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.
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