Making Yogurt

[Paul W]

Just started to make my own yogurt, always been put off by all the expensive looking stuff you need (double lined boilers, starters, powdered milk, cooking thermometers ect) it never rang true, on the streets of India they make them fresh each day with no more technology than a large frying pan and open fire. Then I read you could make yogurt in a thermos, so with a little variation I had a pop.

Thermos are pretty small so I bought a cheap plastic 1.5 litre Ice Bucket at a pound shop, you also need a pot and a spoon.

Here's the method I use.

Boil water in the pot, pour it into the thermos and dip the spoon in to sterilise everything.

Next put a litre of milk in the pot and heat up until the first sign of boiling to kill any bacteria in it. Stir continually to stop the milk at the bottom burning.

Let it cool stirring regularly. After after a while stick your finger in it, if it burns immediately its to too, if it burns after a second of so it's ok, if it doesn't burn it's too cool. The cooling is around 10-15 minutes.

Put a small pot of plain yogurt in the ice bucket as a starter culture (first time you do this) Next time don't eat all the yogurt you make, leave 2 tablespoonfuls as starter for the next yogurt (it called a rolling culture).

Mix a few tablespoons of the milk with the yogurt in the ice bucket so its liquid. Pour the rest of the milk in and stir well.

Wrap the ice bucket up in a towel and a plastic bag. Put it in the warmest place in the house and leave it a minimum of six hours but preferably longer.

It's much fresher than supermarket yogurt so will keep for ages in the fridge, but after a week will start to decline in quality as a starter.


Yogurt you make yourself tastes much better. Also you can experiment with milk types. and it's so easy you could make it on a camp fire in the evening and have it for breakfast in the morning.

If you want thick yogurt strain it in a cloth so the whey drains from the curds.

[Toddy]

Neat

Add some peeled, deseeded and grated cucumber, a little lemon juice, grated garlic, salt, and mint or dill, and it'll make Tsatziki, or a brilliant dip to go with curry or chilli

cheers,
Toddy

[British Red]

We bought one of the "Easy Yo" large thermos containers specifically for yoghurt making - but then stuck with using a rolling culture. It works very well indeed - interestingly, best of all with UHT semi skimmed!

[Toadflax]

We bought one of the "Easy Yo" large thermos containers specifically for yoghurt making - but then stuck with using a rolling culture. It works very well indeed - interestingly, best of all with UHT semi skimmed!

I'd have to agree there. After trying many different methods over the years for incubation, the EasyYo flask is the one I've found to be virtually foolproof.


Geoff

[galopede]

Been using a large food flask to make yoghurt for years. Dead simple. One thing I'd comment on your method is that to start it all off, you really need to get a LIVE yoghurt from the shops. Not a pasteurised as that kills off the bacteria. Most supermarkets have a live yoghurt available these days. Just check the label. Failing that, any health food shop will have them.

I've found that skimmed UHT makes the thickest yoghurt! Also the batches get better as the bacteria in the previous one used to charge the next get healthier and stronger. Even the expensive live yoghurts in the shops are half dead by the time we get them!

Gareth

[squishy]

i'd love to try that I one day, knowing my luck though i'd probably end up poisoning myself might get hillbill to have a go first

[British Red]

nah its easy as squishy - we have mades gallons of the stuff. Its really simple

[Colin.W]

we have a temprature controlled container a bit like a propogator just mix a pot of yoghurt with 4 pints of milk divide between the little pots and leave them to do their thing overnight