Homemade Yogurt

If you look on the right sidebar of this little blog, you'll see that I'm just a crunchy girl...powered by the love of Jesus and homemade yogurt. 

One of my lovely readers asked me about making homemade yogurt. (Hi Rachel!) I've tried it probably 5 different ways over the last year or so. Commercial milk, raw milk, different starters, different incubators, different recipes, the list goes on and on. 

 My suggestions for anyone wanting to make homemade yogurt is to experiment, experiment, experiment. If one way didn't work, try another! Don't give up on your homemade yogurt. It is WORTH the effort. You can save around $600 PER YEAR making it at home, people. 

I tried it this way.  This post has a great rationale for why to make yogurt at home. Thanks, Katie!
My cooler did not stay hot enough, and I ended up with runny warm milk. Fail. This works great for some people, just not me. Gotta do what works.  


I have a microwave over my cooktop in my kitchen, equipped with a light that illuminates the stovetop. I realized one day that when the light is on, inside the microwave gets super hot. INCUBATOR! This is how I incubated my yogurt before I had my Excalibur. (I'll explain the joys of this appliance later) If you have this set up, give it a try. 


Then I tried it this way.
I had some real success with this one, and also some real failures. Once I ended up with think yogurt, but it had a...snotty consistency. (please excuse me for the use of the word "snotty") Not appetizing. 


And THEN I tried it this way.  (Cue the Hallelujah Chorus)
Major success. Every time. I think her explanation for why you NEED to cook the milk to 180 degrees makes a lot of sense. Gotta change the protein structures of that milk, but not so much that your body doesn't recognize it a la ultra pasteurized (read: dead) milk. 


Give it a try, let me know what works for you. Good luck!