Yogurt.

I've been curious about making yogurt. I keep seeing yogurt making kits in the multitude of plant catalogs I've been receiving. They usually start around $50 or so. As much as I'd like to buy one of those devices, I really have no room for it.

So one night of particularly bad insomnia (I managed to pick a fight with the husband over rustling blankets- he ended up sleeping on the sofa and I ended up on the computer searching the web in angst) when I somehow stumbled onto a wonderful guide to making yogurt in a crock pot.

I was geared to make some serious yogurt (a gallon of milk's worth) but I ended up bringing home ultra-pasteurized milk. Don't do that! Thankfully, my husband (we're on good terms now!) was a sweetheart and brought me home my own gallon of 1% pasteurized milk. And thus, the process began.

I'll spare you the gory details, but here's a summary.

Heat milk to about 180F (but don't boil it).
Drop the temperature of the milk to about 115F (I turned off my crockpot at this point and just watched the temperature closely).
Mix in 1/2 cup of live culture yogurt per 1/2 gallon of milk.
Wrap it with a towel and leave it alone for 7 hours.

This is what I woke up to:


It is a little on the runny side. I'll be straining this through cheesecloth to get a thicker yogurt.


My breakfast: Freshly made yogurt, a touch of maple syrup with a sliced banana and a little homemade granola. It was incredible. I'm going back for seconds.

Want to make your own yogurt? Here are three sites that helped me greatly in this process: A Year of Slow Cooking, Our Life Simplified and Macheesmo.

This was so easy that I think I'll make it a regular thing- the flavor is remarkable. Easily the best yogurt I've ever eaten (I know this sounds conceited- but try it, you'll see!). We eat about $50 a month in yogurt, and we do whatever we can to eat organic. So I know this will be saving us a lot of money.

****EDITED TO ADD FUTURE PLANS****

Okay, so I wrote this before I was awake, so I thought it'd be prudent to add some things.

For my next batch of yogurt, I'll be heating the milk on the stove. Why? Well, heating the milk in the crock pot takes a reeeally long time, and I am a constant worrier. So the whole 3 1/2 hours it took to get up to 180F, I was taking the temperature every 15 or so minutes to make sure I wasn't ruining the milk by overheating it.

This is what I'll do:

1. Add water to crock pot. Turn it on high. Let it heat up.
2. When water is about 180 degrees and I'm ready, I'll heat the milk up on the stove at my convenience.
3. Dump out water, pour milk into the crock pot. Proceed as usual.
   

That's my plan and I'm sticking to it.

Bonus Round- Haiku!

tasty delicious
yogurt from my slow cooker
makes store yogurt cry