My first couple attempts totally flopped. Everything I found online told me that I needed to add powdered milk, which I wasn't going to do. Finally though, I found the magic formula for us. Here's my process to make a 1/2 gallon of yogurt.
Step 1: Buy a gallon of raw milk from Farmer Doug. Literally. I have a farmer named Doug who sells milk outside my house on Saturday mornings as well as eggs, cheese, and butter. We're weird. I know. I've accepted that and moved on.
Step 2: Heat up the milk to 185 degrees. I fought this step in the past. Didn't that defeat the point of using raw milk? Not really is what I ended up deciding. Me gently heating local delicious and un-messed with milk on my stove is (in my mind) better than whatever they do at the milk factory.
Step 4: Cool the milk down in an ice bath. I fill my sink up with cold water and dump some ice in. I put the whole pot down in the water and whisk away until it cools to 110 degrees.
Step 5: Stir in 3/4 cup yogurt. Whisk it up really well so that it's not lumpy.
Step 6: Pour it into the containers of your yogurt maker (or crockpot or anything that will keep it at 110 degrees) and let it do it's thing for 10 hours.
Step 7: Put the lids on and let it cool in the fridge.
Don't start this process during your children's afternoon nap. Otherwise you will end up having to put your yogurt in the fridge at 3 a.m.; and while you may be up at that time anyway if your children are anything like mine, you won't want to be messing with yogurt then.
Step 5: Stir in 3/4 cup yogurt. Whisk it up really well so that it's not lumpy.
Step 6: Pour it into the containers of your yogurt maker (or crockpot or anything that will keep it at 110 degrees) and let it do it's thing for 10 hours.
Step 7: Put the lids on and let it cool in the fridge.
Don't start this process during your children's afternoon nap. Otherwise you will end up having to put your yogurt in the fridge at 3 a.m.; and while you may be up at that time anyway if your children are anything like mine, you won't want to be messing with yogurt then.
Thanks for posting this. I made homemade yogurt for the first time last week. I used a mason jar in a sous vide pot--it worked beautifully! You use all the same steps, but instead of heating in a yogurt maker you set your sous vide to 110F and let it go up to 24 hrs (the longer, the thicker). I used organic whole milk, but I sure wish I could find raw milk. I stirred in the maple and vanilla afterward, and it was really yummy. Next time, I'll add the flavor before putting it in the sous vide.
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