Everyone in our family likes yogurt. We like it on waffles on the weekends, we like it under granola on the weekdays. Frozen yogurt is a treat, and yogurt cheese is a great snack. We like to mix maple syrup or huckleberries into it, or sometimes we just eat it plain. Yogurt is yummy and healthy. On top of all that, making yogurt is pretty easy, pretty fast, and pretty fun.
People who have never made yogurt before tend to give me a weird look when I say it’s easy, but it really is. Our two-year-old does most of it, with the exception of boiling the milk. Which is the first ingredient you’ll need:
- 1/2 gallon milk
- 1/2 cup fresh yogurt
- Stainless steel or enameled pot
- warming tray
- small glass jars with lids
There are also, of course, a dizzying array of yogurt makers.
We use the EuroCuisine YM100, but really it’s only a warming tray. In our family, one uncle uses the top of his fridge for this step, and one uses his hot tub. Cool! And who ever thought of recycling excess heat?
Select a large-ish pot, and dump in the half gallon of milk. You can pick almost any cow milk for this recipe, with the caveat that ultra-pasteurized milk doesn’t always work due to excessively denatured proteins. Measure out the milk to fill up all the containers you’ll be filling. You can do this simply by filling them all up with milk, then dumping them into the pot.
Bring the milk to a boil, stirring often, and let it boil until there are a couple inches of froth or bubbles. Turn it off, and let it sit for a while, or alternatively, fill up the sink with cold water, and immerse the pot to cool it faster. When it reaches body temperature (stick a clean finger into it, and if you can’t tell when your finger is in or out of the milk, it’s about right), stir in half a cup of yogurt. Stir it a lot, then pour it back into the glass jars. The amount that boiled off should be approximately equal to the amount of yogurt added at the end, leaving almost no leftover in the pot.
Our two-year old loves doing all the pouring and stirring. Other than spilling, there’s not really any way to mess it up.
Stick it on the warming tray for a few hours, and start checking it for consistency at around hour 4. I find my yogurt is almost always done in 4-8 hours, though you can’t really wreck it by leaving it for more or less than that. In fact, if your temperatures are a little high or a little low, changing the time may be required.
Once it’s done, cool in the fridge, and remember to keep half a cup for the next batch. You’ll know it’s done because it will be the consistency of, well, yogurt. Tilt the jar, or open it up and look. In subsequent posts, I’ll go over yogurt cheese and frozen yogurt, two of our favorite homemade-yogurt treats.