how to make yogurt from stroe bought yogurt?

[anomaly13]

Any one do this? I need to start to make our yogurt as we eat a little over 2 quarts a week. I will use the milk we get on WIC to make it as we don't drink cow milk, I know it's not ideal but it will be cheaper and help me reduce the grocery budget by at least $20 a month. Right now we get Mountain High original style plain and I can get whole milk from WIC for another 7 months and then I would use 2%.

So how do I do it? Any tips or suggestions? I could probably google it but though I would check here first.

Next.....homemade whole wheat sourdough bread, one thing at a time.

[Mpenny1001]

Here's my method:

Heat 3 cups of milk (I use skim, although I suppose it would be tastier with a higher fat content) to between 185-190 degrees. Stir frequently. Keep at that temp for about 10 minutes. Remove from heat and cool to between 115-120 degrees. Once cooled, add 3 tablespoons of plain yogurt. Stir. Wrap pot in a few towels and place in oven (or a cooler or on a heating pad - I think you want it to stay around 105 degrees for best results, but I'm not that picky). Sometimes I heat the oven to about 150 degrees and then turn it off before I put the yogurt in there. Let the mixture incubate for 4-24 hours. I usually let mine go about 10 hours. The longer it incubates, the tangier it will be.

I then generally drain off some of the whey and then remove 3 tablespoons of yogurt to save in the fridge for the next week's batch. I don't think I've purchased yogurt for about 9 months now!

[russsk]

I don't really measure anything, but I'll heat about a half gallon whole milk to 180 (heat slowly so you don't scorch) then turn off the heat until it cools to 115. I add some of the warm milk to the yogurt and mix it well, then add to the pot of warm milk. Pour into your jars and incubate. My oven has a bread proof setting at 100 degrees, so I just use that. You can use a crockpot or cooler, though. I incubate for 12-18 hours, the pop the jars in the freezer to rapidly cool. You can skip this step, but it really improves the texture. Don't let it freeze, though.