Matt is a foodie and his latest obsession is with Greek yogurt. One serving is low in calories, has no fat, and has a hefty amount of protein. It's a good obsession to have.... but at $1 per 5 oz serving, it's more than a little pricey. (I mean, spending $14 per week on yogurt for just the two of us is ridiculous!)
So I figure if I'm not able to make any money right now, I'm going to do my part to save us money!
Enter my experiments in Kitchen Biology 101.This week I've been doing a lot of research on how to make yogurt at home. I found the process is actually very simple: you heat milk up to "unravel the proteins," cool it down a bit, mix in some "starter" (existing yogurt with live and active cultures), keep it in a cozy place for 12+ hours to incubate, and voila! you have yogurt!
After looking through pages of recipes, methods, ideas, etc. on how to make yogurt, I decided to try the following two procedures:
http://www.salad-in-a-jar.com/skinny-secrets/healthy-homemade-greek-yogurthttp://recipes.suite101.com/article.cfm/make-a-simple-homemade-sour-cream-substituteAt first,
the whole process was counterintuitive to my Type-A-keep-everything-in-the-kitchen-sterile tendencies as I let my refrigerated food sit out on the counter all day to breed bacteria, but the end results were wonderful. I have not tasted yogurt so wonderful in all my life!
And--here's the truly great thing: it cost me $1.50 to make 40 oz of Greek yogurt!!! (So an entire week's worth of yogurt now costs us $3 instead of $14!)
For a couple of dairy enthusiasts, it makes sense, and I am now inspired to continue making other milk-based products at home like sour cream, cottage cheese, and the delicious, soft, white "farmers cheese" that my grandma made for us as kids. From there, I think I may start baking bread and getting into canning and making my own preserves! (I think I need to make a pilgrimage to grandma's house and get a lesson or two soon!)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
For those of you who are interested in making your own, this is the process I used:
Ingredients:
- 2 quarts (8 cups or 1/2 gallon) of skim milk
- 1/2 cup nonfat instant/dry milk
- 1, 5 oz. container of plain yogurt with live and active cultures (can be store-bought or homemade)
Supplies: 
- Large container to heat milk in: a large saucepan for heating on the stove or a large glass bowl for heating in the microwave
- Crock pot with removable ceramic crock
- Candy thermometer
- Strainer or colander
- A medium sized bowl that the strainer can easily sit on without touching the bottom of the bowl
- Coffee filters and paper towels
Directions:
1. Heat the milk until it reaches 175-180 degrees (F): Both methods require stirring to make sure the milk is heating evenly and that no skin forms on top of the milk, both methods take about the same amount of time so it's totally up to you as far as your preference. You want the milk to bubble slightly around the edges, but not boil!
2. Once the milk is heated, remove crock from the crock pot and pour scalding milk into the crock to begin cooling down to 110-120 degrees. I found that the cooling process takes about 15 minutes or so and since I don't have a fancy thermometer like the "Salad in a Jar" lady, I had to babysit it to make sure it didn't drop below 110 (because if the milk gets cooler than that, it will be hard for the bacteria to incubate properly and you will end up with warmish milk instead of yogurt).
3. Plug in shell of crock pot and place on the "Low" setting while the milk cools. This will help keep the crock and milk nice and cozy through incubation.
4. Once the milk cools to between 110 and 120 degrees, add the dry milk and "starter." Mix well. Adding the starter too soon or too late can mess up the process so make sure the temperature is right in this range. Like I said earlier, if it is too cool, the bacteria won't incubate well and if it is too hot, the heat will kill the bacteria and keep them from multiplying.
5. Turn off the crock pot and place the crock back into the shell. Grow bacteria, grow!
6. Cover the milk and let sit for 12+ hours. I also placed a small hand towel over the crock pot's lid just to give it a little more insulation. Also, with the crock pot method, I found that I had to kick on the heat for a minute (two maximum!) to give the crock a little added boost of warmth halfway through the process.
7. Line strainer with paper towels and coffee filters and set the strainer on top of the medium-sized bowl.
8. Scoop the yogurt into the lined strainer and set in the fridge until the desired amount of whey has drained out. This part of the process takes a few hours and depends on how thick you want your yogurt. If the consistency of the yogurt pleases you as-is, feel free to skip this step!
9. Scoop the yogurt out of the strainer and put into seal-able containers in the refrigerator. Make sure you don't get paper in the yogurt here--it wasn't a problem for me, but apparently it's been a problem for some. Personally, I found this method to be easy to clean up, as opposed to doing it with cloths or towels, and a whole lot cheaper than buying some specialized strainer as one of the blogs suggests.
10. Add flavorings if desired. I bought a bottle of Torani Sugar-Free Vanilla Syrup for $4 at Walmart and a teaspoon or two adds a wonderful flavor to my daily serving. Matt likes to add a little honey and a few frozen blueberries to his. But the options are virtually endless!
Yield: 8+, 5 oz servings
