Hot summer days are the best days for making homemade yogurt. I've been making it for years now and thought I'd share how to do it since I see people still paying big bucks for small containers of it. Not to mention how much better fresh yogurt is compared to store bought.
All you need is an unopened gallon of milk and a small unopened container of plain yogurt. In a freshly cleaned pan add the entire gallon of milk and warm the milk fairly quickly to slightly above room temp, about what you would put in a baby's bottle. Then take the unopened plain yogurt that you have left on the counter for about a half hour to warm to room temp. After opening it, stir it well and then scoop out a tablespoon's worth of yogurt (Any more than a tablespoon will introduce too much acidity and start turning the milk into cheese so even thou it seems like not enough, it's more than enough). Stir the yogurt into the warm milk and seal with the lid of the pan. At this point I move the milk/yogurt mixture outside into the sun like sun tea and leave sit. Then after about 8 to 10 hrs you bring the mixture in the house and viola! You've a ton of fresh yogurt. The smell of this fresh yogurt is simply amazing and the taste is so sweet despite not adding any sugar. At this point you can add fruit and whip it in or just cool it down in the fridge and drink it. Either way it's awesome and very very good for you. Now mind you, it won't be the super thick gelatinous yogurt you get in the store because they add thickeners to it. Instead it will be like a warmed milk shake.
And for those who are worried whether this is safe or not, it really is. If anything goes wrong during the process you will smell it right away. But in the many years I've been doing this I've never had a batch go wrong. Actually, I've never even heard of a batch going wrong so I don't know if it's possible, I suppose it is but must be very difficult to do.
Today's batch is already done but next time I whip some up I'll photograph the procedure and post it on line.
All you need is an unopened gallon of milk and a small unopened container of plain yogurt. In a freshly cleaned pan add the entire gallon of milk and warm the milk fairly quickly to slightly above room temp, about what you would put in a baby's bottle. Then take the unopened plain yogurt that you have left on the counter for about a half hour to warm to room temp. After opening it, stir it well and then scoop out a tablespoon's worth of yogurt (Any more than a tablespoon will introduce too much acidity and start turning the milk into cheese so even thou it seems like not enough, it's more than enough). Stir the yogurt into the warm milk and seal with the lid of the pan. At this point I move the milk/yogurt mixture outside into the sun like sun tea and leave sit. Then after about 8 to 10 hrs you bring the mixture in the house and viola! You've a ton of fresh yogurt. The smell of this fresh yogurt is simply amazing and the taste is so sweet despite not adding any sugar. At this point you can add fruit and whip it in or just cool it down in the fridge and drink it. Either way it's awesome and very very good for you. Now mind you, it won't be the super thick gelatinous yogurt you get in the store because they add thickeners to it. Instead it will be like a warmed milk shake.
And for those who are worried whether this is safe or not, it really is. If anything goes wrong during the process you will smell it right away. But in the many years I've been doing this I've never had a batch go wrong. Actually, I've never even heard of a batch going wrong so I don't know if it's possible, I suppose it is but must be very difficult to do.
Today's batch is already done but next time I whip some up I'll photograph the procedure and post it on line.
