Hinds Feet on High Places

How I make home made yogurt.

              ~Greetings from our PA mountain homestead~

Today I thought I would blog about making yogurt, as this is something I have been doing lately with all the fresh goat's milk we have now! It is very nutritious and abundant in probiotics...so it is full of bacteria which help to promote a healthy digestive system and keep harmful bacteria at bay, protein, and calcium, as well as vitamins. Sometimes we sprinkle home made granola over it and eat it that way. It makes for a quick and nutritous breakfast or snack.

I make large batches since we have 10 children and they all love it. So my "recipe" is based on a gallon of milk.

First of all, you need a starter, which you can obtain very easily by buying some plain yogurt which states it has active cultures on the label. Once you have made yogurt, you should set some aside to start the next batch, although eventually you may need to buy a fresh starter.

Warm the milk to 110 degrees and take one cup of the warmed milk out and stir it in with a cup of your starter. Then stir the starter and milk together into the rest of the milk. If you are using goat's milk or prefer a firmer product, about 1/2 cup of dry powdered milk per gallon of milk will thicken it quite nicely to a custard style yogurt. Then I pour the milk into clean glass jelly jars and pint jars, set them in a crock pot and add warm water to near the neck of the jars. I monitor the temperature of the water occasionally to keep it between 110 and 120 degrees, and let it "cook" for 6-8 hours. It is then set, but becomes firmer with refrigeration. Stirring raspberry jelly into plain yogurt is delicious, and sometimes we add 1 cup of flavored gelatin to 1 gallon of milk to thicken and sweeten it instead of making plain yogurt.

Commercial yogurt makers can be purchased inexpensively, and you can use a warmed oven or other water bath ideas-whatever keeps it warm for several hours.

Be careful not to move or disturb the yogurt during incubation as this will create to much whey. This also happens if you incubate a temps a little too high or for too long. If the yogurt is too sour, you may have incubated it too long or used too much starter.  An "off" taste is usually attributed to the milk, unclean utensils, or old or contaminated culture.

Give your hand a try at making yogurt-it is economical, healthy, easy, and fun! (Helps to use up all the extra milk, too :)