HOMEMADE YOGURT
"MY WAY"
11/12/2019

First---don't buy a yogurt maker or a yogurt machine, ya don't need it.

HOW MILK FAT CONTENT AFFECTS HOMEMADE YOGURT

Yogurt made with reduced-fat milk will be thinner than yogurt made with whole milk or half and half. Commercially available low-fat yogurts include additives and stabilizers to make them unnaturally thick, or they have been drained of whey to make a thicker product. This is one reason you can't pronounce everything on the label.

Gravity is what pulls the whey out of the yogurt sponge but there needs to be a place for the liquid to go to.
This is the purpose of syphoning the whey from the strainer every few hours.

Lets Git Started

Ingreedients:
1 Gallon of half and half milk
3/4 Cup Splenda (Not necessary)
5-8 Oz of plain yogurt with live culture.
After the 1st batch save 1 cup of the whey for your starter, you no longer need the yogurt for a starter

I start with 1 gallon of half and half milk poured into a stainless steel kettle. Whisk in the plain yogurt or the whey and the Splenda (oppitional) . I set it on the large burner of my electric range with the control set on 6 or a little below. This may vary from stove to stove. I heat the milk to 112º - 115º, this will take approximately 30 minutes. The milk is already pasturized. Don't let it scorch on the bottom of the pan.

Then I put a lid on the pan and move it to an electric heating pad set on high, cover it with a large folded bath towel and leave it alone for 24 hours at 110 - 125 degrees to grow bacteria which makes the yogurt.
Now don't disturb it, don't stir it let it set still until after it has cooled.

After 24 hours on the heating pad I move it off the heating pad to let it cool to about room temp. then put in the referigerater to finish cooling. Then I put a coffee filter on top of the yogurt and push it down to the bottom of the pan with the home made strainer for the whey to drain into. This is done with gravity. If you try this before the yogurt is cool the filter and the strainer will try to float back up. Now every few hours I use a turkey baster to syphen whey from the strainer and save 1/2 to 1 cup as a starter for the next batch of yogurt. I end up removing about 2-3 cups of whey. I drink the whey and also use it in recipies like biscuits or cornbread. I like to mix it half and half with Crystallite lemonaid.

Now the nice thick yogurt you have has nothing in it but milk and you can pronounce everything that is in it. Don't forget to remove the coffee filter from the yogurt.

I have experimented with different favors to add to it like lemon extract, vanilla extract, etc but anymore I like it just sweetened with the Splenda. To flavor it add 1/4 cup of whatever flavoring to it but first just get experience making it plain.

Lactobacillus delbrueckii subsp. bulgaricus and Streptococcus thermophilus bacteria.

EQUIPMENT NEEDED
TO MAKE YOGURT FROM 1 GALLON OF MILK

1 A 5 OR 6 quart heavy bottom stainless steel kettle
2 A thermometer
3 A heating pad and a bath towel to cover it
4 A turkey baster to siphon the whey off with.
5 A cylinder that can stand inside the pan when the lid is on the pan. I use a piece of PVC pipe.