Robert Mosolgo

Making Yogurt

This weekend I tried making yogurt. It worked!

I based it on this great recipe: Dr. David Fankhauser’s Yogurt. Dr. Fankhauser has a ton of illustrated, detailed recipes for other dairy and make-at home foods (eg, blue cheese, maple syrup, microwave popcorn).

Some overall notes:

  • My grocery store doesn’t carry plain yogurt (except in giant containers), so I used greek yogurt as starter. It worked just fine.
  • The recipe called for 3 hours of culturing time, but I found longer (12-16 hours) was better.
  • I really fretted over the incubation temperature. I don’t think that was necessary. I think set-it-and-forget-it would have been OK!
  • The resulting yogurt is as good as you can get at the store!
  • I’m also looking forward to using the whey (pickles, ginger ale, ricotta cheese).

The Setup

First, scald the milk to kill any unwanted cultures that may have survived pasteurization:

Sterilize equipment in boiling water:

Unwanted cultures could give the yogurt a bad taste.

Incubation

Mix a cup of store-bought yogurt into the milk, then distribute it into jars.

Put the jars in a cooler with 120°F (50°C) water:

And let it sit:

I found longer was better. My longest was 16 hours and looked thick and good!

I was really fretting about the temperature: I occassionally scooped some water out, boiled it, then added it back. I think this was overkill!

Result

In the jar, the curds and whey separate:

The whey can be decanted:

(This is whey from a few jars of yogurt.)

Leaving only the yogurt curd:

Yum! Smooth and creamy (after stirring), but unsweetened, so I add hagelslag:

Next

I’m looking forward to using the “leftover” whey to make:

Also, in a few weeks I’ll try to step up my game and try Dr. Fankhauser’s neufchatel, which adds rennet to the mix.