Yogurt Take Two

In an effort to understand nutrition, our food, our bodies and to re-create a healthy understanding of where our food comes from, and the effort and the routines it goes through to get to our table, I've tried things like making yogurt, breads, & butter.  I did not grow up understanding farm life, that someone out there grew my food or what processed or unprocessed foods are.
  I think we can agree... the less processed a food is, the better it is for you.  I love learning about food and nutrition. Mostly, I have been successful in this quest... mostly. I'm not one to follow a recipe to the tee.  I often veer off the path those directions give me.  I think that I know better.  I will think my yogurt is getting too cold and I'll turn up the heat (only to have it on too long and kill my yogurt)... I'll use the palm of my hand as a measuring spoon, only to learn I'm not putting in enough sugar, salt or baking soda.  I'll put a loaf of bread in the oven to rise in a plastic bowl... only to learn that the oven is just warm enough to melt that cheap plastic bowl and ruin all my dough (Ok, I forgot it was in there and I turned on the oven to pre-heat it for some other thing I was baking) And so, I suffer the kinds of losses that come with being a bit of a goof-up.

I've made yogurt before with lots of successes and failures scattered here and there.  We mostly only buy plain yogurt since most of the rest of the flavored stuff is chalked full of fillers like gelatin, sugar, fake sugar, and fake fruit, not to mention all the chemical additives that I both can't pronounce or spell. I usually stand in the yogurt isle at the grocery store looking at labels FOREVER.  What I look for is a full fat, not sweetened with sugar or fake sugar yogurt.  There are very few out there that I have found that are good.  Yogurt sweetened with natural fruit juices and honey, like Lil'Ones and Nature's Treat, both by Dairyland boast that they have:

• No added sugar or fructose
• Sweetened with fruit juice
• No artificial sweeteners
• No artificial flavours
• No artificial colours
• No gelatin
• Has lots of real fruit pieces

On the other hand,  those Yoplait tubes.... GARBAGE.... I mean get some plain yogurt, taste it and then taste what ever it is in those tubes.  You can't get any more yogurt-less than that. Blech.

  Yogurt and cheese made traditional ways are actually tolerable to people who are lactose intolerant. High fat contents, yogurt bacteria, and the cheese fermentation process, contain lactase enzymes that actually consume lactose in cheeses and yogurt that are traditionally made.  Modern brands on the store shelves however add lactose back into their yogurts by adding milk solids or don't even reduce the lactose since they are not even made with actual bacteria... let's call them 'yogurt-like substances'.  Gelatin is used as a thickener in those cases.  Many of the yogurt and cheeses on the shelves in our stores are very high in lactose. 

It IS actually quite easy to make.... my kids eat yogurt like it's ice-cream and it gets expensive. Since it's soooo easy to make (from what I remember) I'm going to use a different recipe and try it a second time with some raw milk. I'm going to follow the directions and RESIST THE URGE TO SECOND GUESS IT. I'm going to use the light in my oven instead of a crock pot this time.

Yogurt takes a little bit of time to make. Not actual working time but time for it to sit and culture.  
If the temperature of your yogurt gets to high or to low then it will kill the culture. DON'T I KNOW IT. So it is important that during the incubation period that the temperature stays between 90 and 110 degrees.

Homemade Yogurt (modified by Kristi... woops. I did. I messed with this recipe. I said I wouldn't and I did. We'll see how it turns out. Good Grief.)  See the original recipe post here

by Crystal Miller

- 8 cups milk
- 1/3 cup powdered milk (this is optional but will make a thicker yogurt)
- 1/2 cup starter yogurt
Before you begin wash 2 quart-sized canning jars.  Have the lids ready to cover the jars when you are done.
Pour your milk into a large cooking pot. Heat the milk up to 185 degrees.

Allow the milk to cool down to 110 degrees. The cooling can take a long time. If you want to speed the process up fill your sink with cold water and place the pot of hot milk in the water and stir and stir. The temperature drops fairly quickly this way, so make sure to have your thermometer handy to keep checking.

 Whisk your starter yogurt with a cup of warm milk to get the lumps out before you add it to the pot.

After you reach 110 degrees add the starter mixture and stir until everything is dissolved very well.

Pour this mixture into your ready and waiting jars. Put the lids on and put them into what ever place you are planning to incubate and culture them.

I put mine into the oven to incubate covered in a towel. I heated the oven to 150 degrees and then turned it off and let it cool a bit.  I wrapped up my jars in a towel and put them in the oven... and I am to leave them for 10 to 12 hours; trying not to disturb the jars to much.  OK... THIS IS MY PROBLEM... I just want to babysit them too much.  Is the temperature right.... how are they doing? Is it thickening?  I HAVE TO KNOW THE ANSWERS TO THESE QUESTIONS.... grr.  I am 3 hours in to this process as I type and I have to RESIST my very 'curious, goof-up, what the Vegt?' nature and leave it well enough ALONE!  

Like... I so badly want to post the next picture in this series, but it's still HOURS away.... hours. Killing me. I need to leave the house!!!!

And, I know what you're thinking. You're thinking... "Given your track record, Kristi, it's probably a bad, BAD idea to put a towel in your oven.... you will have a fire for sure. Please, please do not make this a habit."

Duly noted.


Stay tuned for the results.  If I don't post them by this time tomorrow, would someone please phone the fire department. Please?