Tasty Yogurt

Last time I made cheese I just bought a quart of yogurt and used that to make the cheese. This time I decided to make yogurt so that I could further bring down the cost of making cheese. It is a rather simple process needing only some plain yogurt, and a gallon of milk.

Carefully heat the milk up to 90 degrees C. I used a double boiler, but you could use a thick bottomed pan or stir frequently to prevent you milk from burning. You then cool it down to just below 55 degrees C (the temperature that kills yogurt bacteria) by placing the pot in a large amount of cold water. Take a cup of the milk and thoroughly mix in a cup of yogurt. Pour this back into the large pot of milk and stir thoroughly again. Now take your gallon of yogurt activated milk and place it in sterilized containers. Place those into a cooler with 50 degree C water to keep it warm while the yogurt forms. After about 3-4 hours you should now have a gallon of yogurt at the cost of a gallon of milk (under $2 for me since milk was on sale). Make sure that you save a little yogurt to make more yogurt next time.

Now that you have more yogurt than you probably have ever had before you can either make some amazing simple cheese, or you could take some and mix in fresh fruit or berries to have some tasty flavored yogurt.