- Nearly-boil a bunch of good whole milk. Let it cool down (or put the pan in a sink with some ice water if you want to get on with it) until it's 105 degrees or so. (Using a thermometer is the only part of this that requires supervision.)
- Mix in maybe a half-cup of existing plain yogurt. Put the milky mixture in some various small tupperwares.
- Find a heating pad or electric blanket. Put it in the bottom of the oven. Turn it on the lowest setting. Put the tupperwares on a rack above this. Close the oven.
- Leave. Let it sit for 6 or 8 or 10 hours -- until it seems firm enough to you. Yogurt!
Update
Any yogurt can be used as the starter (incl. Activia), as long as it's plain and unsweetened. If you need honey, jam, etc., put it in after the yogurt is made.
8 comments:
Oh boy - now that I'm making my own laundry detergent, I'm also inspired to make my own yogurt. Back to the land, here I come.
Somehow putting tupperware and an eletric blanket in an oven seems wrong and dangerous. You are a NY Times/Fark.com headline waiting to happen my friend.
I will also endorse yogurt making although I've got one of the little appliances with the cute jars. Electric blankets make me nervous in or out of the oven.
One thing about the mixing the premade yogurt in you should only use your own batch once then start fresh again AND you can also get yogurt cultures in a jar that you just sprinkle into the milk. I've found that a full fledged boil for a few minutes before the cool down tends to result in a firmer textured yogurt with a little more body than the teasing near-boil batches.
Homemade plain yogurt was my mom's favorite food when pregnant with Andrew, and was his favorite food until age 5. We had the appliance that plugs in, which I definitely think sounds easier and safer than tupperware and blankets in the stove.
As an aside, did you know Ray and Charles Eames invented molded plywood furniture in their apartment kitchen stove? It's true. They started several fires in those first few years, and never quite the chair they hoped for, even with technological advances. Still, there in the kitchen oven... many things IKEA were born and bred.
Um, did I mention that the oven is off? It's just an incubator. It's like raising chicks.
Made of yogurt.
Mmmmm, yoh-gzzzz
*I'm making this today. 2 gallons of milk--and one of them is organic BONUS!
*I'm so regretting not buying that yogurt making appliance at the tag sale 4 years ago--I could've stored it in the basement for this day!
*No electric blanket in our household. I'll have to put in the hot water bottle to keep the temp up, or maybe just fill the oven with all of our kitchen stoneware and cast iron, heat it on low, and let that thermal mass incubate my culture.
*Maybe I should set this up in the chicken brooder box--or toss the brooder box and raise my next batch of chickens in the oven...
*Thanks for the tips everyone. Brandon, tell your friend Beck to share the recipe for homemade detergent.
Just looked up my yogurt recipe here. Thanks for archiving it for me. Still going with the hot water bottle--it worked well last time.
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