Yogurt making

Jillian asked me to write about how I make my own yogurt. I've been doing this for a little over a year now, after being inspired by my friend Sophie. She'd noticed that these nifty little yogurt "incubators" were on sale for about $20 at Fred Meyer. I eat yogurt every day as my morning snack at my desk at work, so I thought it might be a good idea to try it out, mostly to save money. Here's what the incubator looks like.

It came with 6 of these little 6 oz. glass jars, all with plastic lids. (FYI - the jars are fragile! I broke one the first time I made yogurt and have been using a little glass jar that artichokes came in to fill the spot ever since...) It was a lot of trial and error at first. The directions that came with the yogurt maker (brand is called Deni) were pretty basic.

1. Pour 1 qt. milk (whole, 2%, 1%, or powdered) into a saucepan. Heat milk until it boils, stirring occasionally.

2. Remove saucepan from heat and allow milk to cool to room temperature. Pour into pitcher.

3. Add 1/2 cup natural yogurt into the milk. Stir until well blended. Do not add any flavorings or sweeteners before completing the yogurt making process.

4. Pour the mixed liquid equally into the glass jars and place into the yogurt maker.

5. Cover, plug in, turn the control knob to the desired cooking time.

6. For the first batch, try setting the cooking time to 10 hours. For future batches, set the timer longer for a thicker consistency or shorter for a thinner consistency.

Well, I tried that, and the first time I slightly burned the milk, but decided to try it anyway to see if the yogurt would still come out. It did not. There was a small layer of thick ooze at the bottom of the jars and above that was yellowy water. Plus it smelled like burnt milk. Yuck. So my first lesson was to constantly stir the milk while boiling. Also, I try to take it off the stove just before it gets to boiling, and that still seems to work. Here's a photo of another yogurt disaster:

I think the problem that time was that I left it in the incubator for too long. But the result was kind of fascinating!

In any case, here's what I do, and what has worked for me over dozens of batches.

Use powdered milk, but be generous on the amount of powder to make 1 quart - I usually put in about 1 3/4 cups of the powder for 3 3/4 cups water.

Stir constantly while boiling the milk.

Let the milk stand for 1 1/2 - 2 1/2 hours. Some yogurt recipes say to get it to room tempterature, others say to use a thermometer. I just use my finger and try to make sure it's not still hot. Warm seems to be okay.

Wisk in the starter yogurt really well.

Pour into the incubator and let it sit in there for 12-14 hours. Lately 12 seems to be working pretty well. 10 was definitely too short. I think probably because I use skim milk.

Voila, that's it! I mix in jam or jelly before eating.