I'm sure that this subject has come up many times, but my case may be unique. Years ago, we used to make our own yogurt at home by bringing the milk up to 150 degrees F,cool down, add a small container of plain yogurt from the store, cover the container (crock pot) with a towel and put in the oven with the light on overnight. We had yogurt in the morning.

Since I have medical problems and yogurt is one of the few things that I can tolerate, I decided to use the convenience of a yogurt maker. I did the research and found that the Cuisinart Automatic Yogurt maker was the highest rated of all the models available in the USA. I especially like the fact that after the fermenting cycle, it automatically switches to refrigeration and after 12 hours of chilling, you have refrigerated yogurt.

However, I've made some mistakes and had mixed results ranging from watery mess with curds at the bottom, to perfect, creamy yogurt.

Presently, the best way I've found to do it is as follows:

* Use Yogourmet brand dehydrated starter culture (comes in pre-measured packets)
* Pour 4 cups of whole, pasteurized milk in a stainless steel pot.
* Add 1/2 cup powdered milk, 2 tsp. powdered pectin, and 1 tblsp. sugar for thickening
* previous ingredients are whisked into the cold milk with a stainless steel whisk
* Heat milk to 180 degrees (I have a very sensitive digital thermometer) and cool down to between 108 and 112 degrees
* gently stir in the dehydrated culture
* pour mixture in the Cuisinart Yogurt Maker and set the warm cycle for 5 hours.
* After 17 hours, I have a quart of chilled, yogurt

NOW, some of the mistakes I've made:
* heated milk too fast - lots of articles say to heat it very slowly to 180
* whisked the culture into the cooled milk too briskly (I think that this does something to the protein bonds that were prepared in heating)
* stirred the yogurt during the fermenting phase (I know now it's a no-no to touch it at all

Most of the time, I come out with a very mild, slightly sweet, thick yogurt, a little thinner than the store brands

I still come up with the random "flop" batch that's too runny, too curdled, or never thickens at all and don't know what I've done wrong. It was all so simple 20 years ago, which makes me wonder if they have done something to the milk products over the years to make it more difficult. I would like to have more consistency since I can make a quart for about $2.00 as opposed to $4.99 for the favorite brand in the grocery store.

Does anyone have any other tips? I know not to rush the warming cycle, not to fiddle with the yogurt during culturing, not to whisk in the culture too briskly. I'm afraid to buy raw milk at the health food store for food safety reasons, so I prefer pasteurized milk.

Thanks in advance for any advice or other tips from the "pros" out there. I would like to make a very thick, creamy yogurt with a mild taste.

Jeff S.
Florida