I've got some incubating right now! It's cheaper--a gallon of milk is about $3.50, and 2 lbs of yogurt (so 2 quarts?) is $2.50.
I (now) have a yogurt "maker"--but really there's not much "making" that these machines do. They are basically just an incubator, keeping the yogurt at a steady and ideal temperature. So I heat milk to 185 F, cool to 130 F, add yogurt, and put it in the machine. I let it go a whole 24 hours or so to really work on the lactose and thicken.
Heating milk up to 180-190 range slightly changes the structure of the milk protein (or something along those lines), making the finished product thicker/firmer than it would be otherwise. And incubation is just to let the bacteria work at maximal efficiency; lower temp just has them work slower (low enough, e.g. the fridge, they stop though).
I will try this. never made yogurt before , I do buy it.Yakuta's homemade yorgurt always works for me you can find it here.http://www.discusscooking.com/forums/f22/yogurt-problem-35147.html