Thing Eighteen: Yogurt!
Sep. 22nd, 2012 11:42 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
badseed1980You guys, I am SO EXCITED about this culinary venture!
I've been hankering after making my own yogurt now for a while. I read a good post about it on Tigers and Strawberries, and that made me decide that it absolutely had to happen.
I bought myself a Yogotherm yogurt incubator. Basically, this thing is a thermos. It's a plastic bucket with a lid (BPA-free) that fits snugly inside a styrofoam-lined container. No electricity required. I also bought some yogurt starter culture and a chinois strainer. That latter item is one of those cone-shaped sieves with a superfine mesh that chefs use for stuff like straining bouillon and making extra-fine purees. I got that because I prefer my yogurt strained, or Greek-style.
I made the yogurt last night. I bought a half-gallon of organic skim milk (though I might just get regular non-organic in future because it's cheaper). I heated it up to 180 F in my Le Creuset, checking the temperature frequently with a digital thermometer. I made sure that my pot, spoon, and thermometer were VERY CLEAN, washing them and the inner pail for the Yogotherm before I got started.
When the milk hit 180, I took it off the heat, and plopped the pot into a wide bowl with ice on the bottom, stirring it to help it cool down faster. When it reached 110, I took a ladle full of it and mixed it with the starter culture. I mixed that stuff back into the larger batch, poured it into the Yogotherm bucket, and stuck that into the styrofoam-lined container. I thought about putting an insulated bag around it just for added help, but decided I wanted to test the Yogotherm on its own to see if it was good enough. I bid my slowly culturing yogurt goodnight.
This morning, I awoke to realize that I'd forgotten to add the nonfat dry milk that some recipes recommend adding to "beef up" the yogurt, making it thicker. Oops. Oh well, I figured I'd get the purest result and then I could make changes based on how it turned out. When I went out to the kitchen and opened up the Yogotherm, it was like Christmas. The Lactobacillus fairy had left me yogurt! I squeed. :) When I pulled the inner bucket out of the styrofoam, it still felt quite warm to the touch, so I think that the insulation is quite good without any outside help.
I had a bit of a false start with the straining. After washing the chinois, I poured the yogurt in rather quickly, which sort of forced some globs of it through the mesh and into the waiting container below. Oops. But to my satisfaction, the globbing stopped quickly. I put the chinois into the Yogotherm bucket (just the right size), and poured the lost yogurt back into it. I covered the chinois with plastic wrap, and put the whole apparatus in the fridge.
What I found over the next few hours was that the stuff nearer the outside of the chinois was straining quickly, and that this was slowing down the straining from the inside. I stirred it up with a clean spoon a couple of times, because I didn't want the outside to turn to yogurt cheese and prevent straining from the middle bit entirely. Just now, I spooned and scraped the yogurt from the strainer and put it into a well-washed container that had previously held...Chobani Greek yogurt. :) My half gallon of milk seems to have yielded one of the quart containers of strained yogurt. Nice. Seems like a lot lost, but I might get a better yield if I try it with the powdered milk next time. In any case, I believe one of those containers usually costs $6. The milk cost me $3.59. If I use non-organic, it'll be even cheaper, which means my Yogotherm and my chinois will pay for themselves eventually.
Of course, that's not why I'm doing this. I'm doing it because holy crap, making your own yogurt is AWESOME! And the taste? Ooooh. Oh yeah, baby. Creamy, tangy, and luscious. Yum, yum, yum. I can't wait to spoon this stuff onto my morning oatmeal, or eat it with honey and granola and fruit, or...gods, I love yogurt. I am in heaven.
And I feel so cultured. :)
I've been hankering after making my own yogurt now for a while. I read a good post about it on Tigers and Strawberries, and that made me decide that it absolutely had to happen.
I bought myself a Yogotherm yogurt incubator. Basically, this thing is a thermos. It's a plastic bucket with a lid (BPA-free) that fits snugly inside a styrofoam-lined container. No electricity required. I also bought some yogurt starter culture and a chinois strainer. That latter item is one of those cone-shaped sieves with a superfine mesh that chefs use for stuff like straining bouillon and making extra-fine purees. I got that because I prefer my yogurt strained, or Greek-style.
I made the yogurt last night. I bought a half-gallon of organic skim milk (though I might just get regular non-organic in future because it's cheaper). I heated it up to 180 F in my Le Creuset, checking the temperature frequently with a digital thermometer. I made sure that my pot, spoon, and thermometer were VERY CLEAN, washing them and the inner pail for the Yogotherm before I got started.
When the milk hit 180, I took it off the heat, and plopped the pot into a wide bowl with ice on the bottom, stirring it to help it cool down faster. When it reached 110, I took a ladle full of it and mixed it with the starter culture. I mixed that stuff back into the larger batch, poured it into the Yogotherm bucket, and stuck that into the styrofoam-lined container. I thought about putting an insulated bag around it just for added help, but decided I wanted to test the Yogotherm on its own to see if it was good enough. I bid my slowly culturing yogurt goodnight.
This morning, I awoke to realize that I'd forgotten to add the nonfat dry milk that some recipes recommend adding to "beef up" the yogurt, making it thicker. Oops. Oh well, I figured I'd get the purest result and then I could make changes based on how it turned out. When I went out to the kitchen and opened up the Yogotherm, it was like Christmas. The Lactobacillus fairy had left me yogurt! I squeed. :) When I pulled the inner bucket out of the styrofoam, it still felt quite warm to the touch, so I think that the insulation is quite good without any outside help.
I had a bit of a false start with the straining. After washing the chinois, I poured the yogurt in rather quickly, which sort of forced some globs of it through the mesh and into the waiting container below. Oops. But to my satisfaction, the globbing stopped quickly. I put the chinois into the Yogotherm bucket (just the right size), and poured the lost yogurt back into it. I covered the chinois with plastic wrap, and put the whole apparatus in the fridge.
What I found over the next few hours was that the stuff nearer the outside of the chinois was straining quickly, and that this was slowing down the straining from the inside. I stirred it up with a clean spoon a couple of times, because I didn't want the outside to turn to yogurt cheese and prevent straining from the middle bit entirely. Just now, I spooned and scraped the yogurt from the strainer and put it into a well-washed container that had previously held...Chobani Greek yogurt. :) My half gallon of milk seems to have yielded one of the quart containers of strained yogurt. Nice. Seems like a lot lost, but I might get a better yield if I try it with the powdered milk next time. In any case, I believe one of those containers usually costs $6. The milk cost me $3.59. If I use non-organic, it'll be even cheaper, which means my Yogotherm and my chinois will pay for themselves eventually.
Of course, that's not why I'm doing this. I'm doing it because holy crap, making your own yogurt is AWESOME! And the taste? Ooooh. Oh yeah, baby. Creamy, tangy, and luscious. Yum, yum, yum. I can't wait to spoon this stuff onto my morning oatmeal, or eat it with honey and granola and fruit, or...gods, I love yogurt. I am in heaven.
And I feel so cultured. :)
