I know, that was awful. But I had to do it. And by yo-yo, I of course mean yogurt.
When we got married, Mister and I received a yogurt maker as a gift.
I asked for the yogurt maker – it wasn’t an ill-conceived gift by some dotty relative. I wanted that yogurt maker because it was part of my grand scheme. I pictured myself milking my dairy goats, or perhaps my Jersey cows, and making lovely yogurt (or goat-gurt) with the abundant milk they supplied me (along with rustic cheeses, but that’s another story for another day). The yogurt would be so plentiful, I could supply all my friends and family with the tangy white goo. Oh, how healthy and happy we would be!
Fast forward two years to today. We’ve discussed that my projects are not always timely, so it shouldn’t come as a surprise that today was the day we finally christened the yogurt maker.
Enclosed in the box was a little instruction booklet, complete with recipes for various yogurts, goat-gurt, and fro-yo. After flipping through the recipes, we decided to make vanilla yogurt. Yogurt isn’t really very complicated, so we thought we could probably handle this advanced yogurt (read: regular yogurt that you added honey and vanilla to before incubation).
Materials needed: 4 3/4 cups of milk, 1/2 cup live yogurt, 3 tablespoons honey, 2 tablespoons vanilla, appropriate measuring devices, containment vessels and a warm place to let your yogurt yogify.
My yogurt-making paraphernalia
The recipe called for 2% milk and powdered milk, but having read the instruction booklet I declared myself an expert on yogurt and changed it. I bought homogenized milk and no powdered milk. We also used a very high fat vanilla Greek yogurt as our starter, since it’s our favourite yogurt (I love creamy dairy) and we had it on hand. You can buy yogurt starter from health food stores, which apparently makes a stronger starter culture than store-bought yogurt. I didn’t want to buy more things, and I wasn’t really concerned with whether or not this yogurt would last a second batch. Mister and I tend to develop food trends – we’ll decide we like something and eat it constantly until we get tired of it, then we take a break for a while. Sometimes the trends are cyclical. Either way, I didn’t want to buy a whole bunch of yogurt starter that would sit in my cupboard when we dropped the yogurt trend.
So, moving on to the actual making of the yogurt. All in all, a simple process. Start by warming the milk. It has to be at least room temperature, but heating it to a higher temperature will result in a thicker yogurt. Aim for 85 degrees Celsius. Use a thermometer!
Heating the milk - make sure the thermometer doesn't touch the bottom of the pot!
When the milk had come up to temperature, I turned off the heat. We added honey and vanilla here, because we plan oneating the yogurt straight up and we like a less tangy yogurt. I whisked the pre-yogurt to combine the honey and vanilla, but also to help cool the mixture. I also plunged the pot into a sink full of cold water, but missed the photo opportunity.
Whisking
When the mix reached 45 degrees Celsius, we added the yogurt starter and whisked it thoroughly!
Adding the starter yogurt!
When the mixture was smooth, I transferred it to a large measuring cup for easy pouring. I then filled all the little yogurt vessels that came with our yogurt maker. This was still a bit messy, so I laid down a cloth.
Filling the yogurt pots
All the little pots got put into the machine uncovered, and then the lid put on the machine. All the yogurt maker does is incubates the yogurt, since yogurt likes to be nice and warm. We set the timer for 10 hours, we’ll see how she goes!
Nothing left to do but wait!
A longer incubation will apparently make a firmer, but tangier, yogurt. I like a firm yogurt, so we might leave it in a little longer. I’m a little concerned with the amount of vanilla aroma coming off the yogurt – I hope the tangy-ness of the yogurt will balance it out a bit. We’ll have to see what tomorrow brings!
Wings and Boots 
IfByYes said,
January 19, 2012 @ 10:52 pm
I also prefer a firm yogurt. My parent me in Greece, so my mother used to find the thickest yogurt she could, and then drain it in cheesecloth for a couple of days before feeding it to us, so it could get closer to “real” yogurt.
wingsandboots said,
January 20, 2012 @ 12:29 pm
It took me a minute to figure out what you were trying to say there.
Thick yogurt is so much more decadent. I’m going to have to figure out how to make it thicker!
MaryP said,
February 9, 2012 @ 2:42 am
I have wanted to make yogurt for ages. I tried a few batches using my crockpot, and while the first batch was great, though not quite as thick as I’d prefer, subsequent batches never got any thicker than cream. Perhaps I didn’t wait long enough? Or my kitchen was too cool?
I found a different method (yay, internet!) that I want to try. It uses packets of powdered starter, which I purchased online (yay, internet!) … and which have been sitting on a shelf for a year now. Like you, I’m not always so timely with my projects. But I will!
wingsandboots said,
February 9, 2012 @ 12:39 pm
Maybe your kitchen was too cold, or maybe your starter wasn’t very good. Do you happen to have a gas stove? If being too cold is the problem, you can make your yogurt in the oven. The pilot light keeps it just a few degrees warmer than outside of the oven. You could also try adding skimmed milk powder or letting it sit longer – both of those make it thicken.
Let me know how the powdered starter works out! I may or may not buy some, since I can keep it in the house to make yogurt on a whim.