I have been wanting to buy a yogurt maker for some time now but couldn’t settle on one. The ones with good reviews have plastic jars and I really would prefer to use glass jars. While researching yogurt makers online I found that you can make yogurt a number of ways without actually buying another appliance.
You can make it in your oven, crock pot, crocks and in a thermos.
A THERMOS! Who doesn’t have a least one of those buried in the back of a cabinet somewhere. In my case, a storage trailer sitting at Cill Dara.
I also have a small one that I had bought for DK’s work lunches before he moved up to Troy. It holds only about 10 ounces so I bought a second one that holds 16 ounces.
On Saturday night I made my first batch using, organic skim milk from Hannafords and a bit of Stonyfield’s organic Greek yogurt for the starter. Sunday morning I opened up the thermos’ to find that I had a total FAIL. I did use the most simple recipe/how-to out of the bunch I had found though.
Disappointed but undaunted, I did some more research on the internet. I found a recipe/how-to that was still fairly simple but incorporated a couple points that I was repeatedly finding but was not included in the first recipe.
So I bought had Marty pick up some more yogurt for starter, dry milk packets and a candy thermometer.
Monday morning I awoke to yogurt SUCCESS!
The Players
WHAT YOU NEED
Any size thermos will do.
Any milk will do.
A sauce pan
Candy thermometer
Dry milk
yogurt containing active live cultures for a starter
THINGS NOT NEEDED BUT I USED
A small flexible cooler
Towel
Soft Cooler with Small Towel Liner
HOW I DID IT
Put aside yogurt starter to warm up while you do the other bits (ratio is aprox 3 tbls starter to 1 qt of milk)
Filled thermos’ with milk just shy of full and then poured it out into saucepan
Attached candy thermometer to pan with the bulb resting at the halfway point of the milk in the pan (do not rest the thermometer at the bottom of the pan or you’re not getting a reading for the milk’s temp)
Put saucepan on stove at medium high and waited for the milk’s temp to reach 200F
Heat to 200F
While waiting I filled the thermos’ with boiling water and put their lids on to pre-heat them
Take milk off heat when it reaches 200F and let cool to 115F
At that point stir in dry milk (1/2 c to 1 qt of milk)
Whisk in yogurt starter
Pour water out of thermos’ and pour yogurt mix into thermos’
I then put them in the soft cooler wrapped in a towel
Do NOT touch, move or disturb in any way for about 10-12 hours
Viola! Homemade yogurt.
I love greek yogurt so I then strained the yogurt through a flour sack towel over a sieve placed over a bowl.
Becoming Greek Yogurt
I saved the whey which is high in B12 and minerals to use in recipes calling for water.
WHEY!
The batch I’m incubating right now will be strained until it is thick enough to be *cream cheese* and then I will blend it with crushed garlic and fresh herbs to use as a sandwich spread.
Besides being as fun as that first science lab in elementary school, this will save you some serious coinage. I am now making 16 ounces of organic, greek yogurt for about .70 instead of buying it for $3.79 at the grocers.
I can’t wait to make a batch this coming weekend with goats milk!
*Happy to report that the resulting yogurt received high marks from Marty as well as the pups.*
2009 Dawn Marie Kelly all rights reserved