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I'm looking to buy a yogurt maker and I have never owned one. I do however remember my mother making it when I was a kid and how much I loved homemade yogurt. I also like baking with it so I use a considerable amount of it besides I just like the taste. I was curious if any of you had one and would recommend a good make and model? :)
We have one called EURO Cuisine. I think my bf ordered it from Target online. It makes six little jars at a time. Seems to work like a charm!
I've been wondering about a yogurt maker, too. Does anyone know if you can make a drinkable yogurt? Can you use them for kefir?
Pam
I have a yogourmet maker and love it. Can make up to 2 quarts in one big jar. I found it tedious to deal with smaller jars (washing, etc).
Kefir sits at room temperature, as I understand it. I know yogourmet sells a culture (I haven't tried it), but all you really need is the "mother" and you can make kefir for ages.
CA
I have a Yogourmet also. And the large capacity is what I like about it, too.
I make yogurt in a crockpot. Google "crockpot yogurt" and a lot will come up. It's basically this:
Heat 1/2 gal milk on low for 2 hours, unplug and let it sit for 3 hours, take a couple cups of the warm milk and mix with 1/2 c room temp yogurt and mix that in to the crockpot milk. Cover with a heavy towel and let it sit for about 7 hours. (the longer it sits, the tangier it gets) I like to strain mine in a cheesecloth for a couple hrs in the refrigerator for thicker (Greek) yogurt.
yum!
I also have the Yogourmet maker. I failed at yogurt making over and over again until I got this machine. I'm living evidence that it's idiot proof! :p
Thank you all for the info. I didn't know you could use a crockpot. I will have to check that out. :D
I also have a Yogourmet yogurt maker, but have not used it since buying this one:
http://www.cheesemaking.com/store/p/...urt-Maker.html
It uses no electricity, and I find that the yogurt is thicker and better than the Yogourmet version. It makes more of a Greek-style thick yogurt. The other trick is to use pasteurized milk, but NOT ultra-pasteurized milk. The ultra-pasteurized milk is heated to such a high temperature that it kills all the good yogurt-making bacteria.
I have the EuroCuisine yogurt maker. I haven't used it that much as it can be a bit of a hassle boiling milk first and cooling it back to room temperature. But I do find that the yogurt I make is much "cleaner" than the ones I buy at the store as all I put in is organic milk and the culture. I add jam afterwards to sweeten.
If I use good quality yogurt as a starter, then in the future, do you use your own yogurt as starter for the next batch?Quote:
Originally Posted by jillm
May sound crazy but does it make a difference with skim or 2% milk?
You can use your homemade yogurt as a starter for the next batch (and it's recommended) but I never plan ahead and end up eating it all! So I just buy a sm plain yogurt (with live active cultures)when I'm buying the milk for the next batch. As for skim vs others, for some reason I use 1%. Don't know why. One of these days I should do a taste test. And as stated in previous posts, "ultra pasteurized" is bad, you want plain ole "Pasteurized" milk.Quote:
Originally Posted by bmccasland
I made a dip this weekend from yogurt I'd strained all day. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think this is right--you strain plain yogurt for a couple of hours to get "greek" yogurt, and if you strain it all day it becomes "labneh," yogurt cheese! Anyway, I mixed a small bowlful (1-2 c ) of labneh with about 1/4 c chopped cilantro, a few squirts of Sriracha Chili sauce, a little salt, and a little apple cider vinegar. Dipped carrots, pita chips, and cucumber slices. Tasty!
By timely coincidence, this blog item is about making yogurt in a crockpot:
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/che...pid=sec-health
I'm so excited about the idea of making yogurt in the crockpot! Thanks for the links :)
I have the Euro, and love it. It's a little time consuming setting up but that's part of the fun- never made yogurt with cows milk in it but have done great with soy and hemp milks in there. Want to experiment with rice milk and use a little bit of agar agar to thicken it up.
I missed going to Farmer's Market yesterday (one looonnnnggg meeting) to get milk from my local dairy, so I'll have to put off the yogurt crockpot experiment for a week. He pasteurizes but not homoginzes his milk, so even the skim tastes creamy (just have to remember to shake the jug every time).
I cultured out of the most recent batch for about a couple years. It was still going strong, but there was one of those accidents with a gravitational surge in the kitchen, so I started over.
The maker I use is branded Salton, and a quart canning jar fits inside it.
I also have the EuroCuisine. But my partner doesn't like the style of yogurt I make. :( so the equipment is collecting dust. Maybe I just need to add simple syrup to the milk... :confused:
I prefer the European style with the tang.
I've found that starting with a more sour yogurt to begin with produces (surprise!) more sour yogurt!
if you don't want the sourness of the yogurt, try putting inulin in next time (you should be able to buy it at places like Whole Foods). It's a pre-biotic, so it's beneficial in yogurt, it's literally like sugar so it'll cut down on the "sourness".
Hipmama, how do you make yogurt with hemp/almond/soy milk? I tried once with soy and it just curdled. I know it needs something in it, I believe a type of sugar. Do you use a particular brand?
Badger-I use Edensoy for the soy milk and living harvest hemp milk - for sweetener I use agave nectar or maple syrup, depending on what flavor I'm going for. Never had it curdle- are you watching your heating temp?
I'll give Eden soy a try. I read it in the instruction booklet for the yogurt maker, and it said it had to have something in it, and I can't remember what it was (nor can I find the manual at the moment!).
I'm assuming you're using the starter out of a packet? I use the yogourmet type, and when I tried it on the soy milk, it just curdled (same temp as the dairy yogurt as it's a maker). Any other tips would be great, I'm not a huge fan of dairy so I wouldn't mind making my own soy/hemp/almond yogurt.
For a starter I just use a spoon or two of already made soy yogurt- I either save a little from a batch to start a new one or buy one small container of plain soy yogurt to put in there and it works just fine.
It's the opposite - you need to use UNsweetened soy milk or the culture won't take.Quote:
Originally Posted by badger
+1 on Edensoy because (1) their quality control is SOOOOO much higher than the others (they actually test regularly for GMO contamination!) and (2) it's less diluted so you're getting a thicker yogurt and a better value for your money. Of course homemade soy milk will be even less diluted and way less cheaper and wasteful.... but it's just too much of a PITA for me.
I've got to try hemp milk now! I didn't think it would culture. Grain milks won't.
ok, I just found the user guide for my yogurt maker. For soy, it says:
"Be sure to use UHT soy milk which contains one of the following ingredients: fructose, honey or malt. These ingredients are necessary for fermentation and you will not succeed if none are available in the milk."
I've got two kinds of soy milk at home and neither have the above ingredients. The both have evaporated cane juice but I don't think that qualifies as fructose.
Well, whatever the instructions say, the only soy milk I've been able to culture with yogurt bacteria has been UNsweetened, either homemade or storebought. I've been successful with Westsoy unsweetened, very successful with Eden unsweetened and obviously the most success with homemade. Then I've tried it with two brands of soymilk sweetened with cane juice (typically 45% fructose) and both times it came out very runny and fragile.
I did try hemp milk the other day, but unfortunately I think it got too hot. Anyway it did culture to some extent, but it didn't set at all. I'm going to try it again.
what do you use for culture? a store-bought soy yogurt?
I've used store-bought dairy yogurt (I'm not THAT allergic to milk), store-bought cultures (usually dairy grown), probiotic pills (non-dairy; split them open and guess at the dosage ;)).
Where did I just read that big-brand store-bought dairy yogurt has the most stable and vigorous cultures, and the sugar and additives aren't enough to hurt your initial batch? Was it someplace someone on this thread had linked to?
I don't make yogurt often enough to keep a culture going. Now that I've discovered hemp milk yogurt though, I just might! :)
let me get this straight, you use dairy yogurt as a starter for your soy yogurt? I used the packaged starter for my attempt and I figured it curdled because maybe I used one intended for dairy. I could buy a small thing of soy yogurt as my starter, but I don't think I've seen an unflavoured soy yogurt in the stores.
I had a yoghurt maker years ago, it was a Salton. It worked OK, but I discovered making it in a pan on top of the refrigerator worked just as well.
Unfortunately I've not made yoghurt for probably 15 years so whatever process I was using is lost in the mists of time, but I bet there are dozens of sites on the internet that will describe the process more than adequately. I will say the refrigerator-top yoghurt was better than what came out of the yoghurt maker. The Salton product was OK, but the purely home made stuff was better.
Yes, I've been very successful starting with dairy yogurt. Also with probiotic pills (different culture blend, different flavor and consistency), some of which are non-dairy, if that's an issue for you. I have a whole Excel spreadsheet going - what I started with, what I cultured it with, how long it grew, tartness, firmness and creaminess. Did I mention I'm a total data geek? :pQuote:
Originally Posted by badger
Whatever I read recently said that the additives in any storebought yogurt are not enough to make the culture unusable. However, storebought soy yogurt tends to have a pretty short shelf life, and I'd worry about the cultures already being contaminated. I don't think I'd buy soy yogurt to use as a starter.
Also, remember that a lot of the temperature control in the Yogourmet maker comes from the water bath you start with. It IS possible to get it too hot if you start with a water bath that's too hot.
Ah! Refrigerator top! That's so smart.
I'll try that next time.
So I'm in the process of making my first batch of yogurt. I'm 'improvising' since I really don't have the money to spend on a yogurt machine. My oven is an orange box with a heating pad in it. I lined it with a bath towel and I have another to cover the holes in the top of the box. Going to use a quart jar for my first time in case I screw it up I don't waste a half gallon of milk. I have some yogurt left from my Costco yogurt to start the culture with. I just heated my milk under boiling then I'm going to add a half cup of Costco (plain) yogurt and incubate in my homemade oven overnight. I'll keep you all posted if this actually works. :D
Make sure you cool it sufficiently (I don't know the range off the top of my head) before adding the yogurt. Too hot will kill the cultures. Otherwise, sounds like a great plan.Quote:
Originally Posted by WindingRoad
For temps I always remember 180 for the high and 108 for the cool.
I know there's a range, but this works for me, unless I get it in mind that it is 80 for the low.
It will be time to stay out of the kitchen if I ever try to heat the milk to 801 degrees.
180 is scalding.
105-115 F or 40-45 C is incubating temp. Much hotter than that will kill the cultures - I've done it.
It's hard to really screw it up. Worst case, you just have a partially cultured or uncultured liquid to put on your cereal.
I've made a couple of batches lately, and had good luck with the following temperatures:
185 for the scalding, 115 to add the starter, and incubation at 105-115. I tempered the starter with a ladle of 115 degree milk before adding to the rest of the milk.
I've been using the instructions and recipes at http://www.ianrpubs.unl.edu/epublic/...licationId=525.
Grog, I think you should look into Kefir. You don't need too much - just kefir grains, milk, and room temperature.
OK! The cardboard orange box and heating pad method works like a charm. It was very easy to do. It was a little on the runny side but part of that was I incubated the jar on its side then stood it up so the whey mixed in with the yogurt. Solution: turn box on it's end this time (why didn't I think of that last time, geez). I'm going to add a little powdered milk to see if the next batch comes out thicker. I'm eating the last of it (aside of the bit I saved for culture) so it turned out very tasty too! :D:D:D:D:D
Oh..and I did let the milk cool to lukewarm before I added the yogurt culture, thank you.
if you want thicker yogurt, the instrction booklet said to boil the milk first (then cool to room temp). And it works, I use 2% and it comes out like full fat yogurt.