-
Ok, so sorry if I'm being a bit slow here, but why make your own yoghurt when you have to buy some store-bought yoghurt anyway to do so? Is it cheaper, or is it hard to get hold of plain non-sweetened yoghurt? Just curious. I'm all for making your own stuff, but when you have to buy milk and starter yoghurt anyway I'm wondering.
-
If you're super careful, the way Smilingcat recommends, and if you make a new batch every week or so, you only have to buy your culture once. If you're like most people, you can keep a culture going for five to seven batches before it starts getting weak. It's just like gardening, except in the kitchen. :cool: Worst case, even if you only make yogurt every now and then (longer than a culture will usually stay good in the fridge), and even if you can't get the powdered starter that keeps for a year or two, you can buy a 6-oz cup of yogurt and use it to make a gallon of new.
And buying milk, as you mention, is the other part of the equation - lots of small dairies don't even sell yogurt, never mind "your neighbor with a goat," so if you want to have yogurt from the best and freshest milk, you might have to make your own.
It's fun to experiment with different cultures, too. Every one has a different flavor. Sometimes I'll open up probiotic capsules meant to be swallowed, and culture yogurt with those. :D
I still buy most of my garden seeds, which is basically the same thing.
-
-
Ha, ha, Oak, you hit the nail on the head for me, when you said, "It's just like gardening."
I hate gardening. I like the *idea* of it, but not the work. Thankfully, we have many small, local farms around here, and a couple of bigger ones, and I gladly pay the money for them to do the work. I know I'm lucky I can afford to do this, as well as the fact i have a choice of at least 5-8 farms to buy from within 10 miles.
I am not much for "non-fat," in most cases, as like Zoom Zoom said, they cut the fat and add sugar. But, I don't drink regular milk and the almond milk I buy is pretty low fat with no sugar. I don't like the taste of whole milk Greek yogurt. I put some fresh fruit in the plain skim non-fat Greek and it's fine for me.
-
I usually make my yogurt (Greek or regular) with local organic low-fat or non-fat milk, and I add a quarter to third of a cup of powdered skim milk to thicken it. It thickens nicely and adds back a little more protein and calcium.