Last night, while winding down for sleep, I got a hankering to try making homemade Greek yogurt. I looked at various devices for a few minutes online before going to bed—there are several yogurt-making machines with appealing little glass jars.
I'm pretty sure I will want to strain the yogurt to thicken it, so a bunch of little containers probably won't work for me. So, instead of jumping in feet-first and ordering equipment I may not want or need, then waiting for it to arrive, I'm making a test batch with a crock pot while I work from home today. The name of the game is temperature management as far as I can tell and that only requires a good thermometer, a towel, and a gentle way to heat things back up—hence, the crock pot.
I'll let you know how it goes. I have several design projects going at once right now, so I can't afford to give the Yogurt Experiment my full attention. If I screw up, I lose a half gallon of milk and a couple of tablespoons of yogurt to the adventure. If I succeed, I manage to learn something new and squeeze a little extra fun into my day without losing pace on my design calendar.
Come to think of it, I get the learning and the fun whether I succeed or not. Well hey!
Cultures for Health has a fantastic, free PDF on yogurt-making. Sign up for their newsletter (gray box on right side of page) and they'll email you a free copy. I've only had time to skim over it, but I can't imagine this 79-page guide doesn't cover it all, top to bottom, raw milk to soy milk, acidophilus to thermophilus and back again. It looks pretty biblical.
Good luck. Let us know how that works. Crock pot temperature might be too high. My family made yogurt growing up and we had these ceramic jugs filled to the rim always sitting next to the wood burning stove. It was the best yogurt and cheese.
I have been making yogurt for almost a year now, with great success. (No fancy machine, just a pot on the stove and then using my oven to incubate it.) For the first time I tried it in the crock pot last week and it was fabulous. Just make sure to hit the right temps versus following time instructions given in some recipes.
Can’t wait to hear how your experiment goes. I’ve become intrigued with making my own yogurt, but have been too worried about doing it wrong to even try. But, like you said, if the first attempt goes poorly, a half gallon of milk isn’t a huge loss. Guess I should stop thinking about it so much and just give it a go. Thanks for posting.
Heating pad with an inverted Dutch oven on the jars.
I make my own yogurt in my crockpot all of the time! My family loves it. It took a couple of times to figure out what worked with the temp of my crockpot and kitchen and etc. I havent done it in awhile… I think I will have to make some tomorrow! It definately doesn’t come out quite as thick as store bought yogurt though…
We make our crock pot yogurt almost every day … the kids go through that much of it! We’ve found that results are very inconsistent texture wise, but very, very good taste and cost wise. Have fun with it. To make it Greek, just use Greek yogurt as a starter … easy peasy.
We made it when I was growing up. Homemade yogurt tastes really great – as nearly everything homemade does! Need it sweet? Just add a spoonful of homemade jam or jelly!
It’s working! It looks like I’ll need to start straining the yogurt in the next hour or so. I even found some cheesecloth to strain it with — we had over 40yards in the garage. I swear, we have too much stuff.
I’m feeling empowered by my low-tech, no-fuss, no-fret attack on yogurt production.
I’m glad to hear you guys have fond memories of this. It’s another post or three, but I’ve been giving a lot of thought to mindfulness; intentional, purposeful living and what I can proactively do now to ensure my kids have plenty of golden memories from their childhoods to fuel them through adulthood. Homemade yogurt seems like a good thing to add to my routine.
Interesting, I´ve never tried! 🙂
My husband has been making greek yogurt for over a year in the crockpot. It is fabulous, smooth and thick and every bit as good as what you get in the store. We have had a couple batches that didn’t turn out, especially when we first began, so don’t give up! You don’t need fancy equipment. We strain it in the largest coffee filters available so it’s nice and thick. Good luck!
We got a retro 70’s yogurt maker at a thrift store, and it worked great! We broke about half of the jars, though, and ended up using it to incubate a baby squirrel.
Crockpot yogurt is all we eat here! I’ve been making it for a couple of years and I’ve never had a fail. 🙂 A little cheesecloth and a mesh strainer are the only other things you’ll need to get luscious, thick yogurt! Strain it completely, add some chopped fresh herbs (tarragon is my favorite) a little salt and pepper and you have some yummy yogurt cheese that is great on crackers!
you don’t need any kind of machine!!!… I was taught by Lebanese woman how to make the most delicious creamy yogurt ever. LABAN.
The best thing is to have an old seed, they pass theirs around the family, if you don’t have the seed you can use any yogurt that you like.
Next Best Thing will be using non pasteurized whole milk from a grass fed cow. If you don’t have this, just use any milk (whole).
I make my yogurt in little individual glass cups that I bought in Ikea. So you have a single serving every time.
Boil the milk for 30 seconds, let the milk get to BODY TEMPERATURE. Dump the yogurt in that milk, stir using a wooden spoon. In a kitchen shelf put a cozy blanket (wool, cotton), fill the little glasses with the milk and cover them with plastic wrap. Place the cups over the blanket (they need to be treated as new born babies) and cover them with another cozy blanket. Let them rest overnight. Put them in the fridge and ate them. They will be creamy (not liquid) if you like more paste like texture you can strain them and add garlic and chive to eat with everything.
I’ve made yogurt a few times and it sometimes comes out wonderfully and sometimes is a little weird. I should try again, because we’ve been buying up a ton of yogurt.
i haven’t made yogurt before but i sure do enjoy the perspective of your photos!
I go through stages of making yogurt. I have a old maker that originally had little cups but I can fit a loaf pan in it. I like the yogurt I make but my kids like the very sweet “whipped” type.
Good luck with making that yogurt. That’s not an easy thing to do, and our countries have had centuries to perfect that process. Of course, I don’t doubt that you will find the right way in no time
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