I have a little obsession. Making stuff. It's partly a "green" thing. You know, less packaging and transportation. Part health reasons, like fewer added ingredients, more organic ingredients. Part economics - it costs less to make things (at least it should!!). And partly it's the little rebel in me that likes to say, ha! I don't have to buy your stinkin' overpriced green-natural-organic product at the store, I can make it myself. I do believe strongly that we should be willing to pay for good quality healthy organic green products, but sometimes it's hard when you compare bargain basement made-in-a-far-off-country Target prices to those at Whole Foods. I'm no trail blazer though, all my projects have been researched on the good ol' internet.So I've been working on yogurt. My first attempt was only partly successful. I learned that my oven doesn't stay warm very long and can't be set to under 170 degrees. Chris thinks it's a food safety concern, as in, mind-your-own-business-you-lawsuit-fearing-oven-makers-who-think-I'm-going-to-poison-my-family-with-food-heated-to-less-than-170-degrees (in my humble opinion). But I digress. The temperature fluctuations were probably to wide and the yogurt separated. It tasted fine though and I was able to use it for frozen smoothie drinks.
The basic process I've learned is to heat milk to 180 degrees, let it cool, add the starter (I used a package starter), and place in canning jars. Once in the jars, the key is to keep it at about 110 degrees for 4-6 hours. This time I used a large pot to place the glass jars in and then immersed them in hot water (110 degrees). I started it at about 6 pm when we were also cooking dinner and had the oven on. The pot stayed on the stove while we were cooking and then once the oven cooled down I put it in the oven. I checked on it a few times, changing the water once and turning on the oven for a couple minutes once. At 11:30 pm, we were going to bed and I heated the oven slightly and then turned it off and left it for the night. The water was still about 110 degrees at that point. In the morning, I put the jars in the refrigerator and let them chill for a couple hours.
The texture was great, but the flavor was um... different. I forgot to mention that I put dry milk powder in the milk heating phase. I have read that it makes thicker yogurt, but I think it also changed the flavor a bit. For the ultimate test, I served up a couple bowls, drizzled a little honey and put a couple drops of vanilla on top. Maia and Sofia loved it. So there you go.
Man, this is turning out to be a long post. I'm pleased with the yogurt making though. I can see how it there might be a bit more trial and error and how it might turn out differently each time. And that's probably ok. A couple times, I've come very close to going over to the mall and buying the darn $50 yogurt maker at Williams Sonoma (it gets very good reviews), but then the little rebel, and the little spend thrift voice their disapproval and I'm back to researching on the internet.
Next homemade project: shampoo. Yes, there have been some bad hair days going on around here, but I haven't given up yet.
3 comments:
My parents haven't bought yogurt in my lifetime, and probably not in their lifetime, either. They make it every week.
Now that nonfat milk has additional protein added o it, they can use that, but before, they had to use whole milk to get it to set.
Literally, they take a 1/2 gallon of nonfat milk, pour into a large glass bowl, nearly boil it in the microwave, let it cool to "warm", then add a spoon of last week's yogurt. Then they park it overnight in an oven that was turned on briefly and then turned off.
There really are no food safety concerns past "kill the natural culture before adding the intentional one". My mom was a health inspector. She bleaches everything. She's not concerned, so I assume it's safe...
Looks awesome, though, and the vanilla is a great touch with the honey. That sounds wonderful.
My sister uses a heating pad to keep her yogurt warm. If you want more detailed directions, I can ask her. (I'm fairly certain she got the directions from the internets, though.)
A friend of mine keeps her jars in a cooler chest after heating them to tempt and has great results with it. Personally I love my Yogourmet Yogurt Maker. It makes one big batch instead of a bunch of little cups like the one Williams Sonoma carries (I had that too and it worked fine, I just prefer less pieces to keep up with and clean).
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