My friend (life-saver) Marie came over this morning so that I could go to the Mother's Day Tea with Wesley at Garden Gate Preschool. She brought with her 2 Litres of Raw milk from her newly acquired dairy farm. I was thrilled, but I had just bought about 8 Litres of milk (because my kids only have the option of milk or water at home), so I knew right away that I HAD to try making yogurt with my crock-pot. I found a crock-pot yogurt recipe about a year ago and hadn't tried it yet.
I got out my meat thermometer, because I knew I would have to keep an eye on the temperature. I meant to follow the directions. But I thought I knew better. After all, I'm a VETERAN YOGURT MAKER. Just a little out of practice. I did follow MOST of them... until.... I took the temperature of the fermenting yogurt mixture and it was less than 110 degrees. Yogurt has to be incubated between 110 and 120 degrees to be just right. (perfect gas oven pilot light temperature). So in a moment of thoughtless panic, I thought I'd plug in my crock-pot just to warm it up just a tiny bit. Wellll.... then I got caught up in Canuck overtime and completely forgot about the yogurt on the counter in the crock-pot that was PLUGGED IN!!! WHAT THE VEGT?!?!? At 10:45 into overtime Ryan Kesler scored the winning goal for Vancouver and I.... remembered my yogurt.
I killed it. Murdered all those lovely yogurt cultures... the Lactobacillus acidophilus, Lactobacillus bifidus and Lactobacillus casei... all of them.... dead. The yogurt was supposed to sit all night in the UNPLUGGED crock pot insulated to set.... and Canuck overtime totally killed my yogurt. 10 minutes was all it took for my yogurt to get to 140 degrees. 20 Degrees over the maximum. I could tell right away. GLOP. Total Glop. Clear runny liquid separated from all the thick DEAD glop on the bottom. My 'What the Vegt' debut story, humiliated.... and perfect all the same; a fitting illustration of my life, my blog title, and my rookie hobby farm owner. To top it off, I feel completely guilty and mortified and heartbroken that I totally (wait, I'm blaming the Canucks aren't I? If you boys could just win one in regulation time my cooking, blogging and life would be so much better).... I feel totally wretched that I wasted and ruined my lovely gift of raw milk. Sorry Marie. The Canucks will be so sorry.
Determined to try again.
Bummer! I tried making yogurt in my crock pot the first time I ever made it and it did NOT turn out... that same disgusting, gloppy mess! I found it too hard to get the temperature even enough! But I figured out how to make it in our (not turned on, so not cold) little bar fridge with just a couple glass bottles of hot water as warmth and that seems to be easier to control.
ReplyDeleteHope you have better luck next time =) And by that I mean, Canucks should win BEFORE OT next time!
OH NO! You can come get more milk anytime! I think I may try some today...and see what happens.
ReplyDeleteJust a question from a simpleton who does not make yogurt, but...doesn't having yogurt as an ingredient kind of contradict making "homemade yogurt?" If not, I'm about to get rich by making my own cookbook: Homemade Homie
ReplyDeleteex of a recipe: homemade bread. Ingredients: assorted grains, bread.
Instructions: take your selected grains that you purchased. Sprinkle them over bread. Put bread in oven and pretend to bake. Take out and eat.
Recipe #2. "Homemade" chocolate banana cream pie. ingredients: coconut, chocolate sprinkles, banana cream pie.
Instructions: get banana cream pie out and sprinkle coconut and chocolate shavings on top. Place in oven. Close door. Turn oven light on (not too long or pie will melt). Look through glass window and admire your hard work. Get oven mitts on and remove pie from oven. Place in refridgerator to cool. Serve after a believable amount of time has passed.
If you want more homemade recipes, let me know.
Todd
Todd: You can totally buy yogurt starter and use that instead of yogurt. The only problem is that it is hard to find and usually expensive. Also, once you have made your first batch, you never need to buy yogurt again, you can simply use the yogurt you made last time. You always need to add some sort of active bacteria, so weather you buy 1/2 cup yogurt for as little as 79 cents or buy a pack of starter for 3 dollars, both work the same. One is just hugely more cost effective ( and you only have to buy it once!)
ReplyDeleteYour comparison is like saying, using brown sugar in something is not truly homemade because you can make your own brown sugar with white sugar and molasses.