How hard is it to make yogurt at home?

[femalephish]

Do you think it's worth it to make my own yogurt? Maybe I should be posting in the 'frugality' forum because I am really trying to save money. Is it easy enough to be worth the savings? How have you done it? Once I make plain yogurt if I want to make it sweet can I just blend it with some berries?

Also, where could I get a good, small container to keep the yogurt in single serving sizes? Thanks!

[JamieCatheryn]

If you have an overabundant source of milk like WIC or a dairy membership it's totally worth it price wise. You can buy a yogurt maker machine that keeps the temp right or do it in a thermos or warm place like an oven with the light on. It's hard to get it thick, but besides that it's not tough. You could add pectin afterwards to thicken it up. You scald the milk then let it cool down below like 110F then for cultures add either good yogurt (stonyfield works for most), or a yogurt starter you buy. It takes like 6 hours at a warm temp then you put it in the fridge. Sweeten and flavor with fruit, jelly, honey, vanilla extract, or sugar if you like after it's ready.

For single serving storage, are you looking for plastic free? There are some glass ones out there with plastic lids. Otherwise little tupperware sort of things would work.

[chaoticzenmom]

It's very easy. You don't even need a yogurt maker. I use a cooler and add warm water to it and it cultures well every time.

You might find it easier and cheaper to make Kefir. You buy the grains or get them from someone and you don't have to have a heat source, just put a jar of kefir grains and milk in your cupboard and let the fermentation happen. You can use this stuff on cereal if you want. Mine ferments overnight. For that, you need jars, a strainer and kefir grains. You can re-use the grains indefinitely, so no need to buy more yogurt starter.

[BetsyS]

I find yogurt very, very easy. For me, it's very cost effective.

I do the method where I heat up milk, then let it cool down, whisk in the yogurt starter, pour the milk into a glass mason jar, wrap in a towel, put on top of a heating pad, then top the whole thing with a stock pot. Leave overnight (or about 12 hours), and voila! yogurt.

I get thicker yogurt when I use strained (greek style) starter. Easy enough to do. And also if I use whole milk.

We eat regular milk that is hormone free. I got some that was 5 days before the date this week for $0.71/half gallon (normal price here is only $1.99/gal though). So, for $0.71 plus maybe $0.20 for the starter, I get a half gallon of yogurt. My stores sell yogurt for $2.50/quart, so $0.91 is definitely better than $5, you know??

I have little kids, so whole milk yogurt is fine for us. I like to strain it to double thickness, then top with honey. FOr my kids, I stir in preserves or jam.

[Llyra]

I get local milk very cheaply, so making our own yogurt saves us a BUNDLE. I can make a quart of yogurt for about a dollar, and a quart of organic yogurt costs three times that.

I have a yogurt maker that comes with eight serving cups. The yogurt gets incubated right in the cups, and then I stick them in the fridge. It's a Donvier yogurt maker.

http://www.amazon.com/Cuisipro-Donvi...1599552&sr=8-1

It is plastic, so if plastics are a problem, this is not for you.

I also have an extra set of cups so that I can make more while the first batch is still in the fridge. It comes with the thermometer to get the yogurt to the exact right temp for adding the starter.

I used a cup of commercial yogurt for the starter-- a half cup for each quart of yogurt I make.

We also often add extra cream back into the yogurt, which makes it naturally sweeter.

To sweeten, we usually add a dollop of homemade jam. DH and I like it plain with fruit, but the kids like it a bit sweeter, so a teaspoon of jam in addition to the fruit does the job.

I incubate mine a full 24 hours, because I can't tolerate lactose so well (not lactose-intolerance, but I have ulcerative colitis). The longer you incubate, the less lactose will remain, and the more tart the yogurt will be.

Chill it without stirring it once it's made.

You can also strain it to make it thicker, once it's done.

[Violet2]

It's easy to do and cost effective if you are shelling out $$ for organic yogurt (including greek organic).

Be sure to get a yogurt maker with glass jars (I use this one) and use starter -- I think the yogurt 'gels' better with a starter instead of using some plain yogurt from the grocery store.

I wrote a little bit about my adventures in yogurt making too.
V

[dogmom327]

Yogurt is quite easy to make at home and generally about half the cost of buying yogurt (varies though depending on where you live, sales, etc.).

I do agree with PP that making kefir is even easier. Buying kefir grains once will allow you to make kefir generally every 18-48 hours depending on the temperature in your house.

There are several types of yogurt starter out there. There are limited use starters which you buy in packets (using yogurt from the store as a starter culture falls into this category too). You can use them to make yogurt sometimes just once but generally a handful of times before they have to be replaced. There are also traditional yogurt starters which perpetuate indefinitely by simply taking a small amount of yogurt from your current batch and using it to innoculate the next batch. Yogurt cultures manufactured in a lab just don't have quite the lifespan a traditional/natural yogurt starter does (like what our great grandmothers would have used).

There are also different types of yogurt cultures:
--Mesophilic (low temperature) and thermophilic (heat loving). If you use a mesophilic yogurt starter (the main varieties are Viili, Filmjolk, Matsoni and Piima--they are all reusable/traditional yogurt starters), you don't need a heat source to make yogurt, just add the starter from the fridge to the cold milk, stir, cover and leave it to culture at room temperature (generally 70-78 degrees) for 12-18 hours. These yogurts do tend to be less thick than yogurts made with heat but they are very easy to make. --Thermophilic cultures require a heat source such as a yogurt maker, crock pot or any of the other methods you hear about people using--just need to keep the yogurt at 110 degrees for 4-12 hours.

Probably more than you wanted to know Ultimately the easiest yogurt making method is the mesophilic cultures but the thermophilic cultures aren't hard to use at all (just need a heat source) and tend to be thicker. The cheapest thing in the long run is either kefir grains or a reusable yogurt starter. If you happen to be getting yogurt through WIC though, you could theoretically be using that as a starter culture (you just have to replace it every few batches but if it's free, that would definitely be the cheapest of all!).