Making homemade Yogurt – the main event

Ingredients

1 gallon of non-homogenized milk or 1 gallon of homogenized milk and calcium chloride to encourage coagulation (you can order this online pretty cheap)

If so – a thimbleful of calcium chloride to a shot glass of water

1 container of plain yogurt with active live cultures (or you can purchase active live cultures online)  I typically use Stonyfield or Dannon in a pinch.

I have used Leener’s a good bit.

Tools

1 digital thermometer – essential for working with dairy

Stainless steel pot that can hold at least a gallon

Whisk

Spoon (steel)

Small cooler

At least 5 mason jars with tops

Sanitizer

Ladle (steel)

Large Funnel

Ice

 First, gather all your tools.  Sanitize them.  If you fail to do this properly you will waste your time or worse get sick.  I either use c-brite sanitizer (after I have some left over from beer making), soak in 1 capful or bleach to 1 gallon of water and rinse thoroughly, or put them all in my 30 quart turkey frying pot in an inch of water and boil it for 5 minutes to let them steam sanitize.  Whichever way you go this is essential.

Next, pour your milk (add you calcium chloride now as well if needed) into the stainless steel pot.  Turn the heat on medium.  Set you digital thermometer for 175 degrees and put in milk.  

 While it is heating (30 minutes to an hour) make sure everything else is laid out and ready to go.  I have a double sink.  I put my mason jars with a funnel in one on the left side and set up an ice bath on the right.  The ice bath will be for cooling down the milk later.  I make sure it is never too deep to get in the pot when I set it down in there.  Also, get a different pot and put about a gallon or so of hot water on about ¼ heat.  You will need this to be 130 degrees later but you will have ice to lower the temperature.

Once the milk reaches 175 degrees, stand near.  Let it get to 185 and immediately remove from the heat.  Set it in the ice bath.  Stir the milk with the whisk until it reaches 138 degrees.  Take it out of the ice bath.  Ladle about 4 ladles full of 138 degree milk into the bowl.  Put in all the yogurt and whisk this up real good.  Pour all that into the pot of 138 degree milk.  Whisk it all up good.  Pour all the milk evenly in the 5 mason jars.  Cap them.  Put them in the cooler. 

Now you want to put them in a bath of hot water for 3 hours at 130 degrees.  Pour the water from the stove in there up tot the lids ONCE you have lowered that water to 130.  Use the leftover ice from the ice bath.  Make sure you pay attention to what time you got that incubating water on the yogurt.  3 hours from them put in the fridge.  Since most yogurts you buy have animal gelatin or pectin added it is thicker.  This will thicken some but not anywhere as thick as what you are used to.  If for some reason your yogurt doesn’t set, you can always make labneh out of it or use it as a drinkable yogurt.  Mine sets about 8 out of 10 times.

 

 

Next post – how to make berry compote to add to your yogurt or pancakes and labneh (my first cheese)