Yogurt Tutorial

I started making homemade yogurt in 1982 when we moved to West Virginia. My husband was working on his PhD in nutrition and had a small herd of Holstein cows that he ran feed trials on. He fed them different kinds of grains and the milk was ours to keep. Do you KNOW how how much milk a Holstein cow produces every day at her peak??? About 30 gallons. So, I made cheese, butter, yogurt. We even had cream on our cereal and with fresh berries every day.

Good stuff. I found this recipe for yogurt in the More With Less Cookbook. Its the one I have used for years. If you make it, make it exactly as explained.

All the ingredients: yogurt, powdered milk and whole milk.

Supplies:
You will need some clean jars to incubate your yogurt in, a couple of large bowls, a wisk or spoon, a food thermometer if you have one and a large pan to sit your jars in.

Makes 2 qts.
Step 1:
In a large bowl, combine:
3 cups powdered milk
6 cups warm water
Stir Well and add:
1 can evaporated milk OR 1 2/3 cup scalded whole milk. You can use 2% milk.

Step 2:
Combine in a separate bowl or pan:
1/3 cup plain, unsweetened yogurt
1 cup milk from the bowl

Blend until smooth and return to the remaining milk. Mix well Pour into clean jars. Incubate at 110-120*F until set. Refrigerate.

I use Greek Yogurt for the 1/2 cup of yogurt I add to the milk in step 2. Greek yogurt is heavier, thicker I guess and I think it makes a better finished product than regular plain yogurt.

Incubation

Yogurt has to sit at a warm temperature for a few hours so that the bacteria will grow and make the milk thick and tangy flavored. You can use clean glass jars and sit the jars into warm water on the stove top. Just increase the heat under the pot every now and then to keep the temperature up.
You can also place the jars of yogurt in a cooler with warm water and then wrap the cooler up in quilts.

In the past, I used an electric skillet. I put water in the skillet and stood the jars in the water, keeping the temperature adjusted by turning the skillet on and off at intervals.

You can also use the pilot light on your gas stove. I’ve done that and it works well. Place the jars in a pan of water, the pan of water over the pilot light and cover the pan.

All of these methods will work and take from 4 to 8 hours, you just have to keep checking. If you get a batch that does not gel, you can mix up 1 envelope of plain gelatin into 1/4 cup warm water to dissolve, then stir well into 1 qt of yogurt. Chill the yogurt and it should be salvaged nicely.
If you get the yogurt too hot however, you will probably not be too excited about the resulting texture of the yogurt, it tends to curdle, so keep the heat down.

Here are some pictures of me making yogurt last week.

I bought a Donvier yogurt incubator at a yard sale this summer for $4 and it was brand new. It has served me well! I don’t have to keep track of temp or time now.

This is the powdered milk mixed up with the water and other milk.

Here is where I took the little container of Greek Yogurt and mixed it with some milk before adding it to the larger container of milk.

A thermometer isn’t necessary but it sure makes the job easier.

Pointers About Yogurt:

Use yogurt as a salad dressing and substitute for sour cream.
When adding fruit or sugar to yogurt, fold it in. Stirring causes the gel to break down.
Yogurt is great with hot or spicy foods!
When you serve homemade yogurt for the first time, be generous with the sweetener, most people are used to store bought yogurt which is very sweet. Reduce the sweetener gradually.
Yogurt will keep one to two weeks in the refrigerator., Be sure to keep 1/2 cup of your yogurt to use for the next batch!