Slow posting? Yes. As I am a little bit of a masochist I decided to take another class on probability– hence my absence. I’ve also been busy planting a garden (begun the knotweed wars have), trying to find a replacement for Thundering Hooves (RIP), and convincing my landlord to let us have chickens (success).
I wanted to take the time to share my take on a easy to make home yogurt recipe. It’s pretty simple and takes about 5 minutes of preparation and 10 hours of incubation.
Making yogurt in my crockpot
What you need
- Crockpot with Low, High, & Warm settings or yogurt maker
- Mason Jar
- Favorite brand of active culture yogurt (I like Greek Gods plain full fat yogurt)
- Milk (preferably grass-fed)
- A thermometer
Steps
- Fill and turn on crockpot – get water temperature to ~150 ( you can boil water in kettle to speed up this process). Leave enough space for mason jar (i.e fill with empty mason jar in crockpot).
- Fill mason jar (make sure it’s clean!) with milk leaving enough space for adding starter
- Add starter and gently stir.
- Place mason jar into water inside crockpot, set crockpot to warm .DO NOT USE A LID. If you’re having trouble maintaining the temperature use towel. The lid wi
- Wait 10 – 14 hours (the longer you go the thicker it is).
The secret to making it extra tasty is to stir in half a cup of grass-fed heavy cream. I use Pure Eire whole milk and heavy cream to make my yogurt– I get over a liter of grass-fed yogurt for about $10, which is about what I would pay at the grocery store for the equivalent amount of Greek Gods yogurt (who knows where they source their milk?). The yogurt is so thick and creamy it makes an excellent substitute for sourcream if you want to add some thickness to some ground pet food (i.e organ meat, a future post) chili
A couple of final notes on the what works well and what doesn’t. Use smaller, cylindrical, wide mouth mason jars (I use Bubbies sauerkraut jars). If the jar is too wide (say like a pickle jar) it is hard to get an even heat at the center during the culturing process. Remember heat travels in pulses and it will take a while for the center to heat up, even in water bath. You want to keep the temperature around ~110 degrees. Too high and you’ll just get cooked milk with a slightly tangy taste. Too low and you’ll just get warm milk that goes bad. You want to mimic a critically damped heat equation that slowly cools down from 125 to 110.
After you’ve made your first batch you may consider never getting store bought yogurt again. I’ve heard mixed news views on reusing your homemade yogurt for multiple batches. It doesn’t seem unreasonable to me, but it sounds like other bacteria can eventually out-compete the lactobacillus. On the other hand, that is because I derived my original recipe from a “raw” yogurt recipe shared with me by MAS (who trades me kimchi for yogurt). As the milk I use is pasteurized, I think it is safe to continue re-using it for starter. I will report back if this turns out to not be the case.
