Yogurt:

[mightyjesse]

So. For second breakfast today I had ginger yogurt that I made from scratch last night. In the crock pot. I'm ridiculously pleased with myself.

1. I got a quart size ziploc screw top container and washed it out. Nuked it for a bit to make sure it was germ free.


2. I filled my crock pot with hot water from the tap. It comes out at 120 degrees or so. I then had to wait 20-30 minutes for the water temp to drop to 115F.


3. While waiting for the water to cool I added room temperature whole milk (75F) to the "sterile" ziploc container and whisked in a heaping tablespoon of plain yogurt (also room temp) I got at the grocery store. This yogurt is my "starter" just as with a sourdough.


4. When the water in the crock pot hit 115F I immersed my milk container in the water bath and then balanced the crock pot lid on top. There was about an inch gap between the lid of the crock and the pot. This is fine because the actual temp I want to maintain is 110F.



5. When the temp in the crock pot got to 110F, I TURNED ON the crock pot to the WARM setting. (WARMING is actually set for higher than 110F on the Rival pot I use, but with the lid ajar, I was able to leave it at that setting for 1 hour before the temp started to climb.



6. I checked the temp every 1/2 hour and turned the crock pot on or off as needed over the next couple of hours until I went to bed. At that point, I turned the pot OFF and covered the whole assembly with a towel to insulate.


7. When I came down in the morning, it was yogurt! YAY! I added my flavorants (ginger root and splenda) directly to the 1 cup I packed for my breakfast. Always remember to reserve 1/2-3/4c of yogurt to make your next batch or you'll have to run to the store for more Dannon or Brown Cow.

Home made yogurt is more runny than store-bought, because they tend to cheat and add guar gum or gelatin to thicken their product. I made this batch without so I could sample "unadulterated yogurt." Next batch, I will heat the milk enough to scald it (keep out unwanted critters) and add some gelatin. Then I will cool it to 110F and add my yogurt... We'll see how it turns out. For now, I have a quart of yummy plain yogurt to have for lunch. Tomorrow, I think I'll try mint!

Comments

[splott.livejournal.com]

I started looking around at how-tos for that stuff, and it seems many add dry-milk-solids for that purpose.

[mightyjesse.livejournal.com]

There are TONS of recipies out there. Powdered milk is about $6 for a small box, so I was reluctant to buy it for an experiment when I had a recipe that called for gelatin and I already have several boxes of that under my sink... (Keep 'em around for sizing wool yarn...)

[teffan.livejournal.com]

So.... why not just add your ginger/mint/etc to the plain yogurt from the grocery store? Seems like it would be much faster.

[mightyjesse.livejournal.com]

Yogurt is merely a rung in the ladder of this game... Next step? CHEESE!

Eventually I'd like to make a nice porter or whiskey cheddar at home... Cheese is wicked expensive, and if I can make it at home, then I will be THE MOST POPULAR PERSON EVAR (after the zombie apocalypse).

[mightyjesse.livejournal.com]

PLUS, find me a place where I can get a GALLON of yogurt for $2.19...

[eithni.livejournal.com]

Yay! Dairy products!

Today, yogurt... Tomorrow, CHEESE... Next week, WORLD DOMINATION!!!
(A natural progression, I think...)

[othelianna.livejournal.com]

My mother makes yogurt using a small container inset into an ice cream bucket (the standard grocery store ones). She wraps christmas lights around the gap between the two containers, plugs 'em in, wraps the whole thing in a towel and leaves it overnight. It works well.

And oh! Cheese is what I'm trying right now! I found a book with a very simple goat cheese recipe, and it just so happened the health food store next door had rennet, so I'm going to be experimenting with goat cheese soon. If you're interested, I'll post my experiments.

[mightyjesse.livejournal.com]

Oh, please do! I got some rennet too and will be conducting experiments with Angus and Eithni as time allows.

[robstout.livejournal.com]

I haven't made yoghurt yet (or cheese for that matter), but in good eats. Alton brown uses a heating pad to supply minor heat to the yoghurt. I use them for making beer when it's too cold in the basement for the yeasties. You might get better control that way.

[mightyjesse.livejournal.com]

I made mozzarella tonight! Haven't tasted it yet, but it sure looks awesome! Entry and photos to follow!

[robstout.livejournal.com]

Cool! I look foreword to heairng ow it turns out.

[mightyjesse.livejournal.com]

Hehehehe. I forgot to mention - from one geek to another, there's one guy on a bulletin board I was reading who makes his yogurt by putting his ingredients in a canning jar and then sticking the canning jar in his computer tower over night.

Evidently it's EXACTLY the right temperature in there, and he doesn't like wasting energy from un-needed appliances. Almost makes me wish I had a desktop to experiment with...

[mightyjesse.livejournal.com]

PS - I made a second quart batch of yogurt with one envelope of knox gelatin disolved in the milk at the skalding stage, and it came out at the perfect texture! I made Zig eat some with blueberries for breakfast.

[goldfrog.livejournal.com]

Yes! I used the heating blanket too and it worked perfectly on a medium setting. I highly recommend it.

Now I wanna make my own yogurt again...I use the dry milk powder and no gelatin, and it turns out very well. Maybe dry milk prices have gone up in the 3 years since I bought the stuff I have, because I don't remember it being that expensive.

[mightyjesse.livejournal.com]

This was at the Copps over by my house... I'm not 100% sure I was looking at the right product, but this stuff was $6 for a small box and $12 for a large one. It might be worth the expenditure now that I'm confident that I can make yogurt without making a giant, wasteful stinky FAIL in my kitchen, but last week I was really nervous about making stinky milk fail. There arent a lot of smells that really freak me out, but sour milk does me in.

I remember what the inside of my thermos smelled like when I was a kid and tried to take milk to school in it... :P

[goldfrog.livejournal.com]

Sour milk smell is nasty. Raito used to never, ever throw out his old gallon milk containers and so they would sit for MONTHS before I would finally get fed up enough to dump them out. They stank up the house. So, I can empathize. But, if you have tons of gelatin that needs to be used up - may as well go that route and not add any more stuff to the house.

[leahnansidhe.livejournal.com]

Wow! I totally want to try this. Thanks for posting the instructions.

[giftofamber.livejournal.com]

Awesome. :) And I am totally thrilled that Zig, and not me, is the one that will be eating a gallon of yogurt.