Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Making Yogurt



Sweetpea and I made yogurt for the first time on Monday.  It was not difficult, and we had a good time.  We made the yogurt basically following the directions from SouleMama's how we make yogurt, and by this highly informative site called MakeYourOwnYogurt

We started with an organic whole milk from an Ohio dairy that is not homogenized and only minimally pasteurized.  I don't have a double boiler as MakeYourOwnYogurt recommends, so I just used a regular saucepan.  I used a candy thermometer to get the right temp, cooled the milk using a water bath, added some organic plain yogurt I bought from the store (I used 1/4 cup per quart like SouleMama suggests), and put it into jars.  To keep the yogurt warm overnight, I placed it in the oven with the oven light (not the pilot light, mind you, just the light that lights the oven when you open the door).  Actually, we put it right in front of the light bulb so it would soak up as much heat as possible.  That kept the yogurt right around 95 degrees, which is not technically warm enough.  But when I took it out in the morning, it smelled soooooooooooooo yogurt-like and yummy.  I put it in the fridge for a day to firm up.

We ate it this morning - nearly half of the 2 quarts I made!!!!!  It tastes wonderful.  And the texture was perfect.  We'll definitely be adding this to our list of weekly food items.

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