Make Your Own Yogurt

Delicious and nutritious, and potentially cheaper than the store-bought kind.

Step 1 Sanitize your tools.

Everything needs to be squeaky clean so that unwanted bacteria don't contaminate your yogurt culture.

Comments

[spankysmom]

I've made yogurt for years. I use a thermal baby blanket, a heating pad set on lowest setting and a glass bowl with a lid and a small cake rack. Put the heating pad in the middle of the blanket, then place the cake rack over the heating pad. Put the glass bowl with the yogurt mixture on the cake rack and wrap the whole thing up with the blanket. Let it set for about 8 hours. Works like a charm.

[boyvbar]

Ha ha! It would be awesome if we could connect this with the BIOLUMINESCENT ALGAE link, here.

http://www.instructables.com/id/Grow-Your-Own-Bioluminescent-Algae/

If wishes were fishes...

[SecondSun]

LOL. my grangma taught me this a long time ago. we still do it. Be warned though it tastes really sour if you dont sweeten it. good with all kinds of hot pastries.

[mhuckaba]

What exactly does the yogurt culture eat in the milk? Do you need any specific type of milk? I'm on a high protein diet (for muscle gain) and store bought yogurts usually have more carbs than protein... should I assume that the same is true here?

[SecondSun]

they proliferate by fermenting lactose lactose: milk sugar glucose: we sugar and plant sugar fructose: fruit sugat

[fety]

"Boiling innoculates the milk" umm no... I think you meant to say Pasteurize, but really it's Sterilize. Boiling milk at 212F gets close to the sterilizing technique. On the other hand, pasteurizing is done at around 160F and is meant to destroy viruses and harmful organisms such as bacteria, protozoa, molds, and yeasts. But not intended to kill all micro-organisms (pathogenic).

[fety]

"Boiling innoculates the milk" umm no... I think you meant to say Pasteurize, but really it's Sterilize . Boiling milk at 212F gets close to the sterilizing technique. On the other hand, pasteurizing is done at around 160F and is meant to destroy viruses and harmful organisms such as bacteria, protozoa, molds, and yeasts. But not intended to kill all micro-organisms (pathogenic).

[cmoorecole]

Not just any culture will do. Some brands of yogurt are more about taste and texture than about the necessary bacteria, so make sure you get one that has a couple of lactobacillus colonies in residence. Back in "the day", when we got our instructables from the original Mother Earth Catalog, I learned to make my yogurt with a gas oven. You preheat it to 350 while heating and innoculating the milk, then put the yogurt in the oven THEN immediately turn the oven off. Keep the oven door closed and perfect yogurt comes out of the oven in the morning (if you started it before going to bed).That recipe also had some kind of powdered non-instant milk in it which added to the smoothness somehow, but I'm sure the incubation method would work with any recipe.

[Loundry]

Mhuckaba said: "What exactly does the yogurt culture eat in the milk?" The lactobacillus (and other critters) eat the lactose and excrete lactic acid. That's what makes the yogurt tangy. It's also why lactose-intolerant people (like myself) can eat yogurt without problems: the lil' critters have already eaten it all!

[clumsychu]

The way we do it at my house (we love milk) we boil a gallon of milk (we use 2% store brand) and let it cool. In a large plastic container add half of a little cup of plain yogurt (again store brand) the add the warm milk through a strainer.turn the oven on to 200 for about 30 seconds. wrap the plastic container with a clean towel and let it incubate for 3 hours. if the yogurt isnt done, cover it again and let it incubate a for 30-60 minutes longer.

[Kholoud]

Thanks :) R

[pekar]

good tutorial! I use widemouth quart Mason jars, which I wrap in a towel and put into a small cooler to incubate. Then I move them to the fridge to stop the process, eliminating the need to transfer from a thermos. Different brand yogurts will have different cultures and will taste different! I recommend Seven Stars, or Brown Cow brands.

[jimi]

Awesome, I've always wanted to know how to do this. Will the brand of yogurt you use for the starter create yogurt that has a similar flavor?