Time to Make Yogurt

When you eat a cup of yogurt every day, it doesn't take long before you run out. In recent years I have been buying whatever yogurt I could get on sale. This costs anywhere from $3 to $4.00 per quart. The last time I visited Trevor, he encouraged me to start making my own yogurt as I once did not so many years ago. The very first time I made homemade yogurt was shortly after we married. Robert was a graduate student in Mechanical Engineering at Michigan State University. We had to make a penny stretch pretty far, so making our own yogurt seemed like a good idea. We received a yogurt maker for Christmas and this made about 5 cups of yogurt at a time. We would add fresh fruit and a little honey, making a tasty lunch to be shared on campus.

One gallon of 2% milk heating over a double boiler to 185 degrees

We now use Sandor Katz's method, slowly heating a gallon of milk to 185 degrees over a double boiler and holding it close to that temperature for 15 to 30 minutes. We then cool it in an ice water bath to 120 degrees, at which time we add several tablespoons of room temperature yogurt culture (usually taken from our last batch of yogurt).

Covering the pot of warm milk to hold it close to 185 degrees

When stirred together, we pour it into quart size Ball jars and place in a cooler containing a heating pad set to "low" setting. This keeps the temperature in the cooler around 115 degrees and we leave it for 6 to 8 hours. The longer the yogurt is left, the more sour it will taste. After 6 to 8 hours, the yogurt has solidified and is ready to be refrigerated. At $4.00 per gallon of 2% milk, our quarts of yogurt now cost $1.00 each - quite a savings from the store bought product. Dress it with cinnamon, fresh fruit and muesli or spoon a dollop on top of your porridge in the morning for a fresh, dairy taste.

Yogurt nestled into cooler, warmed by a heating pad