Yogurt making help!

[mamadelbosque]

OK, I get raw milk 1x a week, and really, realy want to start making yogurt out of part of it. My mom gave me her old "yogurt maker" which is just a plastic thing that a quart-size jar sits in it just keeps it warm - basicly, a glorified thermos/cooler that fits the jar perfectly. And I've tried making yogurt in it twice now, and neither time it turned out (both times though, I will say, I forgot about it and went away and I think it just sat in it for too long - like 24 hoursish ). All I did was warm the milk up to 115* and then stir in ~1/2 cup of dannon yogurt (my favorite brand). Is there something else I should be doing? How long should it stay in there for?? Does anyone have a recommendation for a differnt starter?? Should I skim the cream off the top of the milk first?? Would I be better off buying store-bought milk and using THAT to make yogurt (I'm on WIC so I could get it for free...)?? And, does anyone have a link to a commercial yogurt starter I can order offline that'll work better?? I know I saw one I wanted to order a while ago, but never got to it..

LOTS and LOTS of thanks in advance!!

[sparkly]

I believe the milk has to be heated to over 180 degrees, then cooled to 115...I recently posted my recipe for it in another thread (no fancy equipment needed).

I don't think it can sit for too long--if anything, it would help it.

[Delicateflower]

The recipe I've been using has you add about a cup of dry milk per gallon and you heat it to 180F before cooling it to 110.

I made it once without heating it enough and it was very runny. You also need to make sure it's not disturbed while it's incubating. I have been using a cooler packed with jars and towels and a hot water bottle. Maybe yours wasn't warm enough?

[Karamom]

All the instructions I've ever read say to make sure you refrigerate it for a few hours after the incubation time before you eat it. Did you do that?

As far as should you get store milk, if you are heating your raw milk then it really isn't raw anymore. The benefit would be that it is not homogenized so it would depend on how you feel about that. I personally think non-homogenized is even more important than raw. IMHO.

If you want to make raw milk yogurt there is a mom on here (I think dogmom) who has a link to raw milk yogurt starters in her sig line. No heating required. She is often in the traditional foods forum so you could probably find her there. I just ordered my starter today!

[Mere]

I found that making non-runny yogurt without heating raw milk required a bit of trial and error. I finally did figure out what works for me though. Re: the starter, after trying two or three different yogurt brands, I had the best luck with Brown Cow. I just had to buy one; that was a while ago, and my culture is still going strong. Anyhow, I make a half gallon of yogurt at a time. I mix in milk with my starter (~ 1/2-1 cup to a 1/2 gallon milk) and stir for a minute or two. Then I put on a lid, put the jar in a thermal lunch bag, wrap the lunch bag in a heating pad, and let it sit for 18-24 hours. You want to aim for ~100 degrees; stick a candy thermometer in the yogurt at some point while it's culturing to test. After it has cultured, I put it in the fridge to set for a few hours. That's it! My yogurt turns out fairly creamy with the Brown Cow starter, less so with other brands.

I also tried a purchased yogurt culture, and while it turned out fine, I got equal if not better results from just using the Brown Cow starter (and then my own yogurt from there on out).