Gettin the hang of it

So, it's been a while since I posted anything on here. I have however been busy making yogurt. The yogurt maker has been a huge time and effort saver. I have it down to about a 30 minute process from start until the milk is in the yogurt maker.

• Once in the maker, I set the timer for whatever time I know I will be able to put it away (timer ranges from 3-15 hours). Generally it is between 8-12 and I haven't noticed a big difference. 
• I have been adding 1/2 cup powdered milk every time to ensure that it is nice and thick. 
• The process makes 7 seven ounce cups. I eat 6 of them and use the last one for making the next batch.
• I still haven't figured out which is the quickest method for heating/cooling the milk; microwave vs stovetop. The milk in a glass bowl in the microwave heats it faster (~8 mins) but takes longer to cool down in the cold water bath because the metal pan that I use on the stove is much more efficient heat conductor and therefore cools much much faster (usually less than 5 mins). Next time I will use a timer for each so I can get maximum efficiency. 

I tried experimenting with flavoring last night. Once I had heated up the milk, cooled it down, and added the yogurt starter, I poured 3 of the cups so that if it failed, I would still have something to eat/use for next batch. I then took 2.5 tablespoons maple syrup and mixed that into the rest of the batch. Then I poured them into the cups and proceeded as normal. Today's taste test was great. Not too sweet but it definitely had a hint of maple flavor. This is going to become part of the routine from now on. 

I am excited to try different flavorings before I put it into the maker as I now have one successful flavored batch. 

No picture this time because they all look exactly like the other pictures, the maple flavored yogurt looks just like regular plain yogurt. 

Yogurt with a yogurt maker

So I finally caved and bought a yogurt maker. Total it was $42. I have made 2 batches and so far it is MUCH easier and produces much thicker yogurt than I was able to make by manually regulating the temp. I used the same recipe as before with 5 cups whole milk, 1/2 cup powdered milk, and about 6 oz of yogurt with live cultures.
This time I microwaved the milk for 10 minutes.

10 minutes proved to be a little bit too long and it ended up boiling a little and getting a little bit of "skin" on the top.

I put this in the fridge with my thermometer in it and waited ~30 minutes until it was 120 degrees.

Once this was at the right temp I mixed in the 6oz yogurt and then poured them into the cups that came with the yogurt maker and put them in it. I set the timer for 8 hours and walked away and did something else for the day. 

The final result was by far the best yet. It had the least milky taste and was by far the thickest. This is a picture of it upside down showing how thick it is. 

I just started another batch today. This time I heated it up on the stove and cooled it in a cold water bath. I also did not use any powdered milk. It took about 45 minutes to get it from scratch to the yogurt maker. I left it in the maker and then headed to work so I will report back on how it came out later. I found that the cold water bath took only about 5 minutes to cool from 180 degrees to 120 degrees. 

Yogurt, attempt #3

I made a third batch of yogurt. This time I started with the same process as in attempt #2 but when it came to keeping it warm, I put them in the cooler with the hot 120 degree water, and put that cooler inside of a slightly larger soft sided cooler. It fit about as well as you could hope in the other cooler so there wasn't much extra room. I placed this in front of my heater and let it sit for about 5 hours. After 5 hours, the water temp was about 100 degrees. This yogurt came out similar to the second batch, only slightly thinner.

I liked the consistency of the second batch better than the third but I also didn't have to monitor the third batch so it was much easier.

I am going to try this method a few more times and if I can't get it to thicken up much more then I think I'll bite the bullet and get a yogurt maker. . .

Yogurt, attempt #2

This second attempt was much more successful than my first. I ditched the crock pot method due to the fact that it was very difficult to regulate the temp. This time I used the stove, a meat thermometer, and a small cooler. I also used a cup of powdered milk in an attempt to make it thicker than the last batch, which was a little watery for my break.

Process:

1. Simmered 5 cups whole milk and 1 cup powdered milk in a saucepan.  
2. When temp reached 180 degrees F, transferred saucepan into a cold water bath in the sink, while carefully monitoring temp using a meat thermometer.                                                                                        
3. When temp got down to 120 degrees I removed it from the cold water.
4. I poured about a cup of the warm milk into a bowl and added ~4 oz of plain yogurt. (I used a new store bought yogurt for this because I didn't have much faith in my first yogurt making attempt.) I then combined this with the rest of the warm milk.
5. I transferred the warm milk into mason jars that I had just sterilized in my stovetop canning sterilizer, and placed them in a small cooler that I had filled with hot water. (My tap water conveniently comes out at 120 degrees.)                                                                                                                              
6. I let this sit for about 5 hrs 15 mins. I checked the temp regularly and added boiling water to the cooler to raise the temp back up to 120 about every hour. In an hour it would drop down to around 105 degrees. 
7. After the 5.25 hours I took it out of the cooler and this time it was very thick. After refrigerating for several hours I tried some and it was much much much better than the first batch. The taste was great and it actually had the consistency of yogurt. I spiced up a bowl with granola, a few drops of vanilla extract and about a half tsp of sugar and it was absolutely delicious.  As you can see from the picture below, it was very thick.

My next attempt I am going to try the same method but without adding hot water every hour and see if it stays warm enough for the bacteria to remain active for the whole 5.25 hours. If not, I think I'll try using a heating pad and if that doesn't work, I'll break down and buy a yogurt maker. 

Yogurt experiment

Mike's Food Fermentation Blog

Yogurt:

Overview
I plan on experimenting with fermenting yogurt. I had never really thought of making my own yogurt but I eat it almost every day and love yogurt. This sounds pretty straight forward and I think I could potentially save a lot of money doing it. I have done some reading and I think I will start out by making it in my crock pot.

Crock pot procedure:

1. Take 1/2 gallon whole milk (not ultra-pasteurized) and put it in the crock pot, covered on low for 2.5 hours

2. Unplug crock pot and let it sit covered for 3 hours.

3. Take 2 cups of warm milk out of crock pot and whisk in 1/2 cup store bought yogurt into it (live culture yogurt) and dump back into crock pot.

4. Put lid back on and wrap in a towel.

5. Let it sit for 8 hours

This should give me relatively thin plain yogurt. I will add flavoring to each individual serving and save the last little bit for adding to the next batch.

I think that unless this crock pot method works out perfectly, I will try a different method for the second batch.

Attempt #1
I took a half gallon of whole milk (pasteurized and homogenized) and poured it into the crock pot, set it on low, and let it warm up for 2.5 hours. I then turned off the crock pot for 3 hours. After the 3 hours I checked the temp of the warm milk with my brewing thermometer and it was 100 degrees F. All of the other instructions I have read instruct you to have milk at around 115-120 degrees at this point so I turned the crock pot on high for a few minutes. Meanwhile, I took about 2 cups out and stirred in a cup of Stonyfield Farms lowfat, plain yogurt. I added this back into the crockpot. Next I wrapped the crockpot in a few bath towels for insulation.

Stonyfield lists the active cultures on the container. This particular yogurt had the following cultures: S Thermophilus, L. Bulgaricus, L. Acidophilus, Bifidous, L. Casei, and L. Rhamnosus.

After about 7 hours I checked on the yogurt concoction. It was still luke warm and was much thicker than I expected. Here is a picture of the first spoonful.

The taste was actually delicious (other than being luke warm.) I put the half gallon in the fridge overnight and am eating a bowl now. It is a little waterier than I am used to but I think the taste is much better than most plain yogurts. It doesn't have the bitter taste that plain yogurt so often does.
Anyway, attempt #1 was a huge success in my opinion. The grand total for this half gallon of delicous yogurt was about $4, and that included an 8oz plain yogurt that was a one time purchase for making. I think I am going to start looking for a relatively inexpensive yogurt maker because this crock pot method takes most of a day and I usually don't have a whole day to devote to saving a few dollars. I eat enough yogurt that I think this could save me a decent chunk of change.
Next round, I plan on doing a little straining at the end to try to make Greek yogurt.