Home made yogurt

[Angies Man]

My mom made fresh yogurt for many years, I thought I'd post how it's done (I make yogurt for my Std. Poodle puppy)

You can use any live culture yogurt for your starter--if it's got fruit and sugar, it doesn't make any difference, the fruit and sugar are going to get dilutedd anyhow. I use Mountain High Fat Free and I like to use non fat dried milk.

To make a quart of yogurt, bring to a light boil (rolling boil is not necessary) 1 quart of tap water--boiling kills any yeasts, bad bacteria, and evaporates chlorine out of the water. When it's cool enough to touch, pour all but a cup into a clean quart jar (I use cleaned spagetti jars--some are even canning jars.)

Add about 1 1/2 cup dried milk and stir or shake it til it's dissolved. You can use more milk powder if you like. Add a cup of live culture yogurt and stir or shake to get it evenly distributed.

Now the tough part. In the pan you used to boil the water, put the jar (lid loosely closed) and fill the pan with WARM water--no hotter than 120F. Let the jar sit in the warm water--you need to baby sit the water and keep it between about 100 and 120 degrees (110 is optimal) So changing the water occasionally with warm water is necessary. The yogurt culture usually makes the milk solidify in about 3 hours, but it can take up to about 6 hours--this is a good activity for an evening or Saturday afternoon.

The yogurt isn't as silky smooth as the store brand, but it tastes exactly the same--it's nonfat, and you can taste the difference from the powdered milk--all the milky sweetness is gone. It costs about 1/3 the price of the storebought stuff & if you can't find plain yogurt, use any flavored live culture for starter.

Once it's set up like pudding, be sure to keep it refrigerated and tightly covered

With a little sugar, honey, or artificial sweetener and some vanilla or fruit, you have yogurt for yourself.

You can use the last cup of this stuff to start your next batch. My mom would get fresh store bought starter yogurt about every two months.

My 25# puppy gets a large tablespoon full every morning (but separate from her food.)