it must be some primative instinct..

[red]

... perhaps harking back to stashing food for the winter at the back of the cave or something,

but don't you get an immense satifaction, bottling, freezing and storing food?

I do - just labeled my wine and chutney and put away, next tot he jams and jellies. boxes of fruit and veg (blummin courgettes) nestling in the freezer. good feeling.

[2steps]

yep, feels good knowing there's plenty of good food in the house. I think it's made even better by knowing you made it yourself too

[pskipper]

It's a great feeling, I've been making yoghurt for just over a month now but the pleasure of popping a tub full of thick flavoursome yoghurt into the fridge every week still hasn't paled (not to mention the joy of jars of picked onions everywhere :) )

[baldowrie]

put a yogurt maker on my list for Santa, yes I know you can use a flask but I never got good results from it.

[shiney]

I have some pickles stashed in my cupboard for Christmas pressies. Pickled eggs, shallots, onions and beetroot relish. I have to make some labels and some material discs to put on the lids and voila!

[pskipper]

put a yogurt maker on my list for Santa, yes I know you can use a flask but I never got good results from it.

I've got night storage heaters at home and find that putting my tub of yoghurt on top of one for 24 hours gives fantastic results :)

[red]

oo, we have a rayburn now (not long moved) bet that works well. going to have to try it.

what do you do - mix a pot of natural yogurt with milk? full fat milk?

[pskipper]

Okay, full recipe.

I like quite thick yoghurt, to make it thinner leave out some of the dried milk.

1 litre skimmed milk (or whatever milk you prefer)
4 heaped desert spoons of dried milk (I use T***o value as it disolves well)
1 desert spoon live yoghurt

Dissolve the dried milk in the litre of cold milk and then heat to 88'C (I heat it until the first few bubbles start appearing on the surface) Mix while heating to avoid it sticking to the bottom etc. This re-pastuerises the milk and prevents the yoghurt going manky.

Let the milk cool to 37'C - when the side of the pan feels like body temperature.

Add in the live yoghurt and whisk to make sure it is well mixed.

Place the yoghurt culture in a sealable container (which has been pre-sterilized, I usually fill the container with boiling water while I'm waiting for the milk to cool.

Incubate at around 37'C

Hope this helps, it makes really thick yoghurt. It will be more acid than the shop bought stuff as it doesn't contain all the stabilizers and acidity regulators but tastes a whole lot better!

[Andy Hamilton]

but don't you get an immense satifaction, bottling, freezing and storing food?

Definetley unless your freezer keeps packing up :bandhead:

[Millymollymandy]

I love looking at all my jams and chutneys and pickles as it gives me huge satisfaction - but what I love most is giving them away to friends and family, especially when they say - gosh that was delicious! - then they get more!

[2steps]

all my jars are stored on the top shelf of the larder and I have to admit to looking up there once in a while just to see what I've got