Making Yogurt

 

 

 

I made extra thick, high fat yogurt today! I started with whole milk and added a little carton of cream to it. I have a non electric, off grid yogurt maker. It's called a "Yogotherm". It's a styrafoam bucket with a lid and a plastic food grade bucket and lid that goes inside. Just those two buckets and lids, nothing else, simple. These first came out in the 70's and were very popular. I had one back then. The one I have now is a newer one, newer as in about 20 years ago. I bought it from a cheese company online. They were hard to find when I bought this one, but have now become popular to the off grid crowd, and so are available on Amazon. 

You can also get electric yogurt makers that keep it warm in little glass containers but they don't make nearly as much yogurt at one time. Mine makes 2 litres at once. I think, since I'm going to all the trouble to make it in the first place, it should at least be enough to last a week or two. 

 

I first pour the milk and cream into the clean yogurt maker food grade inside plastic bucket, to measure the amount I will need to fill it when it's done. The plastic bucket is not sterile at this point, just clean and dry. The milk goes from here into a pot on the stove and heated to minimum 180f. This will kill any yeast and bacteria in the milk. I sometimes bring it to a boil. I have read that this helps to make it thicker.  

I turn the milk on in the pot on the burner and stir it often while washing the plastic bucket in hot soapy water. Then I sterile everything, while continuing to stir the milk on the stove. I sterilize the bucket, the lid, the spoon I'm stirring it with, a little spoon for the starter and any other utensils that will come in contact with the milk. I use a temperature gun that doesn't touch the milk. If you use a thermometer that inserts into the milk, I would sterilize it too. The photo is my insert thermometer and its sterile but I have decided to use the temperature gun instead. It's just easier. I use a couple of drops of bleach in the bucket, just a couple of drops with a dropper is all that's needed. We're talking about parts per millions here. You don't need much.  

It's not absolutely necessary to sterilize everything. Washing well with hot soap and water is usually enough for most people. I got into the habit of sterilizing everything in the kitchen when I was making wine, years ago, and it stuck, especially for things that I'm leaving out to grow cultures. Rinsing after sterilizing is as important as the sterilizing itself. Whatever sterilizing agent you use will have to be thoroughly rinsed off or it will kill the yogurt culture. Rinse, rinse, rinse again.  

 

While I wait or the milk to heat up, I put the starter yogurt from the fridge into hot water in a bowl to bring it to room temperature. I don't want the cold yogurt starter to drop the temperature of the yogurt when it goes in. I usually buy a little cultured yogurt to use as a starter, whatever they have on sale cheap. I don't put in the fruit on the bottom. I will get plain if they have it, but that's not always possible in the little containers. 

The milk should be over 180f by now. It actually boiled before I got to it. I put the pot into a sink half-full of ice cold water, to cool it down to 112-115f. It doesn't take long in the cold water. When it was about 113f, I poured it into the clean, sterile bucket, mixed in the room temperature starter yogurt, put on the lid and put it into the Yogotherm. I wrapped a towel around it to help keep it warm, and left it to make. I usually leave it for around 8-10 hours. 

If you want it less tart, you can leave it for 6-8 hours, but I think that's a minimum. I often leave it overnight for even longer than 12 hours and it's fine. Put it directly into the fridge after removing it from the Yogotherm and wait until it's cool and set before eating. This turned out perfect, very thick and creamy! I'm considering draining it in a cheesecloth to get it even thicker, more like Greek yogurt. I haven't decided yet.

I used to put gelatin in it to help stop the watering, but it doesn't make much difference. It's going to produce whey in the yogurt no matter what you do. A high fat content helps make it thicker and dryer. Something else that makes it thicker and dryer is adding about 1/2-3/4 cup of powdered milk before heating. I didn't do that this time as I'm aiming for a higher fat content. I can drain it in cheesecloth to get a thicker and more condensed yogurt with a higher fat content. I may yet do that.