Best homemade yogurt recipe?

[Lilyfae]

Is this best here or in cooking?

Anyway have snaffled my mums yoghurt maker as it's sat redundant in her cupboard since I moved out now I can't remember how to make it nice

Any good mixes- regular milk/UHT, whole/ semi- skimmed, milk/custard powder or not etc

I like Greek style yoghurt btw

Thanks in advance to any ideas!

[Odsox]

I make yoghurt on a fairly regular basis, only "fairly regular" because I make mine in the chicken egg incubator and it's in use at the moment for it's proper job.
Anyway, I found that a litre of whole milk with about 4 really heaped teaspoonfuls of coffee mate makes a wonderful creamy yoghurt.

[Green Aura]

Greek yoghurt is just ordinary yoghurt that's partially drained to make it thicker so if you find a recipe you like just leave it draining through a teatowel for a couple of hours.

I use whole milk too - made up to a pint with a carton of live yoghurt - I think. We've not made any for a while and I can never remember what those little jars hold. Warm the milk to blood heat (when you can't tell if it's hot or cold with your finger), whisk in the yoghurt and bung it in the jars overnight. Stick the little lids on and bung it in the fridge, if you're not going to strain it.

[Lilyfae]

Thanks for the ideas, whole milk it is then

I must sound very thick but what do you mean by a carton? ( ie 'petit filou'' or 'ski' size pot or bigger? I've got a big pot of natural yoghurt in fridge)

And how do I strain enough to make Greek style but not 'cheese'?

[okra]

Yoghurt is easy make at home. All you need is a good quality wide mouthed vacuum flask, or several, which will allow the temperature of the milk to be maintained until the culture sets.

To make yoghurt you can use goat, sheep, cow's milk or even soya milk. You will also need a good quality unflavoured organic yoghurt as a starter which should be allowed to warm-up to room temperature before use.

Heat sufficient milk to fill your vacuum flask, or flasks, to blood temperature which is around 37c. Then stir in two tablespoons of yoghurt for every litre of milk and mix thoroughly. At this stage you can add fruit or nuts if desired.

Pour your mixture into the vacuum flask, replace the lid and store somewhere warm for 1 to 2 days until your yoghurt sets. Once set store in a fridge and use within a week. Use a new starter yoghurt every third batch.

[jampot]

i use my car to incubate yoghurt, heat the milk to blood heat whisk in a small tub of yoghurt put it in a jar or tupperware and leave in the back seat of car ( which is always parked in full sun ) overnight , it holds the heat just long enough for the yog to do its thing.

[julie_lanteri]

I've been making "actimel" (aka runny yogurt) I guess it's because I can't think of a way to keep it to the right t° for long enough. I don't really fancy buying a yogurt maker just to serve as incubator. Any other ideas?
radiators: good in winter, not so much the rest of the year
flasks: would need to buy one as i hate the plastic smell... a lot of people seems to be doing it like that
jampot, I'd never heard of the car in the sun idea... :)

[Odsox]

Basically anywhere that's warm Julie, like an airing cupboard or anything that's switched on all the time, a Sky box is pretty warm if you have one. I have a fish tank that has a warm spot on the lid which I use to thaw out frozen yeast.
Failing that make it during the day instead of overnight, on a sunny windowsill for instance.

[Lilyfae]

Well I made yoghurt & strained it for two hours so I now have lovely Greek Style yoghurt

Thank-you!!

[Green Aura]

[julie_lanteri]

well done Lilyfae!
thanks Tony for the tips, I'll try again this week

[Thomzo]

Well I made yoghurt & strained it for two hours so I now have lovely Greek Style yoghurt

Thank-you!!

Excellent, I must try that the next time I have spare milk.

I hope you didn't throw the liquid away. Feed it to the cat or freeze it to use instead of the water/milk when making cakes, bread, milky puddings, mashed spuds.

Zoe

[Lilyfae]

Well I made yoghurt & strained it for two hours so I now have lovely Greek Style yoghurt

Thank-you!!

Excellent, I must try that the next time I have spare milk.

I hope you didn't throw the liquid away. Feed it to the cat or freeze it to use instead of the water/milk when making cakes, bread, milky puddings, mashed spuds.

Zoe

Pants! Didn't know that, will freeze it next time! Thanks for the tip.

[julie_lanteri]

I made yogurt too! the real suff, not the "actimel"! ok, I need to confess... I tried on the windowsill FAIL, I tried on top of the internet modem SUCCESS-ish and then, on ebay, appears an easiyo thingy 10min away. I'd never looked into it as there's no way I'm making my own yogurt from a magic powder (or whatever else they say it is) but someone on here mentioned using it as an incubator. So £4.22 later, I have a energy efficient yogurt incubator! UHT milk (room temp) and live yogurt in the pot, boiling water in the bottom of the thing, pot on top, lid on, wait 8h, open, put in fridge. a miracle... (am I a tad bit too excited about this? :p )

[Lilyfae]

I made yogurt too! the real suff, not the "actimel"! ok, I need to confess... I tried on the windowsill FAIL, I tried on top of the internet modem SUCCESS-ish and then, on ebay, appears an easiyo thingy 10min away. I'd never looked into it as there's no way I'm making my own yogurt from a magic powder (or whatever else they say it is) but someone on here mentioned using it as an incubator. So £4.22 later, I have a energy efficient yogurt incubator! UHT milk (room temp) and live yogurt in the pot, boiling water in the bottom of the thing, pot on top, lid on, wait 8h, open, put in fridge. a miracle... (am I a tad bit too excited about this? :p )

Well done!!

We had a disaster when hubby didn't realise costcutter had a broken fridge and all the milks had gone funny