I made yogurt today

The yogurt project went well! There were some minor malfunctions but everything worked out. I used a candy thermometer and this worked okay. I did see the advantage of using a thermometer with a dial on the top. It would be much easier to read. The last step in the process called for the milk and yogurt starter to be blended very well and then the mixture was to be placed on a heating pad which was sent on medium heat. The pan was to be covered with the lid and a towel to hold in the heat. I did all of this and then had to leave the mixture alone for seven hours. This was the hard part! I wanted to peek but didn’t. I was watching the clock though during the last hour and telling myself not to touch it.

I took the towel and lid off five minutes early. I just couldn’t wait any longer. The mixture had congealed! Hooooray! I stirred it briskly to stop the fermentation and then poured it into containers and placed it in the frig for over night. It should be thicker in the morning.

I figure that I have about twenty seven cents into each six ounce jar. This is a significant savings over the store bought stuff. We will just have to taste it to see if it was worth the effort.

The recipe that I used said that store bought yogurt is thicker because they use thickeners one of which is pectin. They also use sugar and sometimes other additives. My yogurt is simply milk and yogurt starter. Nothing else. I used three tablespoons of commercial yogurt as the starter. I won’t have to use commercial stuff anymore. I will simply save three tablespoons from the last cup of this batch.

I got the yogurt instructions by typing Making yogurt in Google and got wonderful step by step instructions.