Yogurt, Even Easier Than Your Mom!

After a few months of trial and error (and at some points of miscommunication, near starvation), our house settled down into a predictable food routine. We have a list of mandatory staples--foods that need to be bought every week no matter what, and then whatever we get from the CSA for vegetables. Our grocery store staples tend overwhelmingly to be dairy and meats--two of the most expensive squares of the food pyramid. It took us an embarrassingly long time to realize that our dairy bill didn't have to be $25 per week (hey, we like sour cream, okay?) and that it was not only possible but also ridiculously simple to make most of the pricier items on the list. We started with yogurt, a staple that costs us somewhere around $5-$10 per week. We go through a lot of it because not only is it a breakfast/snack food for everyone in the house, but we also use it to make Indian food.
I was pretty shocked at how simple it was to make. There are plenty of recipes on the internet of varying degrees of complexity, but I feel that ours is probably the most simplistic and hardest to mess up. Also, full disclosure: My roommate was the one who originally started doing this, so I've never seen the written recipe and will be conveying step-by-step how we made it last night.

Yogurt for Dummies Recipe

Materials:

Crock Pot
Candy thermometer (must register between 100F and 180F)
Clean towel
Clean jars for yogurt
Whisk
Pot

Ingredients:

Whole Milk (in whatever amount you want of yogurt)
1 cup yogurt (Must be a live culture. Nothing with pectin or tons of sugar)

Process:
1. Pour the amount of whole milk you wish to be turned into yogurt into the pot and heat on Medium to 180F while stirring slowly. My roommate had the excellent idea of using whatever containers you plan to put the yogurt in to measure out the milk, and then adding half again as much to account for thickening. While this is happening, heat the crockpot on the lowest setting.


2. Once the milk has reached 180F, transfer it to the warmed crockpot and turn off the crockpot. Allow it to cool to 110F. This will take about 10-15 minutes. If the temperature is above 110F when you do the next step, it will kill the bacteria in the yogurt starter and you'll just have warm milk. Not nearly as exciting.

3. Once the milk has cooled, add about 1 cup of yogurt to the crockpot, whisking vigorously to prevent a film from forming. This will probably froth the milk. That's okay, and even desirable.

(Pictured: Desire)

4. After adding the starter yogurt and whisking it in, put the lid on the crockpot and cover the lid with a clean towel. Now leave the yogurt alone for 9-12 hours. Don't touch it, don't even look at it. We find it's easiest to start making the yogurt at night and then let it sit while we sleep. The longer you leave it out, the stronger and more sour the yogurt will be, but we find 9 hours works for us because we don't want sweet yogurt. Pro tip: Make sure the temperature in your house is at least 75F, otherwise it will be too cold for the yogurt to set properly.

All tucked in for bed

5. After about 9 hours, check on the yogurt. If it didn't thicken, the temperature in your house probably wasn't warm enough. You can reheat the milk and make it again. If it has thickened, celebrate your dairy abilities by posting a photo of your creation on facebook. Everyone should know how much you rock.

The only pic you've ever posted that doesn't shame your grandmother.

6. Now that everyone on the interwebs is reveling in your genius and superior culinary skills, it's time to put the yogurt away. Make sure the jars are clean (lids too!) and ladle away. For added Stick-it-to-the-Man-ness, you can use recycled jars or containers from the company you used to buy yogurt from. Take that, corporate America! Note: be sure to save about 1 cup of this yogurt to use as a starter for your next batch. It's very embarrassing to run out and have to buy more.

Victory

Effort Rating (On a scale of 1 to Fuck This!)
3

Cost Comparison:
32 oz. jar White Mountain Organic Yogurt: $4.25
32 oz. jar Homemade Organic Yogurt: $0.75