Thursday, 20th of May 2010 at 11:03:00 PM A) Gross!
B) Horrible and to be avoided.
C) Expensive.
D) Easy to make at home and DELICIOUS.
E) All but D.
F) All of the above, but D is the best.
The answer, my friends, is blowing in the wind.
No, wait. That was a different question. The answer to this one is F, and F is for ferment, in this case.
It LOOKS like a slow cooker and a carton of milk, but just wait for the presto-chango!
But even Joshilyn knows that yogurt is really, really good for you, because despite her personal abhorrence of it, I happen to know she continues to buy it for her children. And she does that because yogurt is packed with all kinds of awesome stuff. Calcium. Vitamins. Good fats (if you get the kind with fat in it). And perhaps most importantly: Probiotics, or so-called “good bacteria.” Probiotics have been credited with everything from regulating the digestive tract to reducing general inflammation, but everyone agrees that those invisible buggers are just plain healthy to have around.
Watching milk heat is almost, but not quite, as exciting as watching paint dry.
Just to give you an idea: My kids drink smoothies for breakfast about five days a week; those are made with yogurt. My husband has yogurt with his cereal. And while I’m not always good about remembering breakfast, when I do? It’s yogurt. We eat a lot of it, is my point.
And thanks to my friend Stephanie, I remembered that you can make yogurt in a crock pot.
Yes, I swaddled my crock pot. For SCIENCE.
1) Dump milk into the crock.
2) Heat on low for two hours.
3) Cool for three hours.
4) Fish out some milk and whisk either some yogurt starter or actual yogurt into it.
5) Pour that back into the crock with the rest of the warm milk.
6) Wrap the crock in a towel and… leave it there for eight hours.
My optional 7th step:
7) Periodically peer at the crock skeptically.
Oh my gosh, it's actually yogurt! Slimy!!
Stephanie does a great job of explaining all the different options; some people thicken theirs with the addition of either pectin or powdered milk, to make it more like industrial yogurt, but as I wanted this to be simple and I primarily wanted the yogurt for smoothies, I just went ahead and scooped out the pure-milk yogurt and put it into a container and stuck it in the fridge.
The taste is fantastic; fresh and tangy. My children balked at the thinness of it when offered a bowl, so the next morning I took half of it and strained it through a coffee filter set in a sieve,
Probiotics central, and I made it myself.
The only part of this process that I found onerous was the straining at the end. It turns out that it’s rather hard to manipulate a coffee filter filled with yogurt. Who knew? But even the additional mess there could probably be mitigated with better planning and/or different equipment. And like I said before, for smoothies I really don’t care, anyway. I may experiment with thickeners, next time, to see how that goes.
Will I make yogurt from now on? Absolutely. In fact, I’m sort of embarrassed that I both baked my own bread and made my own granola on a regular basis before it ever even occurred to me to try this.
But now I know, and so do you.
Go make your own bacteria. And enjoy it.
Huh! I had no idea you could make yogurt in a slow cooker. Interesting! I don’t usually like the plain, though…my favourite is Activia raspberry
(And I feel the need to sing “Activiahhhhhh!” every time I eat it. Because I’m cool like that.)
But Heather, once you make it, it’s easy enough to blend it with whatever flavor you like! I use the plain in smoothies, but mix it with honey and vanilla for “regular eating.” Also, I have some lovely mangoes on my counter right now… hmmmm….
Next stop on the groovy hippie bacteria train: Kefir.
I am… intrigued. My kids eat a lot of yogurt. I don’t care for it but sometimes will choke some down, since it’s a miracle food. I have to add lots of granola and fruit. Is there a time limit on when you should eat it? I know it’s already bacteria, but still.
Lee, supposedly it will keep for a couple of weeks. Ours will be gone in under a week so I don’t know for sure. (Also, for the germphobic: May recipes call for sterilizing your storage container, but honestly, through the dishwasher seems prudent enough to most folks I asked.)
Ooooh, I have an old recipe for making homemade curd cheese (a Canadian favorite I don’t have access to here) that requires slooooow heating of milk, now I’m excited to try it in a crockpot sometime. I just never thought of that!
I just don’t know that I could do this…bacteria scares me…same reason I don’t even consider canning – I’d be sure to poison everyone by screwing up a step!
Ya mean yogurt doesn’t come from a plant?
Miracles will never cease.
Incidently, to qualify as a true hippie you can’t use an electric mixer or a blender to make those smoothies. You need to have one of those hand cranked jobees which can also be an effective way of splattering tasty liquid all over your walls and ceiling if not operated in a deep container. That was always my trick when I got to lick the mixer blades.
Power to the people.
Huh. This actually seems like something I could do. I might give this the old college try.
I’ve made yogurt for years but never tried the crock pot. Maybe this weekend. My dogs love yogurt. It’s good for their digestion too, and makes pill hiding a snap.
heh, your dad said jobees.
OK, you are some sort of wunderkin hippy dippy trippy earth mama baker. Impressive. I especially like how you saved the whey for use in baking. Clever. I’m not quite on the bandwagon yet, but we do eat A TON of yogurt. And, I do prefer organic…maybe one day.
Mmm… bacteria! Actually, I love yogurt and am now wishing I had a crock pot to make it in. Maybe I’ll get one!
Heather, Fix me a Snack (http://www.fixmeasnack.com) just ran a whole series on yogurt with all sorts of yummy combinations.
I can only have a teeny teeny bit of milk so one of these days I’m going to try and make my own coconut milk yogurt.
FYI, cheesecloth makes an excellent yogurt strainer for thickening up yogurt. Thanks for letting us know how easy it is to make yogurt at home – I’m going to have to try it!
I happen to agree with Joshilyn – something about having yogurt and then a stomach virus as a kid – never been the same since.
But the ease of it intrigues me. Not enough to try since I wouldn’t eat it…
Get a large strainer (one with the bowl part about as big as the coffee filter) It needs to be one with a long handle and the little “ears” opposite the handle. Then balance the coffee-filter-lined strainer over the whey-catcher of your choice (4-cup measuring cup works well).
I’ve never been ambitious enough to make my own yogurt but this is what I do when I need thicker yogurt for something. (It’s the handle and the little ears that make it easy to balance the strainer over the measuring cup.)
Heheh….I’m right there with you on the progressively more hippie train [when it comes to FOOD, primarily]. I too have a fondness for hair removal, however, and do not fit in with the hippies in Boulder, CO’s hippiest city ever.
I’m hippie enough to have made yogurt before, but I have to know — what do you use the whey for when you bake??
Whey can be added to just about any baked good as either a water or milk substitution; it adds protein and kind of “deepens” the flavor, if that makes sense. I love to use it when I make bread, but I’ve also been known to slip it into muffins and cookies.
My favorite baking application for whey, though, is pancakes. Not quite as rich/caloric as using buttermilk, but better tasting (and better for you) than water.
Mom used to make her own yogurt when we were growing up in MO, and we would add the condensed frozen orange juice to a batch and mix it in. Delicious!
Daily Tragedies asks a good question. I want to know, though, if it’s really cheaper when all is said & done? What was your thickened yield from a couple quarts of milk? Either way, it seems that it would be yummy enough to try. Just curious
I used a half gallon of milk (2 quarts) and it yielded the same amount of yogurt. I then took half of that (about a quart) and strained it; I wasn’t terribly scientific about it, but let’s say I ended up with about 1.5 cups of whey and 2.5 cups of thickened yogurt from that. Obviously the thicker you want your yogurt to be, the less of it you get. BUT you get the whey as well (if that doesn’t matter to you, I guess that’s not a financial concern) and even with the reduced amount, a single quart of organic yogurt costs me $4, while a half gallon of organic milk is only $2.50. Still a price savings!
Crista – I’m with you – ‘jobees’ – how cute is that???
I’ve been toying with the yogurt idea for a while but was going to get a maker, this seems like a great alternative. Thanks, Mir!
I’m totally addicted to Fage 0% Greek Yogurt and that stuff is $5 a container. What I like about it is how thick and creamy it is, so when you strained your homemade stuff were you able to get it super thick? I eat yogurt every day almost and my husband and son are getting on that bandwagon too. Hmmm, wonder if I could figure out how to put it in those tubes (like Horizon Tuberz) for them.
Nicole, I didn’t strain it all the way to true Greek consistency, though you certainly could. I saw lots of people making “yogurt cheese” online where they strain it down to cream cheese consistency, so it’s definitely doable. We also really like the creaminess of Greek yogurt, though, so like I said I think I may experiment with adding powdered milk, next time, and see how that works.
We’ve been given starter before in a mason jar. You put a few tablespoons to a quarter cup of starter in a quart jar and fill it the rest of the way with milk. You put a paper towel over it and secure that with a ring lid and leave it on the counter. Two days later you have yourself some yogurt. Put it in the fridge and when you need more you take a few tablespoons to a quarter of a cup and repeat. I did this for a few months when I was pregnant with my first and even though I’m more like Joshilyn (though I can eat thick and creamy yoplait without too much shaking and cringing) I was able to do it for a while before stopping for a reason I don’t remember. The cooking it and knowing it was warm at some point makes me shiver but you’ve got me thinking about getting some starter again and doing it my own way.
I’ve been making Stephanie’s recipe in the crockpot for a year or so. Even with powdered milk added I never really got it thick enough. I recently read that heating the milk up to 180 degrees before you start will make the yogurt thicker and I made it without powdered milk and got thicker yogurt than I’ve been getting in the crockpot. It stays in the (turned off) oven overnight. I followed the tips here:
http://www.applepiepatispate.com/dairy/homemade-yogurt
although I didn’t worry about my container being sterilized.
I make my own yoghurt too sometimes, but only because it’s tastier, not cheaper. It really doesn’t work out cheaper at all, at least here in Australia. The brand of (organic) store bought yoghurt I like costs $5.50 per kilo, and the equivalent amount of milk to make that much homemade yoghurt at a similar thickness (i.e. strained) costs $5.15. I guess it would be cheaper if I didn’t mind it thin, but I can’t stand it!
I love making my own yogurt. Here’s how I do it:
Use a quart Mason jar to measure out 1 quart of milk. On the stove, heat it to 180 degrees. Then turn off the heat and cool to 100 degrees. Mix in about 1/2 cup plain yogurt (Really plain–just milk and bacteria. I like Chobani the best for this. It comes in 6 oz containers and I use the whole thing, even though it’s more than 1/2 cup.) and pour it back into the quart mason jar and put on the lid. Here’s where it gets all scientific… put it in a cooler filled with blankets. Let it sit for 8-12 hours. Stick the jar in the fridge. This comes out VERY thick sometimes, with no straining. Set aside 1/2 cup for the next batch. I can usually go several months from one cup of store-bought yogurt before I mess the chain up somehow–I’ll either screw up a batch by forgetting to put it in the fridge before I go to bed or I’ll just lose the momentum and not have any good yogurt left in the fridge to work with.
Then you can strain it overnight to make yogurt cheese, which is a lot like cream cheese, and can substitute nicely in cream cheese frosting. If you want to go really hippie you can make frosting with just that and maple syrup and maybe a little vanilla.
Hahaha! I loved step #7 — I always peer skeptically at everything I ever make in the crock pot. And stir it. And poke it.
The answer is….A. I couldn’t even read this post.
The reason I hate yogurt? I have a very acute sense of smell, and my mom made her own. Yogurt when it is cooking smells…corpsetastic. As the yogurt cooked for hours, that curdley taint would spread through the whole downstairs and then linger for days. 35 years later, a mere whiff of any rotty-milky-smelling thing can make me dry heave.
I started following this very recipe a few weeks ago. Amaze your friends! Start a revolution! Make your own yogurt! You’d think my friends on Facebook were hearing of my adventures in home-butchery. But the yogurt is fantastic. I do add the unflavored gelatin and strain it overnight; just makes it easier for all of us here. With my homemade rhubarb strawberry fruit spread (and homemade granola), it makes a killer breakfast.
But I gotta know what you make with the whey. Kills me to pour it down the drain, but I’m not keeping it without a plan. : )
See my response to Daily Tragedies, above, Jen, but my favorite application is pancakes. Pump up the protein! (For those of you loathe to bake with whey—either because you don’t bake or if for some reason it just doesn’t appeal to you—apparently watering your garden with whey is very beneficial, as well. I don’t know about that firsthand because I always use ours, but there you go.
i’m indian and i’ve watched yogurt being made from when i was a kid.
Here’s how u do it. Take milk and boil it. Watch till the time when it almost boils over, at that point take it off stove or microwave. Let it cool down to a very reasonable temperature, such that if u dipped ur finger it would be slightly warm. Now add your yogurt starter to it. Put it back in a dark or warm corner and wait for 8-12hrs.
the way to get it to be thick is to start with higher %fat milk but that might defeat the purpose if you are health conscious. The way folks do it in india is that they put it inthese earthern mud pots (that are porous) to ferment. The pots let the water evaporate and the curd is nice and thick. But even without a pot, the results are pretty good.