home yogurt

i've been honing my yogurt-making skills for a few years now. since arriving in chicago i have made it a regular practice. we have access to some pretty awesome milk, from Kilgus Farmstead and Castle Rock Farms. always use whole milk. if you want to have a nice layer of cream on the top (i recommend it!) then go with non-homogenized. support your local farmers who are using holistic practices when you can. the milk will be higher in nutrition if it is raw and from pastured cows.

BEGIN by starting the milk heating over a low flame. heat it slowly and stir more as it gets hotter so you don't singe the milk. it's common for some to stick to the bottom, but it shouldn't singe brown.

WHILE the milk is heating:
--- make sure you have one Tbs yogurt starter* for each quart of milk you want to inoculate.
--- put a jar of very hot water in the incubation chamber to preheat it. also preheat the glass containers^ you will be using for the new yogurt. they should feel warm to the touch when the milk is poured into them.

CONTINUE to monitor the milk for the right temperature. if you are using raw milk and want to keep it raw i would recommend using a thermometer. you can experiment with whether your yogurt culture will yield a thick yogurt with milk heated only to 108 degrees (above which it becomes denatured). some have had success with this. otherwise a thermometer is not necessary. you can tell when the milk has reached the right temperature when small bubbles start to appear on the surface. learn to observe this affect.
--- at this point you can remove the milk from the heat and put the pot in a cold water bath to speed the cooling process.
--- place one Tbs (no more!) of room temperature starter into each quart container.
--- when the milk cools the the right temperature (you can hold your finger in the milk without it hurting) then you must get it into the warmed containers before it cools more. if the milk becomes too cool, before putting it in the containers you can bring it back up to the right temperature.
--- make sure the starter gets dispersed fairly evenly throughout the milk.

PLACE the containers of inoculated milk into the incubator with an additional jar of hot water to maintain the heat. if the incubator is really well insulated and warm when you put the containers in, you may not need any additional heat source.
--- i've been incubating our yogurt in rectangular plastic tub placed in our bed. get creative and use what is on hand. just make sure all the air space is filled and there is plenty of insulation. many use a cooler and towels, as we did at Wild's Edge.

*any plain storebaught yogurt can be used for starter, as long as it contains 'live active cultures'. we started with Trader's Point Creamery yogurt. one way to get a more consistent result is to freeze portions of the original yogurt in an ice cube tray and thaw them as needed. i discovered that a full cube is a little more than a Tbs. so be careful. if you don't have a freezer then you can make a new batch using some of the yogurt from your last batch. it will likely become more sour in later generations.

^you can use glass containers of any kind. it's not necessary for them to be air tight. i've been using the Trader's Point bottles. their thin necks require us to shake the yogurt in order to get it out. if you want an undisturbed product then use a wide mouth jar. be careful when pouring hot water into cold jars!