Making Yogurt

With Spokane Family Farms milk!

 What you need:
1 gallon of milk (I recommend Spokane family farms!)
1 -  6 oz container of plain yogurt with live active cultures (I like Zoi greek yogurt)

whisk (small enough to fit into your container of yogurt, but big enough to whisk a gallon of milk)
ladle (like for punch or soup)
funnel (like you use when you can and are putting liquid into a canning jar)
Canning jars (enough to fit 1 gallon of milk = 16 cups) and a few extra in case one breaks.
 lids for the canning jars (don't have to be new, you don't need them to seal. I like to use old lids)
rings for those lids
 large pan that will hold a gallon of milk easily
medium size pan to boil and sanitize tools
hand towel
cooler that can easily fit your filled canning jars
Thermometer


First you shake the jug really well.  This milk is non-homogenized. What that means is that it is in the same form that it came out of the cow in. Fat and all.  This farm uses a cow that produces a milk that has a milkfat of about 3.5%.

OK, so back to the milk. After shaking really well I put it in a pitcher and let it sit for a few hours if I'm in a hurry or overnight if I'm not.  This allows the cream to rise to the top.

I skim the cream off the top and put it into a separate container and put it back into the fridge for another fun project for another day when I've got a little more cream (cultured butter and buttermilk!)



(If you use regular store milk, skip the above steps :) )

Get out a clean pan that can easily hold 1 gallon of milk.  Add the rest of the milk (without the cream) to this pan.

Bring it to 180 degrees (did I mention you need a thermometer? Cause you do)

While the milk is coming to 180 degrees you need to do a couple other things.

Turn on your oven to 350 degrees.  Get out a cookie sheet  and put your clean canning jars on it.  Your canning jars need to bake for 20 minutes at this temp.  This will sanitize them.

Start a pan of boiling water. This is to sanitize your tools. You will need to add your whisk, funnel, ladle, and lids (not rings)

Boil your tools for at least 5 minutes, maybe more.  This will sanitize them.

Why is it so important to sanitize? Because you are going to inoculate your milk with live active cultures.  Do you want to chance introducing other strains of wild cultures from other parts of your kitchen?  Also, I always use my homemade yogurt as a starter for my next batch of yogurt.  Its cheaper and works just as well. So I try to keep everything extra clean to ensure my family is safe.

Anyway its time to check your yogurt.  Is it at 180 degrees yet?  Just a side note.  I have let it get over 180 degrees a couple of times now.  It doesn't affect the yogurt. Its just unnecessary.  And it lessens your yogurt product through evaporation.

Also, why 180 degrees? 2 reasons.
1. this sanitizes the milk
2. this change the milk protein in a way that helps it become yogurt. 


Once your yogurt is up to temp, put the pan in a sink of cool water.  I usually fill it up to about the same level of the milk.  Make sure not to get anything into your pan of milk!

You need to cool your milk to 110 degrees before you can add your yogurt cultures.  To hot and you can kill your cultures and you would have to do this all over again!

Once the jars are done in the oven you will want to get them out asap.  They need to start cooling, and this takes a while.  Don't try dipping them in cool water to cool them.  I tried this one day and it sort of worked.  Another time I tried it and the jars were to hot and I broke several jars this way.  Don't do it if you value your jars.

Now would it be a big deal if you got called away or busy and the milk went way below 110?  Maybe. I've had this happen and just popped it back onto the stove and got it back to 110.

OK, so the jars are cool, the milk is at 110 degrees, and your tools have boiled for at least 5 minutes right?

Now you need to get out your yogurt cultures and your whisk and your ladle.

Use your ladle to scoop some milt into your yogurt.  Use your whisk to loosen up and liquify the yogurt.  This makes it easier, trust me. No lumps to chase down in a large gallon of milk.  Ask me how I know.

Add the yogurt to the milk and whisk well. About 30 seconds.

Now ladle the inoculated milk into your clean jars using your funnel.

Once you are done, put the lids and rings on the jars as tight as you are able.

Get your cooler and make sure your bottles all fit.

Add water to the cooler. You want the milk to stay around 110 degrees, so try and get that temp of water into the cooler.  I usually fill the cooler to the neck of the bottle.  That way I don't chance water leaking into the bottles.

Keep the bottles in the cooler for 4-8 hours.  When the yogurt is thick (I usually tilt it to see if its one large blob or still liquid) it is done and can be put into the refrigerator.

The longer you let it sit in the cooler (even after its thick) the tangier it is.  So its no big deal if you forget about it, or if you want to go to bed and take it out in the morning.

And now you are done!

How do you enjoy this delicious treat?  Just add fruit and granola and you are in heaven.  My husband likes fresh fruit cut up and pumpkin flax seed granola from Costco.  I like the same granola but with dried cherries and blueberries on it (Who had time to chop fruit?).  My kids like it when I add a little cherry flavoring and some sugar. They also like almond flavoring.

If my instructions are to wordy, there are many other how to's online.  But the basic steps are get your milk up to 180, cool it to 110, whisk in your yogurt with cultures, and keep at a temp of 110 for 4-8 hours.