Yogurt is a favorite snack around here. We make a gallon a week. This saves us money and helps us to avoid the sugar that is loaded in commercial yogurt. If it is fermented for 24 hours most people can eat it even if they can't drink milk. The good bacteria breaks down and digest the things in the milk that cause allergies. The longer it is fermented the more sour it gets. I find that 7 hours is perfect for us.
Yogurt is very simple to make if you have one of these thermal cookers. They are around $100 and worth every penny. Make sure you get a good one though. There are a lot of junky ones that don't retain the heat for 24 hours.
First, put the whole milk in the inner stainless steel pan. I heat the milk to 180 while occasionally stirring it. After it reaches 180, I put the pan into the sink with cold ice water until the temp gets to 110-120. I then put one cup of Brown Cow plain yogurt (you can get it at a health food store and it has plenty of live good bacteria) into the pot and stir it with a wire whisk. I then put the inner pan into the thermal cooker and let it ferment for about 7-8 hours. After it is done, I take the inner pan out and put it in the fridge over night. Walla....it's ready to eat.
Yogurt is very simple to make if you have one of these thermal cookers. They are around $100 and worth every penny. Make sure you get a good one though. There are a lot of junky ones that don't retain the heat for 24 hours.
First, put the whole milk in the inner stainless steel pan. I heat the milk to 180 while occasionally stirring it. After it reaches 180, I put the pan into the sink with cold ice water until the temp gets to 110-120. I then put one cup of Brown Cow plain yogurt (you can get it at a health food store and it has plenty of live good bacteria) into the pot and stir it with a wire whisk. I then put the inner pan into the thermal cooker and let it ferment for about 7-8 hours. After it is done, I take the inner pan out and put it in the fridge over night. Walla....it's ready to eat.
I stir the yogurt until it's creamy and put it into these nifty cups. I then put some fruit with honey (I slowly melt the honey and fruit on the stove to keep it raw) on top and put them into the fridge. The kids each get 3 for that week. Yummy stuff, and with all that good bacteria for a more balance digestive system!!!
You can buy these in the canning section at the store or on Amazon. They are freezer containers but work perfectly for yogurt.
You can buy these in the canning section at the store or on Amazon. They are freezer containers but work perfectly for yogurt.
6 comments:
I would love to try Kefir sometime! It sounds great! We have done yogurt for years (in our thermal cooker!) and everyone loves it. One thing we do different, but seems to work for us, is we only heat up the milk to 112-114* (but won't let it get above 118*), then put the start in it. That way, it keeps the enzymes, and it still makes great yogurt. Oh, and also, we make yogurt shakes each morning. We put a few cups of yogurt in the blender, some frozen bananas(they sweeten the yogurt without honey or anything) and frozen strawberries or other fruit, blend it up and then drink it. It's a big hit. Talking about yogurt is making me want some! But we're out right now! Argh!
I've tried to make it raw but it just gets really slimy and the kids won't eat it. It's so yucky that I can't eat it either. Maybe it works better raw with goat milk?? I tried to make goat's milk yogurt but after one try we couldn't eat it. We just aren't use to goat milk taste. Patrick has been making mozzarella cheese with our goat milk and it's really good.
BTW- I can give you a Kefir start once mine gets big enough : )
Yahoo! I would love a start! But I'll have to have you teach me how to keep it going! : )
And maybe you can teach me how to make a good raw milk yogurt. I've tried so many times I've given up.
We milked our friend's goats this weekend while they were gone and they let us keep the milk. I'm going to bring you over some mozzarella that we've made from it. It's so good! We love it on pizza and lasagna or just on sandwiches.
Terrific! That would be great! I am planning to make homemade pizza Wednesday and that would be perfect on it! I can come and get it from you - whichever works the best for you. And, I keep forgetting to tell you, thank you a ton for the apples! They are so yummy!
I'll be glad to show you how I make the raw goat yogurt. I'm thinking though, that it's probably the same as you've done it. I'm sure ours turns out different than if we were to pasteurize it, but I guess it's just all about what a person it used to. We mostly blend it with fruit in a blender and drink it, but we do sometimes eat it in a bowl with a spoon. It works fine either way.
: )
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