Homemade Yogurt!

I finally attempted to make homemade yogurt for the first time.  I had considered for a while, but the impetus to actually do it came because our milk was about to expire and I wanted to use it up quickly.  I think I will be making yogurt more frequently now!  Because it doesn't require much direct involvement for most of the process, I think it is worth the lengthy preparation.

I'm not going to lead you through the detailed process here, because I am just a newbie at it and am by no means a yogurt expert now!  I followed the directions in this Frugal Girl post, so you can go there for a detailed recipe.  For those who are just curious though, I'll fill you in on the basic process.   For my trial run, I fourthed the recipe and just used four cups of milk to make one quart of yogurt.  Basically, I heated milk up to about 185 degrees, let it cool to 120 degrees, and added a few tablespoons of store-bought yogurt (the starter - now that I've got it "started", next time I can just use a bit of the leftover yogurt I just made to start another batch).  Since I wanted to make vanilla yogurt, I also added a little sugar and vanilla at this point.  I poured it all into a sterilized quart canning jar, screwed on the lid, and placed it in our camping cooler filled with a gallon of hot water, where it stayed for three hours.  Then, I stuck it in the freezer temporarily (I read elsewhere that this improves the texture), then moved it to the fridge, and that's it!

Initially, I was wary of this process because it seemed unsafe to just let the yogurt sit there in tepid water for three whole hours.  However, as I read up on it, I became convinced that it is OK, because the sitting in warm water is really what makes the milk turn into yogurt; it is safe to eat I'm told.  Most recipes let the yogurt sit for much lengthier periods of time, actually.  Methods of keeping the yogurt warm during that time vary from using a cooler with warm water to a heating pad to a crockpot to a special yogurt maker.

I was pleasantly surprised to taste test my yogurt and discover that the flavor was very comparable to store-bought vanilla yogurt.  However, it wasn't as creamy and it had a thinner consistency than store-bought, although this is common with homemade yogurt; plus, I used skim milk.  Since the taste was still good, I think I will make yogurt more often!  If left unopened in the refrigerator, the jars of yogurt are supposed to last a month; once opened, around a week.  The cost-savings are great!  I figured it cost me around $0.75 to make one quart of yogurt.  I normally pay around $2.50-$3.00 for a quart of yogurt a couple times a month, so theoretically, I could save around $48 a year by making homemade yogurt.  Imagine the savings if you are feeding a lot more family members than our two!