Food Werx, Vol 3 - Yogurt

So I have been having fun making simple foods, and while I was making the butter, I remembered a video I had seen on how easy it is tomake yogurt; Since I had the time, andThomas was my sou chef, I figured it could be done.

I had separated a good portion of the cream from the top of the milk, but not all of it, not nearly. I blended the rest back in, and then did my prep work to make yogurt. Here is the plan;

The volume of milk will give you your volume of yogurt; it is not reduced, or anything, so what you start with is what you will have at the end. We need--

milk

non-reactive pot (stainless steel preferably, just NOT aluminum)

yogurt starter (from a favorite plain yogurt; I used Trader Joe's Plain.)

thermometer

large pot or sink for cooling water bath

insulated 'cooler' as a fermentor

Sterilize the jar you will be using to make the yogurt by putting it and it's lid into a few inches of water at a boil for 10 minutes or so. Nothing like being sure.

Pour your milk into the non-reactive pot, heat over medium heat until the temperature is between 185F and 190F.

A note on thermometers; A simple way to calibrate, or check the scale of your thermometer- boil water, and then read the temperature off of the thermometer. Water boils at 212F, and a physical trait of transitioning from solid to liquid to gas is that once that temperature threshold is reached,

the substance (water) will NOT increase in temperature until it is in the next state. So when you boil water, once it reaches 212F, the remaining water will r

emain at 212F while the surface water turns into a gas as it boils off. So just read your thermometer in boiling water, and adjust your temperature accordingly. Mine boiled 'at' about 209F, so I did everything with a reading 3F less than required, or stayed at the low end of any temperature bands.

Once the milk reaches 185F, take the pot of milk off the stove, and set it in the cooling water bath.

Once your milk cools to 122F - 130F, pour a cup of the hot milk into a bowl, and whisk with your 'starter' yogurt (about 2T of yogurt per quart

of milk.)

Pour the whisked milk/yogurt mix right back into the scalded milk, and whisk together.

Now pour the milk into your sterilized jar/s, tighten on the lids, place the jars into the 'cooler' and pour a 'bath' of 130F (NOT warmer, 130F+ kills the bacteria that will make your yogurt) water around the jars, up to the lid.

Close the cooler, let sit for a minimum of 3 hours. (I had let mine sit for 3 hours, and I did not like the consistency, so I let it sit another 3 hours, then popped it into the fridge while I went on a 2 day trip.)

Eat and enjoy!!

I was gone on my trip, and Nicole tried it and said it tasted great. I gave it a try when I got home, and I thought it was pretty damn good, too. It's on the menu for breakfast tomorrow!

The finished product: