Anyone use Yogurt Makers?

[Becky]

No specific ideas for you - I end up making 2 batches over the weekend (have trouble finding time during the week to have time to boil, cool and then incubate without staying up too late). 4 quart mason jars should do the trick for you (and I really prefer glass for yogurt - though I'm using plastic for now). Any way to make a 2nd batch mid-week?

CA

Sounds like you and I are in the same boat. I don't have much time to babysit yogurt temps unless I stay up too late.

Maybe I'm buying a second cooler tonight. But that would mean a second thermometer too (Yeah, I'm a control freak about things like this).

[OakLeaf]

Young's Jersey Dairy!

Mmmmmmmmm. I don't even like dairy products, but what a great place.

[ZenSojourner]

Yeah, if I ever get a chance to do a bit of traveling sometime, I'm heading up there with all the coolers that will fit in my trunk.

[malkin]

I use a double boiler for the scald.
When the milk reaches temp, I set the top of the double boiler in an ice bath and forget about it for a little while. The next time I think about it, it is usually down to inoculation temperature.

If I do this before bed, it can culture happily overnight. In the morning, it is done, but not cool (bleh), so it needs a little fridge time before I'll eat it.

None of the steps require my complete attention.

[Blueberry]

My yogurt maker is really quick. When I'm re-culturing off a relatively fresh batch, usually 2 hours or so...

Still...I rarely have that much time in the evenings...

[GLC1968]

You can also incubate in the oven. Just leave the oven light on with the door closed (no peeking) and it should keep the yogurt warm enough overnight (unless your house is REALLY cold, like ours was this winter).

If you use larger containers, the yogurt will probably take longer unless you add more starter, too.

Ball makes a half-gallon glass jar. Get a 6-pack of those at your local ACE hardware and you can easily do a gallon at a time in glass. (We use these to store our goat's milk).

[Becky]

You can also incubate in the oven. Just leave the oven light on with the door closed (no peeking) and it should keep the yogurt warm enough overnight (unless your house is REALLY cold, like ours was this winter).

If you use larger containers, the yogurt will probably take longer unless you add more starter, too.

Ball makes a half-gallon glass jar. Get a 6-pack of those at your local ACE hardware and you can easily do a gallon at a time in glass. (We use these to store our goat's milk).

I like those ideas! I'll have to see how well my oven light works. My kitchen is the coldest part of the house, but it's getting warm enough outside that it might work

Those glass jars sound perfect, and no more tying up my crock pot liner with yogurt-making!

[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.

[OakLeaf]

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.

Acid hardens bean skins, preventing them from taking up water. If the cooking liquid is too acidic, beans won't cook at all. Same reason you don't put tomatoes in bean soups/chilis until the beans are fully cooked.

By the same token, I'd be leery of soaking dried beans in whey - have you tried it? (In any event, it seems wasteful - the beans will take up very little if any of the nutrients in whey.)

[ZenSojourner]

Acid hardens bean skins, preventing them from taking up water. If the cooking liquid is too acidic, beans won't cook at all. Same reason you don't put tomatoes in bean soups/chilis until the beans are fully cooked.

By the same token, I'd be leery of soaking dried beans in whey - have you tried it? (In any event, it seems wasteful - the beans will take up very little if any of the nutrients in whey.)

Nope, I don't usually cook with whole beans. I usually use my whey making curries or dahl soups. (Dahl are split, shelled legumes such as chickpea, pigeon pea, etc). I've also used it making potato soup, for which I have a killer recipe.

Oh yeah, and you can freeze it to use later. In fact I used to make ice cubes of whey and then I could just add them to whatever I was cooking for a little extra tang.

[bmccasland]

Consistency was just fine. And considering I immediately started filling available plastic containers, I couldn't tell you what 1/2 gallon of yogurt condensed down to. I had a viscous glob, in fabric, that I spooned to containers. Nala was doing her best to not be directly underfoot, but let me know she was available....

I was wondering about using unflavored gelatin to thicken the yogurt - I know from reading labels that commercial yogurts do this. Any thoughts? Figured once I eat my way through this batch, and make my second batch, I'd give it a try. Maybe one envelope?

[bambu101]

You can add some dried milk powder to thicken up yogurt, especially if it is made with skim or low-fat milk. Works great!