I did
it! I successfully prepared homemade yogurt. (See my post from last wee about my yogurt plan.) Props to my parents for allowing
this adventure to happen in their home with their milk. They did not have
yogurt to use as a starter, so shout out to YT and family for sharing with me a
spoonful of Stonyfield Organic plain yogurt.
This is
what I did:
- Find a thermometer. I had one, and then discovered that the battery was dead. Replaced the battery.
- Pour 12oz Pride of the Farm lowfat milk into top of double
boiler.
- Heat milk to 180⁰F. Keep checking temperature with thermometer until it is just right.
- Keep milk on lowest flame to maintain the milk at that temperature for about 5 minutes.
- Remove from heat and let set milk pot in ice bath until temperature
is 115⁰F. Keep checking temperature with thermometer until it is just right.
- Add a bit of the milk to the spoonful of yogurt that is in a bowl at room temperature.
- Transfer warm milk to insulated hot cup.
- Pour the milk-yogurt starter mixture in.
- Seal cup and put it in hot water bath. The water was about
125⁰F.
- Wrap in towels to keep it insulated.
- Over the next 3 hours, I checked the temperature of the water bath twice and added more hot water to bring the temperature back up to 125⁰F. After that, I just let it sit undisturbed overnight.
- After a total of 16 hours, I opened up the incubated milk.
- I secured a thin rag over the top of a container and
strained the yogurt through it for about 1 hour. I was left with some whey in the container.
I would
definitely call this a success! The flavor was not too tart as I feared it
would be after reading so much ahead of time. It did not taste like any yogurt
I had eaten before, but it definitely tasted like yogurt! There was a slightly
grainy texture to it, which from my reading may have to do with heating the
milk too rapidly or moving the yogurt too much while it incubates. I will try
to heat it slower next time and then leave it to peacefully incubate.
Hey Brendel, loving these blogs! I was reading online that it is healthier to eat 100% grass-fed yogurt. I tried this type of yogurt out and noticed that it had a slightly grassy flavor, which I find unappealing. Do I have to eat this stuff? Is it really going to help me live longer?
ReplyDeleteMaybe it was yogurt-fed grass? I can imagine that yogurt might be also healthy for the grass. ;)
DeleteWow! The yogurt looks amazing! It's so interesting how you can make the same foods you can buy in a store.
ReplyDeleteThere are so many things we buy that we can make. I think another one is bread. Especially if you have a bread machine, you can prepare a loaf of bread in less than 5 minutes, and then a few hours later, it is ready! Have you ever made bread?
DeleteWow! That sounds like a lot of work! How long did it take? Do you feel like it's worth it as a weekly venture?
ReplyDeleteLikely the more I make it, the less time it will take. I had to be in the kitchen as the milk was heating so I could check it every few minutes and turn off the heat once it reached 185⁰F, and then again while it was cooling to 115⁰F I had to check the temperature the whole time--that was much faster than heating it! The whole "active" time was about 30 minutes or so. You could make a large batch. Yogurt can safely stay in the fridge for 2 weeks.
DeleteThank you for the step-by-step instructions.
ReplyDeleteAre you thinking to try it?
DeleteSo cool! Im glad it worked out! That sounds like a loong process though.
ReplyDeleteIt took a while mostly because it was my first time. I am in middle of trying it again. I think that once I get into a good rhythm, the prep time will decrease. Also, you can make a large batch at once.
DeleteYay! So glad it worked. I think I'll try this one day.
ReplyDeleteGive it a try! You don't need any fancy equipment...except a thermometer if you consider that fancy.
Delete