Yogurt Making Made Easy!

Yogurt is easy to make in your own kitchen. It is inexpensive and requires few ingredients. Simply fix and forget.

You will need:

• A stainless steel dutch oven (4 qts)
• A thermometer
• A spoon
• 1 gallon of milk
• Glass jar
• 4 oz yogurt starter (plain yogurt - Dannon yogurt works well)
• ice chest
• three 1-quart mason jars
• three quarts boiling water.

Note: All utensils must be extremely clean.

Rinse the ice chest with hot water. This converts the ice chest into an incubator. Start boiling three quarts of water. Heat milk in pan to 110 degrees. (You may heat it to 145 to pastuerize the milk, but you will need to set pan in a sink of ice cold water to rapidly bring the temperature to 110 degrees.) Once the milk is 110 degrees, dilute the yogurt starter with the warm milk in a cup. Diluting will help the culture distribute more evenly through out the milk. Add the yogurt starter and stir vigorously. Pour the milk into a gallon glass jar. Put a lid on the jar of milk and set it in the ice chest. Pour boiling water in each of the quart mason jars. Set one jar in each corner. Keep the jars from touching the gallon of milk. Let sit for three to five hours until thick. If you desire a bland yogurt, let it incubate for three hours. If you desire a tart yogurt let is set for five hours. Refrigerate before separating into smaller portions.

Homemade yogurt is sensitive to movement. The more you move it, the more it will separate curds floating in the whey. Pouring warm yogurt into smaller containers while warm will result in very tiny curd particles with an abundance of whey. Movement does not damage the taste, but changes the appearance. Simply add fruit and sweetner and stir vigorously. The whey is very nutritious.

Yogurt Cheese

Drain yogurt overnight in a cheese cloth.

Yogurt cheese can be used in place of cream cheese.