Home made yogurt

[ChefRuby]

In store-bought yogurt, some additives such as starch, sugar and flavor do make yogurt taste thick, creamy, sweet and attractive. However, they increase the calorie and in my eyes, not as healthy as I expected.
I make yogurt with skim milk, with yogurt capsule as starter, no addition of sugar, just as natural as possible. It comes out very thick, like silky tofu. And it doesn't take too long, six-hour-term is pretty acceptable, isn't it?
Take a look at my yogurt, I strongly recommend folks to make yogurt at home LOL


I give the link here: Ruby@Cuisine: Homemade plain yogurt for those who feel interested.

[smag]

We consume a lot of yogurt, so it is just lot cheaper to make at home. I just heat milk in the MW, add little milk powder(optional) and let it cool a bit before adding my culture.
I use my oven as my incubator.
The current culture I use is from a friend, so it sets much faster and with very little culture. I've found the Brown Cow brand yogurt works well as culture too.

[CharlieD]

Where can one buy the culture for yougurt making?

[smag]

Amazon.com: yogurt culture

I've not used any of these.

[CharlieD]

That simple, huh, what was I thinking. Thank you very much.

[bethzaring]

charlie, I get my yogurt culture from two different places; Caprine Supply
Caprine Supply I get the one you can reculture, NOT the direct set,
and Lehmans Hardware
Lehman's - Products for Simple, Self-sufficient Living

same culture at both places

this brand makes a very nice yogurt

[Finmar001]

Yes I have recipe for homemade yogurt

[plingy]

I recently got a yogurt maker (second hand) and use it about twice a week.
My recipe is very simple: 4 1/2 cups of 1% milk heated to 200 degrees; cool it to 110 degrees, mix well with 1/3 cup plain yogurt (1%) and 1/2 cup of dry fat-free instant milk. I pour it into my machine's little glass jars and process for 4 hours then refrigerate when it seems set. I find that when starting it late afternoon, I can refrigerate it before going to bed.
A longer processing time seems to make a much more sour yogurt. Also, I use store bought plain yogurt containing 2 ingredients only: milk ingredients and bacterial culture as a starter. The yogurt is firm and not sour, low fat and unsweetened.
We add fruit, jam, honey or maple syrup to have it as dessert. We also use it as a sour creme substitute in dips or with potatoes. Wish I'd done this when the kids were still at home and we went through gallons of yogurt per week! It's never too late to try !
It's a little bit cheaper than buying ready-made yogurt but to me, the most important is the use of natural ingredients. Have you read the list of ingredients on some of those tubs? OOOOh! By the way, if you want to keep the milk from sticking and burning to the bottom of the pot when heating it, run some cold water in the pot first. Don't know why it works but it does.

[lyndalou]

I have never made it, but my Lebanese friend's mother made it all the time. She called it Lebun (sp?) Anyway, as I recall, temperature was key or it would not thicken properly.

[sparrowgrass]

I think you guys mean evaporated milk, not condensed milk. Condensed milk has sugar in it.

I use the mason jar in a cooler of warm water method.