Anyone use Yogurt Makers?

[Blueberry]

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

[OakLeaf]

I have a Yogourmet also. And the large capacity is what I like about it, too.

[jillm]

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!

[GLC1968]

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!

[WindingRoad]

Thank you all for the info. I didn't know you could use a crockpot. I will have to check that out.

[bambu101]

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.

[badger]

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.

[bmccasland]

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!

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?

May sound crazy but does it make a difference with skim or 2% milk?

[jillm]

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?

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.

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!

[ny biker]

By timely coincidence, this blog item is about making yogurt in a crockpot:

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/che...pid=sec-health

[Becky]

I'm so excited about the idea of making yogurt in the crockpot! Thanks for the links

[bmccasland]

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!

It worked! I made a batch on sunday. Used my favorite local dairy's skim milk (pasteurized but not homogonized), and some good plain Greek yogurt from WF as starter. Had a bit of slop pouring the fresh yogurt into the cheesecloth lined colander (but Nala-dog cleaned it up ). Strained it in the frig for a couple of hours - was surprised how much whey strained out. Now all I have to do is work on my flavors....

Thank you for the recipe!

[WindingRoad]

"Strained it in the frig for a couple of hours - was surprised how much whey strained out. Now all I have to do is work on my flavors...."

I was surprised how much whey comes out of the yogurt and it's a stickier consistency than that I noticed on the bought yogurt? Anyone else notice this? I just carefully pour off the whey, I don't eat it. Is that what you are supposed to do with it?

[ZenSojourner]

You can use it to cook with. There's a lot of protein in whey. Vegetarians use it to make soup stock, instead of beef or chicken stock.

[ZenSojourner]

Using Whey instead of some or all of the water in bread:

http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/359...use-it-and-why

Use it instead of milk or water in pancakes or cornbread mixes

Use it as a substitute for buttermilk or sour milk in recipes calling for those

Use it to cook rice (probably ok) or oatmeal (ummm, yuck?)

Add it to dog food - for the DOG of course

Soak beans in it instead of in water (I imagine you'd want to do this in the fridge?)

If you're using it to soak beans or cook rice, I've seen suggestions varying from adding a couple T of whey to the normal amount of water, to using 100% whey.

If you're using it in soup, one source I saw said not to add it until after any beans in the recipe are nearly cooked, claiming it will slow bean cooking down. I'm not sure why that would be, you would think the acidity of it would break beans down faster.

The following are from here:

http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/353018

They make ricotta cheese from whey left over from cheese making, I don't see why that wouldn't work with whey from yoghurt, It needs to have never been boiled for this to work. I don't think I remember boiling the milk for yoghurt. Anyway here's the recipe:

Take the whey and heat it to 200 degrees plus (F of course). If your whey is acidic enough, little specs of the albumen will start to precipitate out once it gets to around 200. If this does not happen, add a tablespoon or two of white vinegar. Once the albumen starts to separate, maintain the heat for a few minutes so it all has time to set up, then pour through a very fine cheese cloth. It usually takes several hours, if not overnight, to drain completely.

Salt if you like, then use it however you like. I usually get 1/2 - 1 cup of finished ricotta from the whey produced by a gallon of milk, after cheese making.

The cheese cloth they re talking about there is REAL cheese cloth, not the gauzy stuff they sell in the grocery store. And if you want to try ricotta, one source I saw said to let the whey sit over night to increase acidity.


Here's something else to try, if you drink coffee I guess:

add a bit of sugar and sloooowly cook it down into a delicious caramel-like sweet syrup that's great in coffee or on ice cream.. Norwegian gjeyost (sp?) is this type of cheese. I would make pints and pints of this and can it. It's addictive.

Here's a similar recipe from Iceland:

http://icecook.blogspot.com/2007/08/...mysuostur.html

Hope that helps.