you need to have a starter. Once you have made your own, you can use that as a starter)

•slow cooker

•thermometer needs to measure 110ºto 180º

•cheesecloth

•colander

You can half these quantities if you don't want to make as much - but STILL USE ½ CUP STARTER YOGURT

There are 3 main steps.

Step 1 (* SEE NOTE IN STEP 2)

Pour the milk into the slow cooker and stir in the skimmed milk powder

turn on high and heat up to 180˚F - 185˚F

This takes about 3 hours in my slow cooker. you cannot skip this step or the yogurt will not work

Step 2

Turn off and unplug slow cooker and let milk cool to 110˚F. This takes 2-3 hours generally.

Once it has cooled whisk yogurt starter into the warm milk. Then return it to the milk in the slow cooker.

*NOTE: STEPS 1 AND 2 CAN BE DONE OUTSIDE THE SLOW COOKER TO SPEED UP PROCESS. I heat the milk in the microwave and then cool it in a sink full of cold water. If you take this option just warm up the slow cooker with a little water in it before step 3

Step 3 (overnight?)

Wrap the slow cooker (UNPLUGGED!!)in a couple of thick towels and leave it to work for 8 - 12 hours. I find 10 hours works well. It gets more tangy the longer you leave it.

This is now regular yogurt - if you want the thicker Greek yogurt then follow step 4 otherwise skip to step 5.

Step 4

Line a large colander with 2 layers of cheesecloth and scoop the yogurt into it. Place over a bowl and place in the fridge for ½ hour to drain off the whey. (there are many uses for the whey - it is full of protein. Check online for ideas.)

Step 5

Scoop the yogurt into whatever containers you want to store it in. I use some 1 cup Ziploc type containers but it is whatever works for your family. Make sure to keep ½ cup as the starter for your next batch (I have a different labelled container for this so that it does not get eaten by mistake).

ENJOY!!

[jennydog]

That's a great response from 2jaiz.

Milk has been my whole career and my immediate response to your post was " why would you want to use skim milk?" 2 jail is adding skim powder to add body which is good.

But, let's get things right about whole milk. It is now routinely standardised but it is likely to be 4% fat. That's 96% fat-free. Channel Island milk may be about 5% fat. Think of semi-skimmed as 2% fat and skim at almost no fat. Goat's milk is about the same as cow's milk but sheep's milk is very high fat ( maybe 12% from memory )

If you remove fat you remove the fat-soluble vitamins ADE and K. You will need to use more to colour tea.

Slimming diets are now advising that fat is important and that carbohydrates/sugars are the problem. This ties in very well with the low-fat milk theories which have been driving me to distraction for years.

Would you believe that years ago they used to pump skim down mine shafts to get rid of it?

Finally, a lot of bought fat-free yoghurt is loaded with sugar to improve the taste so it's important to read labels.

You need LIVE yogurt as a starter. I have used one from Marks and Spencer. You can easily source powdered starter cultures on the Internet.

Good luck.

[Elissy 3kg in reply to jennydog]

I do agree with you!

There is such a small amount of fat in milk, like you stated 97% fat free.

All this 'Low Fat' advertising is what it is - marketing.

I make kefir from whole milk, it's creamy, it's healthy, it's full of 'live' cultures and most of all yummy 😋

I used to make yoghurt - it's great with whole milk, contains all the vitamins and is still low in fat.

[useitorloseit]

I do. It's so easy - you just need a large thermos flask.

Pour 500ml milk (I use long life skimmed as that's all we have in the house - it's fine), and a couple of tablespoons of dried milk powder into a saucepan and whisk until it's a bit more than hand hot (official temperature should be no more than 46 degrees C if you've got a thermometer, but I usually just stick my finger in).

Then whisk in about 3 tablespoons of LIVE natural yoghurt (this is the only time you have to buy it - you use your own yoghurt for the next batch - it has to be live bio yoghurt otherwise it won't work).

Pour into a thermos flask, screw on the cap and leave for 6-8 hours. Then pour out and refrigerate.

It's so cheap, and always there in the fridge. When you're about to run out, make up another batch from the yoghurt you've made - it's a bit like a ginger beer must or sourdough starter - just keep using it for ever.

If you haven't got a flask you can put it in a warm place like an airing cupboard, but flasks are dead cheap, so I would use that option as it's clean, easy and available all year round when the heating is off!

I love yog with a tsp of honey stirred in for my evening treat, maybe with some flaked almonds or sunflower seeds. Yum!

[Hidden in reply to useitorloseit]

I use 2 thermos 'food' flasks, they are small and dumpy wide necked affairs, perfect for making, then storing in the fridge, no need for decanting then. Your method is virtually identical to mine, except I add 1/8 teaspoon of vanilla bean paste too - this gives a wonderful base taste and doesn't detract from the storing or starter quality for the next batch. 😊

[Sloggingalong]

Hi there Vintage-me

I have been experimenting with making my own yogurt for the past week and eventually, last night, I was successful. My method still needs tweaking but I am so happy with the results. 1 Litre skimmed milk, a couple of tablespoons of live, bought yogurt and a thermometer. Bring up to temperature, then cool before adding the live yogurt. The trick is in the incubating period for a couple of hours after bottling it. On my first attempt I put the jars in my airing cupboard, wrapped in towels but it has a Combi boiler in now and isn't as warm as what it used to be. So last night I put my oven on the lowest temperature possible and put the bottles in for a couple of hours and hey presto!

I don't use any sweetners at all and it comes out nice and thick and creamy.

Once I master this, I am going to experiment with flavours.

Good luck and let us know how you get on.

[ceejayblue]

I use Easiyo yoghurts and their system of making yoghurt and they have lots of great flavours. Its cheaper than shop bought and tastes better too and lasts up to 2 weeks in the fridge. Slightly higher carbs than some yoghurts but I count them in on my carb count (I'm diabetic)

[Venusflytrap]

Well I am not the yog maker in this house but here goes. We bought a yog maker to get an even temperature in our very draughty kitchen as the flask system wasn't really working here, though it had before. Now I've got one, I'd be tempted to use the slow cooker.j All we do is add a quarter of an individual full fat Greek yogurt to a litre of skimmed milk overnight. This gives us about a litre of yogurt. We use Total Greek yogurt for preference because we like the taste of that culture best, but any of the plain supermarket yogurts seem to work. We do find that the full fat starters give better results. If you make it every couple of days, the starter will last over the week. An older starter might take a little longer to work. If it isn't thick enough for your purpose, strain it for a while and lose some of the liquid. I do line the sieve with something like kitchen paper for this. This is one of those recipes that improves with practice. But if it doesn't work you can still use the milk yog mixture in cooking eg in cheese sauces.