(I mentioned that I was making my own yogurt and a friend asked how,
so I wrote it up...)

When I was a kid my father used to have a yogurt maker and he'd make a
couple of jars of the stuff every week... I didn't really like it then
because we were at war with mama - she wanted us to eat it au natural,
and we wanted to add a bunch of sugar... lol I've never enjoyed the
very sour taste of plain natural yogurt.But fortunately when you make
your own, you have the power to make it as sweet or sour as you like.

It's incredibly simple. All you need is a saucepan and a warm place to
put it. Your oven works wonderfully as an incubator... a thermometer
is an optional extra, as are jar/s to set the yogurt in. I've got a
bunch of glass peanut butter jars that I've saved for preserving, and
the big ones are the perfect size for yogurt.

You can use ANY milk and yogurt to make your own. Some people add milk
powder to their milk to make it even creamier and richer... this is
entirely optional, but the more milk fat and milk-solids in the milk,
the thicker and creamier the yogurt will come out. The only criteria
is that it has to be DAIRY - soy 'milk' or nut/rice 'milk' will just
make a mess unless you use a special process... the yogurt-making
beasties need dairy of some kind to work on. Yogurt is very low in
lactose because the yogurt-making beasties eat it up, but if you need
100% lactose-free yogurt you can use lactaid milk or one of those
milks that has extra stuff added to it to make it seem creamier and
richer than it actually is. My personal choice is to use plain
unadulterated 1% milk because that way I'm not getting any additives
in my yogurt and I don't mind it's being relatively thin - I put it on
my cereal in the morning. It also does not particularly matter what
brand of yogurt you use for your starter. Store-brand works just as
well as super-high-priced organic stuff. Once you have a successful
batch of yogurt made you can use your own yogurt to start the next one
and so on.

Now you have your ingredients, on to the yogurt-making.

Step One. Pick a time when you won't be needing to use the oven for
10-12 hours. The evening after dinner is great because then your
yogurt will be ready for breakfast. It's even better if you've used
the oven that day/evening, because it will still be a bit warm and
make a better setting environment - or you can turn the oven onto its
lowest setting while you heat the milk. Just don't forget to turn it
OFF again - yogurt needs to set at roughly 90 degrees, and if it gets
too hot it'll kill off the yogurt-making critters.

Pour your milk into your saucepan and bring it to the boil, stirring
it fairly often so that it doesn't stick to the bottom of the pan or
burn. A lot of recipes will say 'stir constantly' but that's really
not necessary. Use a medium heat and you only have to stir it every
four or five minutes. Just don't go away and forget it entirely!

Once the saucepan starts to boil and bubble up,THEN start stirring
nonstop. Boil it for 2-5 minutes or until it's in danger of boiling
over in the pan. Timing is NOT critical... Then take the pan off the
heat and let it cool down. You can either let it cool down by itself
on the stovetop (set the oven timer for 5-10 minutes so that you come
back to check the temperature fairly often). Or else you can set the
pot into a sink of cold water to speed up the cooling process. My two
quarts of milk took 30 minutes to cool down enough by itself, but less
than 10 in a sinkful of water. The milk is the right temperature to
continue when it is 110 degrees, or when you can comfortably stick a
finger in and say 'this is warm'.

You don't technically HAVE to boil the milk - it only needs to be warm
enough to make the yogurt-making critters happy... but the boiling
changes the nature of the milk proteins and makes for a thicker,
smoother yogurt. Since I'm using low-fat milk I want all the extra
thickening I can get.

When the milk is comfortably warm, stir in your starter yogurt - a
tablespoon or so of plain yogurt per quart of milk. Whisk it in well
so that the yogurt-making beasties are well-distributed through the
warm milk. From here you have two options. You need to set the yogurt
in some kind of container. You can even use the saucepan that the milk
was cooked in, but that'll tie up the saucepan for the duration (or
make for strange-looking yogurt if you spoon it out once it's set and
put it into a different container for storage). You can use any
relatively heat-proof bowl or container with a lid. I'm using recycled
jars because they don't cost any money and I have them handy.

Put your yogurt into the warm (NOT HOT!) oven, close the door and turn
on the oven light. Then leave it alone for 10-12 hours. When you come
back, you should have some nicely set yogurt with a bit of whey
floating on top. The whey is entirely natural. Just drain it off and
enjoy the yogurt! If you don't want to use the oven, you can use a
foam cooler with a heating pad and some towels... or you can wrap the
pot in towels and take your chances at room temperature. They made
yogurt in the middle east for millennia before the electric oven was
even dreamed of. But most of us have a working oven, and that's really
the simplest way.

On 2009-04-23, Kajikit > wrote:
> (I mentioned that I was making my own yogurt and a friend asked how,
> so I wrote it up...)

Thanks Kaj. I'm not a big yogurt eater, but saved your excellent
instructions in case I become one.

nb

"notbob" > wrote in message
...
> On 2009-04-23, Kajikit > wrote:
>> (I mentioned that I was making my own yogurt and a friend asked how,
>> so I wrote it up...)
>
> Thanks Kaj. I'm not a big yogurt eater, but saved your excellent
> instructions in case I become one.
>
> nb

Same here! I like the odd serving of Greek style with lots of honey. I may
be tempted to give it a try, just the once, for research and all that! Its
great to see how to actually make it at home. I've always thought you needed
some expensive yoghurt maker, that would take up all my kitchen space.
Thanks again Kaj.

Sarah

Sarah wrote on Thu, 23 Apr 2009 16:12:01 +0100:


> "notbob" > wrote in message
> ...
>> On 2009-04-23, Kajikit > wrote:
>>> (I mentioned that I was making my own yogurt and a friend
>>> asked how, so I wrote it up...)
>>
>> Thanks Kaj. I'm not a big yogurt eater, but saved your
>> excellent instructions in case I become one.
>>
>> nb

> Same here! I like the odd serving of Greek style with lots of honey. I
> may be tempted to give it a try, just the once, for
> research and all that! Its great to see how to actually make
> it at home. I've always thought you needed some expensive
> yoghurt maker, that would take up all my kitchen space. Thanks
> again Kaj.

I realise that I don't know a great deal about yoghurt but perhaps the
experts can answer a few questions.

What is the difference between unflavored Greek and unflavored regular
yoghurt?

How are those different yoghurts made?

Would Arab and Indian yoghurts be similar to Greek or are they different
again?


--

James Silverton
Potomac, Maryland

Email, with obvious alterations: not.jim.silverton.at.verizon.not

On Apr 23, 9:44*am, Kajikit > wrote:
> (I mentioned that I was making my own yogurt and a friend asked how,
> so I wrote it up...)
>
> When I was a kid my father used to have a yogurt maker and he'd make a
> couple of jars of the stuff every week... I didn't really like it then
> because we were at war with mama - she wanted us to eat it au natural,
> and we wanted to add a bunch of sugar... lol I've never enjoyed the
> very sour taste of plain natural yogurt.But fortunately when you make
> your own, you have the power to make it as sweet or sour as you like.
>
> It's incredibly simple. All you need is a saucepan and a warm place to
> put it. Your oven works wonderfully as an incubator... a thermometer
> is an optional extra, as are jar/s to set the yogurt in. I've got a
> bunch of glass peanut butter jars that I've saved for preserving, and
> the big ones are the perfect size for yogurt.
>
> You can use ANY milk and yogurt to make your own. Some people add milk
> powder to their milk to make it even creamier and richer... this is
> entirely optional, but the more milk fat and milk-solids in the milk,
> the thicker and creamier the yogurt will come out. The only criteria
> is that it has to be DAIRY - soy 'milk' or nut/rice 'milk' will just
> make a mess unless you use a special process... the yogurt-making
> beasties need dairy of some kind to work on. Yogurt is very low in
> lactose because the yogurt-making beasties eat it up, but if you need
> 100% lactose-free yogurt you can use lactaid milk or one of those
> milks that has extra stuff added to it to make it seem creamier and
> richer than it actually is. My personal choice is to use plain
> unadulterated 1% milk because that way I'm not getting any additives
> in my yogurt and I don't mind it's being relatively thin - I put it on
> my cereal in the morning. It also does not particularly matter what
> brand of yogurt you use for your starter. Store-brand works just as
> well as super-high-priced organic stuff. Once you have a successful
> batch of yogurt made you can use your own yogurt to start the next one
> and so on.
>
> Now you have your ingredients, on to the yogurt-making.
>
> Step One. Pick a time when you won't be needing to use the oven for
> 10-12 hours. The evening after dinner is great because then your
> yogurt will be ready for breakfast. It's even better if you've used
> the oven that day/evening, because it will still be a bit warm and
> make a better setting environment - or you can turn the oven onto its
> lowest setting while you heat the milk. Just don't forget to turn it
> OFF again - yogurt needs to set at roughly 90 degrees, and if it gets
> too hot it'll kill off the yogurt-making critters.
>
> Pour your milk into your saucepan and bring it to the boil, stirring
> it fairly often so that it doesn't stick to the bottom of the pan or
> burn. A lot of recipes will say 'stir constantly' but that's really
> not necessary. Use a medium heat and you only have to stir it every
> four or five minutes. Just don't go away and forget it entirely!
>
> Once the saucepan starts to boil and bubble up,THEN start stirring
> nonstop. Boil it for 2-5 minutes or until it's in danger of boiling
> over in the pan. Timing is NOT critical... Then take the pan off the
> heat and let it cool down. You can either let it cool down by itself
> on the stovetop (set the oven timer for 5-10 minutes so that you come
> back to check the temperature fairly often). Or else you can set the
> pot into a sink of cold water to speed up the cooling process. My two
> quarts of milk took 30 minutes to cool down enough by itself, but less
> than 10 in a sinkful of water. The milk is the right temperature to
> continue when it is 110 degrees, or when you can comfortably stick a
> finger in and say 'this is warm'.
>
> You don't technically HAVE to boil the milk - it only needs to be warm
> enough to make the yogurt-making critters happy... but the boiling
> changes the nature of the milk proteins and makes for a thicker,
> smoother yogurt. Since I'm using low-fat milk I want all the extra
> thickening I can get.
>
> When the milk is comfortably warm, stir in your starter yogurt - a
> tablespoon or so of plain yogurt per quart of milk. *Whisk it in well
> so that the yogurt-making beasties are well-distributed through the
> warm milk. From here you have two options. You need to set the yogurt
> in some kind of container. You can even use the saucepan that the milk
> was cooked in, but that'll tie up the saucepan for the duration (or
> make for strange-looking yogurt if you spoon it out once it's set and
> put it into a different container for storage). You can use any
> relatively heat-proof bowl or container with a lid. I'm using recycled
> jars because they don't cost any money and I have them handy.
>
> Put your yogurt into the warm (NOT HOT!) oven, close the door and turn
> on the oven light. Then leave it alone for 10-12 hours. When you come
> back, you should have some nicely set yogurt with a bit of whey
> floating on top. The whey is entirely natural. Just drain it off and
> enjoy the yogurt! If you don't want to use the oven, you can use a
> foam cooler with a heating pad and some towels... or you can wrap the
> pot in towels and take your chances at room temperature. They made
> yogurt in the middle east for millennia before the electric oven was
> even dreamed of. But most of us have a working oven, and that's really
> the simplest way.

I drink the whey. I understand there's nutrition in thar, so don't
toss it.

I also make some yogurt 'cheese' too out of a batch. Great on toast.
Strain some yogurt thru a coffee filter in a strainer over a bowl and
refrigerate.

I have tried to start a new batch with a bit of the last batch, but
it seemed to lose its oomph and I had plain milk as a result. You're
lucky if you can reuse ad infinitum, but I buy a small Dannon plain
for starter use. I get about 6 batches out of it, so for 50 cents or
so, I'll just keep buying it. I only use about a tablespoon of the
Dannon each batch.

On Apr 23, 9:44*am, Kajikit > wrote:
> (I mentioned that I was making my own yogurt and a friend asked how,
> so I wrote it up...)
>
> When I was a kid my father used to have a yogurt maker and he'd make a
> couple of jars of the stuff every week... I didn't really like it then
> because we were at war with mama - she wanted us to eat it au natural,
> and we wanted to add a bunch of sugar... lol I've never enjoyed the
> very sour taste of plain natural yogurt.But fortunately when you make
> your own, you have the power to make it as sweet or sour as you like.
>
> It's incredibly simple. All you need is a saucepan and a warm place to
> put it. Your oven works wonderfully as an incubator... a thermometer
> is an optional extra, as are jar/s to set the yogurt in. I've got a
> bunch of glass peanut butter jars that I've saved for preserving, and
> the big ones are the perfect size for yogurt.
>
> You can use ANY milk and yogurt to make your own. Some people add milk
> powder to their milk to make it even creamier and richer... this is
> entirely optional, but the more milk fat and milk-solids in the milk,
> the thicker and creamier the yogurt will come out. The only criteria
> is that it has to be DAIRY - soy 'milk' or nut/rice 'milk' will just
> make a mess unless you use a special process... the yogurt-making
> beasties need dairy of some kind to work on. Yogurt is very low in
> lactose because the yogurt-making beasties eat it up, but if you need
> 100% lactose-free yogurt you can use lactaid milk or one of those
> milks that has extra stuff added to it to make it seem creamier and
> richer than it actually is. My personal choice is to use plain
> unadulterated 1% milk because that way I'm not getting any additives
> in my yogurt and I don't mind it's being relatively thin - I put it on
> my cereal in the morning. It also does not particularly matter what
> brand of yogurt you use for your starter. Store-brand works just as
> well as super-high-priced organic stuff. Once you have a successful
> batch of yogurt made you can use your own yogurt to start the next one
> and so on.
>
> Now you have your ingredients, on to the yogurt-making.
>
> Step One. Pick a time when you won't be needing to use the oven for
> 10-12 hours. The evening after dinner is great because then your
> yogurt will be ready for breakfast. It's even better if you've used
> the oven that day/evening, because it will still be a bit warm and
> make a better setting environment - or you can turn the oven onto its
> lowest setting while you heat the milk. Just don't forget to turn it
> OFF again - yogurt needs to set at roughly 90 degrees, and if it gets
> too hot it'll kill off the yogurt-making critters.
>
> Pour your milk into your saucepan and bring it to the boil, stirring
> it fairly often so that it doesn't stick to the bottom of the pan or
> burn. A lot of recipes will say 'stir constantly' but that's really
> not necessary. Use a medium heat and you only have to stir it every
> four or five minutes. Just don't go away and forget it entirely!
>
> Once the saucepan starts to boil and bubble up,THEN start stirring
> nonstop. Boil it for 2-5 minutes or until it's in danger of boiling
> over in the pan. Timing is NOT critical... Then take the pan off the
> heat and let it cool down. You can either let it cool down by itself
> on the stovetop (set the oven timer for 5-10 minutes so that you come
> back to check the temperature fairly often). Or else you can set the
> pot into a sink of cold water to speed up the cooling process. My two
> quarts of milk took 30 minutes to cool down enough by itself, but less
> than 10 in a sinkful of water. The milk is the right temperature to
> continue when it is 110 degrees, or when you can comfortably stick a
> finger in and say 'this is warm'.
>
> You don't technically HAVE to boil the milk - it only needs to be warm
> enough to make the yogurt-making critters happy... but the boiling
> changes the nature of the milk proteins and makes for a thicker,
> smoother yogurt. Since I'm using low-fat milk I want all the extra
> thickening I can get.
>
> When the milk is comfortably warm, stir in your starter yogurt - a
> tablespoon or so of plain yogurt per quart of milk. *Whisk it in well
> so that the yogurt-making beasties are well-distributed through the
> warm milk. From here you have two options. You need to set the yogurt
> in some kind of container. You can even use the saucepan that the milk
> was cooked in, but that'll tie up the saucepan for the duration (or
> make for strange-looking yogurt if you spoon it out once it's set and
> put it into a different container for storage). You can use any
> relatively heat-proof bowl or container with a lid. I'm using recycled
> jars because they don't cost any money and I have them handy.
>
> Put your yogurt into the warm (NOT HOT!) oven, close the door and turn
> on the oven light. Then leave it alone for 10-12 hours. When you come
> back, you should have some nicely set yogurt with a bit of whey
> floating on top. The whey is entirely natural. Just drain it off and
> enjoy the yogurt! If you don't want to use the oven, you can use a
> foam cooler with a heating pad and some towels... or you can wrap the
> pot in towels and take your chances at room temperature. They made
> yogurt in the middle east for millennia before the electric oven was
> even dreamed of. But most of us have a working oven, and that's really
> the simplest way.

Did you say what kind of saucepan you used? Stainless? Glass type?
Aluminum? I have a feeling this can affect the results.

On Thu, 23 Apr 2009 16:12:01 +0100, "Sarah"
> wrote:

>
>"notbob" > wrote in message
...
>> On 2009-04-23, Kajikit > wrote:
>>> (I mentioned that I was making my own yogurt and a friend asked how,
>>> so I wrote it up...)
>>
>> Thanks Kaj. I'm not a big yogurt eater, but saved your excellent
>> instructions in case I become one.
>>
>> nb
>
>Same here! I like the odd serving of Greek style with lots of honey. I may
>be tempted to give it a try, just the once, for research and all that! Its
>great to see how to actually make it at home. I've always thought you needed
>some expensive yoghurt maker, that would take up all my kitchen space.
>Thanks again Kaj.
>
>Sarah

If you want thick yogurt, either add a bunch of powdered milk to your
yogurt mix... and/or strain the finished yoghurt through a
cheesecloth. Don't ask me exactly how though - I've never tried it!
It's not hard, I just haven't done it. All you need is some unbleached
muslin cut into squares and washed several times (to get ALL the
sizing out of it...). Then you line a colander with the muslin, put
the yogurt into it, and leave it to drain in the fridge.

In article >,
Kajikit > wrote:

> On Thu, 23 Apr 2009 16:12:01 +0100, "Sarah"
> > wrote:
>
> >
> >"notbob" > wrote in message
> ...
> >> On 2009-04-23, Kajikit > wrote:
> >>> (I mentioned that I was making my own yogurt and a friend asked how,
> >>> so I wrote it up...)
> >>
> >> Thanks Kaj. I'm not a big yogurt eater, but saved your excellent
> >> instructions in case I become one.
> >>
> >> nb
> >
> >Same here! I like the odd serving of Greek style with lots of honey. I may
> >be tempted to give it a try, just the once, for research and all that! Its
> >great to see how to actually make it at home. I've always thought you needed
> >some expensive yoghurt maker, that would take up all my kitchen space.
> >Thanks again Kaj.
> >
> >Sarah
>
> If you want thick yogurt, either add a bunch of powdered milk to your
> yogurt mix... and/or strain the finished yoghurt through a
> cheesecloth. Don't ask me exactly how though - I've never tried it!
> It's not hard, I just haven't done it. All you need is some unbleached
> muslin cut into squares and washed several times (to get ALL the
> sizing out of it...). Then you line a colander with the muslin, put
> the yogurt into it, and leave it to drain in the fridge.

Straining yogurt thru cheesecloth is called making yogurt cheese. :-)
And I HAVE done it.

It's wonderful.
--
Peace! Om

Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass.
It's about learning to dance in the rain.
-- Anon.

In article
>,
wrote:

> On Apr 23, 9:44*am, Kajikit > wrote:
> > (I mentioned that I was making my own yogurt and a friend asked how,
> > so I wrote it up...)


> > back, you should have some nicely set yogurt with a bit of whey
> > floating on top. The whey is entirely natural. Just drain it off and
> > enjoy the yogurt!

> I drink the whey. I understand there's nutrition in thar, so don't
> toss it.

Thanks for posting a wonderful set of instructions, Kajikit.

When I first read them, I had a lot of questions, not really about the
process, but about what was happening. I did some research, and
understand a little better, but not well.

I don't believe there is any "whey". It's not really a cheesemaking
process. I don't know what it is, or what nutrition it has, but I don't
think it is called "whey". Whey has a lot of protein and sugar. The
yogurt keeps the protein and sugar. I don't understand what is
happening with the sugar. Evidently, it doesn't take much sugar
converted to lactic acid to make the yogurt sour, but most of the sugar
seems to be left. But, perhaps it's a different kind of sugar.

--
Dan Abel
Petaluma, California USA

Kajikit wrote:
> On Thu, 23 Apr 2009 16:12:01 +0100, "Sarah"
> > wrote:
>
>> "notbob" > wrote in message
>> ...
>>> On 2009-04-23, Kajikit > wrote:
>>>> (I mentioned that I was making my own yogurt and a friend asked how,
>>>> so I wrote it up...)
>>> Thanks Kaj. I'm not a big yogurt eater, but saved your excellent
>>> instructions in case I become one.
>>>
>>> nb
>> Same here! I like the odd serving of Greek style with lots of honey. I may
>> be tempted to give it a try, just the once, for research and all that! Its
>> great to see how to actually make it at home. I've always thought you needed
>> some expensive yoghurt maker, that would take up all my kitchen space.
>> Thanks again Kaj.
>>
>> Sarah
>
> If you want thick yogurt, either add a bunch of powdered milk to your
> yogurt mix... and/or strain the finished yoghurt through a
> cheesecloth. Don't ask me exactly how though - I've never tried it!
> It's not hard, I just haven't done it. All you need is some unbleached
> muslin cut into squares and washed several times (to get ALL the
> sizing out of it...). Then you line a colander with the muslin, put
> the yogurt into it, and leave it to drain in the fridge.

You can also use a coffee filter.

Works really well.

Tracy

"Kajikit" > wrote in message
...
> (I mentioned that I was making my own yogurt and a friend asked how,
> so I wrote it up...)
>
> When I was a kid my father used to have a yogurt maker and he'd make a
> couple of jars of the stuff every week... I didn't really like it then
> because we were at war with mama - she wanted us to eat it au natural,
> and we wanted to add a bunch of sugar... lol I've never enjoyed the
> very sour taste of plain natural yogurt.But fortunately when you make
> your own, you have the power to make it as sweet or sour as you like.
>
> It's incredibly simple. All you need is a saucepan and a warm place to
> put it. Your oven works wonderfully as an incubator... a thermometer
> is an optional extra, as are jar/s to set the yogurt in. I've got a
> bunch of glass peanut butter jars that I've saved for preserving, and
> the big ones are the perfect size for yogurt.
>
> You can use ANY milk and yogurt to make your own. Some people add milk
> powder to their milk to make it even creamier and richer... this is
> entirely optional, but the more milk fat and milk-solids in the milk,
> the thicker and creamier the yogurt will come out. The only criteria
> is that it has to be DAIRY - soy 'milk' or nut/rice 'milk' will just
> make a mess unless you use a special process... the yogurt-making
> beasties need dairy of some kind to work on. Yogurt is very low in
> lactose because the yogurt-making beasties eat it up, but if you need
> 100% lactose-free yogurt you can use lactaid milk or one of those
> milks that has extra stuff added to it to make it seem creamier and
> richer than it actually is. My personal choice is to use plain
> unadulterated 1% milk because that way I'm not getting any additives
> in my yogurt and I don't mind it's being relatively thin - I put it on
> my cereal in the morning. It also does not particularly matter what
> brand of yogurt you use for your starter. Store-brand works just as
> well as super-high-priced organic stuff. Once you have a successful
> batch of yogurt made you can use your own yogurt to start the next one
> and so on.
>
> Now you have your ingredients, on to the yogurt-making.
>
> Step One. Pick a time when you won't be needing to use the oven for
> 10-12 hours. The evening after dinner is great because then your
> yogurt will be ready for breakfast. It's even better if you've used
> the oven that day/evening, because it will still be a bit warm and
> make a better setting environment - or you can turn the oven onto its
> lowest setting while you heat the milk. Just don't forget to turn it
> OFF again - yogurt needs to set at roughly 90 degrees, and if it gets
> too hot it'll kill off the yogurt-making critters.
>
> Pour your milk into your saucepan and bring it to the boil, stirring
> it fairly often so that it doesn't stick to the bottom of the pan or
> burn. A lot of recipes will say 'stir constantly' but that's really
> not necessary. Use a medium heat and you only have to stir it every
> four or five minutes. Just don't go away and forget it entirely!
>
> Once the saucepan starts to boil and bubble up,THEN start stirring
> nonstop. Boil it for 2-5 minutes or until it's in danger of boiling
> over in the pan. Timing is NOT critical... Then take the pan off the
> heat and let it cool down. You can either let it cool down by itself
> on the stovetop (set the oven timer for 5-10 minutes so that you come
> back to check the temperature fairly often). Or else you can set the
> pot into a sink of cold water to speed up the cooling process. My two
> quarts of milk took 30 minutes to cool down enough by itself, but less
> than 10 in a sinkful of water. The milk is the right temperature to
> continue when it is 110 degrees, or when you can comfortably stick a
> finger in and say 'this is warm'.
>
> You don't technically HAVE to boil the milk - it only needs to be warm
> enough to make the yogurt-making critters happy... but the boiling
> changes the nature of the milk proteins and makes for a thicker,
> smoother yogurt. Since I'm using low-fat milk I want all the extra
> thickening I can get.
>
> When the milk is comfortably warm, stir in your starter yogurt - a
> tablespoon or so of plain yogurt per quart of milk. Whisk it in well
> so that the yogurt-making beasties are well-distributed through the
> warm milk. From here you have two options. You need to set the yogurt
> in some kind of container. You can even use the saucepan that the milk
> was cooked in, but that'll tie up the saucepan for the duration (or
> make for strange-looking yogurt if you spoon it out once it's set and
> put it into a different container for storage). You can use any
> relatively heat-proof bowl or container with a lid. I'm using recycled
> jars because they don't cost any money and I have them handy.
>
> Put your yogurt into the warm (NOT HOT!) oven, close the door and turn
> on the oven light. Then leave it alone for 10-12 hours. When you come
> back, you should have some nicely set yogurt with a bit of whey
> floating on top. The whey is entirely natural. Just drain it off and
> enjoy the yogurt! If you don't want to use the oven, you can use a
> foam cooler with a heating pad and some towels... or you can wrap the
> pot in towels and take your chances at room temperature. They made
> yogurt in the middle east for millennia before the electric oven was
> even dreamed of. But most of us have a working oven, and that's really
> the simplest way.
http://biology.clc.uc.edu/fankhauser...YOGURT2000.htm

James Silverton wrote:
>
> Sarah wrote on Thu, 23 Apr 2009 16:12:01 +0100:
>
> > "notbob" > wrote in message
> > ...
> >> On 2009-04-23, Kajikit > wrote:
> >>> (I mentioned that I was making my own yogurt and a friend
> >>> asked how, so I wrote it up...)
> >>
> >> Thanks Kaj. I'm not a big yogurt eater, but saved your
> >> excellent instructions in case I become one.
> >>
> >> nb
>
> > Same here! I like the odd serving of Greek style with lots of honey. I
> > may be tempted to give it a try, just the once, for
> > research and all that! Its great to see how to actually make
> > it at home. I've always thought you needed some expensive
> > yoghurt maker, that would take up all my kitchen space. Thanks
> > again Kaj.
>
> I realise that I don't know a great deal about yoghurt but perhaps the
> experts can answer a few questions.
>
> What is the difference between unflavored Greek and unflavored regular
> yoghurt?


The 'Greek'-style yoghurt is strained, making it thicker. Of course
different cows in Greece, their feed is different and the cultures are
different so the real thing doesn't taste like US supermarket yoghurt.
Was very disappointed to find that the 'Fage' yoghurt sold locally is
made in the US. It tastes like ordinary American yoghurt but thicker.
True Greek yoghurt tastes different. The sheep's milk yoghurt but that
isn't available locally either.

>
> How are those different yoghurts made?

Different cows, feeds and cultures. Plus variations in time and temp of
culture. Lactobacilli aren't all that fussy as long as the milk is warm
enough and they are left alone long enough. But as with sourdough
breads, different results occur in different environments.

> Would Arab and Indian yoghurts be similar to Greek or are they different
> again?

They are different again for the above reasons. The yoghurt (curd)
bought from my local Bengali grocers in London was always *much* more
sour than supermarket yoghurts. Fat content will also differ, resulting
in a different product. And of course sheep and buffalo yoghurts will be
different.

>

wrote:
>
> On Apr 23, 9:44 am, Kajikit > wrote:
> > (I mentioned that I was making my own yogurt and a friend asked how,
> > so I wrote it up...)
> >
<snip>

> > Put your yogurt into the warm (NOT HOT!) oven, close the door and turn
> > on the oven light. Then leave it alone for 10-12 hours. When you come
> > back, you should have some nicely set yogurt with a bit of whey
> > floating on top. The whey is entirely natural. Just drain it off and
> > enjoy the yogurt! If you don't want to use the oven, you can use a
> > foam cooler with a heating pad and some towels... or you can wrap the
> > pot in towels and take your chances at room temperature. They made
> > yogurt in the middle east for millennia before the electric oven was
> > even dreamed of. But most of us have a working oven, and that's really
> > the simplest way.

Always used to pour the warm milk/starter mix into a boiled large
screwtop jar, put the lid on loosely and covered it with a thick towel.
Just another tech method


>
> I drink the whey. I understand there's nutrition in thar, so don't
> toss it.

Can go into the dough when making bread. It freezes fine for future use.
>
> I also make some yogurt 'cheese' too out of a batch. Great on toast.
> Strain some yogurt thru a coffee filter in a strainer over a bowl and
> refrigerate.

Yes indeed. Tasty topped with raw sugar and fruit.
>
> I have tried to start a new batch with a bit of the last batch, but
> it seemed to lose its oomph and I had plain milk as a result. You're
> lucky if you can reuse ad infinitum, but I buy a small Dannon plain
> for starter use. I get about 6 batches out of it, so for 50 cents or
> so, I'll just keep buying it. I only use about a tablespoon of the
> Dannon each batch.

Divide up your starter yoghurt and freeze it airtight. Let it thaw the
night before you plan to use it. Yoghurt companies spend a *lot* of time
and money keeping their cultures viable and consisten.