Homemade yoghurt
 

Grrrrr, the thermostat in my yoghurt incubator was playing up....after years of lovely homemade yoghurt what was I to do? (a) Buy another one......no, feeling too grumpy, (b) buy store yoghurt......no too expensive and not as yummy as my own, (c) never eat yoghurt again......are you kidding!!!!!!!!

So, after a day or so of trawling the 'net I scrounged out from my back cupboard a small insulated lunch pack, and 5 very mismatched old jars which, by their labels had once held a weird assortment of pickles, relish and gherkins. I made my yoghurt in the usual way and then popped my filled jars into the insulated bag along with a heated wheat bag. Zipped it shut and put an old woollen beanie over it. Before going to bed I reheated and replaced the heat pack and left it for a further 7 hours. Next morning I retrieved my little jars, popped them in the fridge and 24 hours later I had the best yoghurt I have ever made. This yoghurt method consistently gives me a better tasting yoghurt that has a longer fridge life. It even works using frozen starter that I've thawed out.The electronic yoghurt maker has been shoved to the back of the cupboard never to see the light of day again! Happy dancing!

you may want to freecycle it--it will not clog your cabinets and someone may want it even with the flawed thermometer. It keeps the gadget out of the landfill and out of your cabinet.

The woman I used to work with is from Pakistan and ate yogurt all the time. She said something about putting it in the oven overnight. May want to check the internet for something like that. You wouldn't have to remember to reheat your hot pack.

Ruby2shoes, would you mind sharing your recipe? I eat a lovely (commercial) coconut Greek yogurt everyday and would like to make my own.

I used to make yogurt like this, but in a cooler chest. Start in the morning, put the jars in 120 degree water in the cooler, replace some of the water every couple of hours to keep it a good temperature. Done in about 6 hours.

nycquilter: Good idea, we have a good freecycle community over here so may do that.
ptquilts: I like my yoghurt to be really tart so I leave it for 13 hours.

SewExtraSeams:For my starter culture, I buy a large tub of yoghurt with live culture from the local health food shop with no additives like thickeners or flavours in it and I freeze it in ice cube trays, approximately 1 tablespoon of yoghurt per cube. I simply pop 2 frozen cubes into a sterilised jar the night before I want to make a batch. I tip out any water/liquid from the thawed cubes before adding to my milk. This way, from a 500gm tub of yoghurt I can make 9 litres of my own yoghurt.

I use 1 litre of full cream milk, heat it up to 180F and hold it there for 10 minutes then cool it to 110F. Gently stir some of the cooled milk into approx 2 tablespoons/cubes of yoghurt with live culture, gradually adding more milk until it is thoroughly but gently mixed; pour this into the rest of your milk in the saucepan, gently stir and pour into 5 X 200ml jars that have been boiled for 10 minutes. I usually leave my jars sitting in a bit of hot water to keep them warm until I use them. You don't want the jars to be too hot though or they will kill the yoghurt bacteria when you pour the mixture in. I place the jars in the insulated bag thingy. Heat 2 wheat bags for 3 minutes at 70% depending on the power of your microwave (don't want them hot..just warm) and place them in with the jars snuggling them around nice and tight. Zip the bag shut, put on the woollen hat and leave untouched on my bench for 13 hours. Halfway through, so at about the 6 hour mark, or before I go to bed...or shopping...or whatever, I gently remove the wheat bags, reheat them and replace.You have to be very careful not to bump the jars when you are fiddling with the wheat bags as this will disturb the culturing process. I then pop them in the fridge for a minimum of 24 hours to chill and set before eating. Sounds like a bit of a process I know but once you get into the swing of it it is quite a simple procedure.

Could you use a crockpot on low??

I did a quick Google search for "Crockpot Yogurt" and found several sites. Here is just one of them with ideas and suggestions. http://www.creativesimplelife.com/ho...n-a-crock-pot/

In the past when I made yogurt, I just used about 1/4 to 1/2 cup of my last batch for the starter to make the next one. I would set my prepared jars (I used old jam jars) of mixture into a kettle of very hot, but not boiling, water (deep enough to come up to the neck of the jars, but not seep into the jars) and wrapped the whole thing in two nice thick towels. In 4 or 5 hours I had very nice yogurt.

A crock pot on low is too hot. You still have to turn it off and wrap the pot. Basically it needs to be kept just a bit warmer than body temp for a long time. I can set my electric oven as low as 110 degrees. I'm thinking of trying to use it as an incubator for yogurt. I've been reading and hearing that full-cream plain Greek yogurt is the most healthful to eat. But it is hard to find. Guess I should make some again. Thanks for posting and getting me brave enough to try it again. I made it all the time when we lived in Papua New Guinea because we couldn't buy it there. But have not been very successful since we are back in the States. I blame our milk. In PNG I used powdered milk and the powdered milk we got there and the kind we buy here are very different. (Plus we can only get skim milk powder, no full-cream.) Guess I'll try using regular (liquid) whole milk.