Quick and easy homemade yogurt with no special equipment.

I freaking love yogurt. When I figured out that it was something you could make yourself a few years ago, I was stoked...that is until my mother in law described a lengthy process that involved special equipment and failure. Uh, no thanks. 

As the years have gone on, prices keep going up (can you say $1 a cup for yogurt...eek!) and we seem to be eating even more yogurt than before. So off I went on a new quest for homemade yogurt. There are several methods out there, some using "yogurt makers" some using crocpots, some using lots of pots, temperature taking and timing. None of this sounds fun for me. I hate doing dishes, I have the memory of a goldfish, and I do not own a candy thermometer.

Sometime last year I stumbled upon a website that had the simplest method for making yogurt, made it a few times and promptly forgot where I found the recipe. Its so easy, I remember all the steps and decided to set up a quick tutorial because I cannot for the life of me find that website again. 

One thing I will not do is tell you that you need to use some super special milk from this one rare breed of cow in the Alps that's raised on organic angel tears and free ranged the finest grass in the world and sweetened with local buckwheat honey that's humanely collected. 

Something majorly off-putting about a lot of DIY food item instructions is the constant, obtrusive yuppy d-baggery that is sprinkled super liberally throughout the article. Buy Walmart brand for all I care. Do remember that quality ingredients will yield a quality end-product, but the quality is up to you.

What you will need

1 Gallon of whole milk

1 6oz cup of plain yogurt

4 1-quart containers with lids (these can even be old spaghetti sauce jars)

1 Tablespoon measure

Something to stir with (I like a chopstick, it reaches all the way to the bottom of the jars)

A big pot with a lid

A big cooler

A large towel

Optional~Jar lifter (you could just lift the jars with a towel over your hand if you don't have one)

Yield: 4 quarts. You will have a little milk and a tiny scoop of yogurt left over.

This is it, minus the pot and cooler. Nothing fancy, nothing special, this is all that will get dirty here. Oh yeah, I said it,  no mess to clean up!

This is what turns your gallon of milk into yogurt. 

Pour your milk into your jars. Fill the pot 3/4 of the way up with cold water. THIS IS IMPORTANT!!  Cold milk in cold jars, surrounded by cold water. If you start mixing hot and cold around glass, you're asking for shattered & possibly exploding glass, not fun. Now turn your stove to medium and walk away for a while. It speeds to process to occasionally give the milk a stir with your chopstick. When I see the water kind of simmering I turn up the heat to med-high. Again, don't jack it up immediately, exploding glass is bad.  Walk away again...seriously. It takes about 20-30 min to get to where it needs to be, no need to stare at it (unless thats your thing).

After the water starts going on a light boil, you're going to need to pay attention a bit. Watch the surface of the milk for a skin. I lifted one of the milk skin thingies off so you could see, it's sort of wrinkly and pudding-looking when it's sitting on top. This means it's heated to the appropriate temperature. Honestly, I don't remember why we need to raised the temp this much, but we need to. Google it if you crave the knowledge of hot milk. 

Now (carefully, boiling liquids remember?) remove your jars and put them on a towel on the counter. Away from any breezes or fans, rapid heating or cooling of glass is explodey. Put the lid on your pot of hot water (we're using this in a bit, keep the hot water in it).

Ready for this? Walk away again, for about 30 minutes. We're waiting for the milk to cool off, you can stir the jars up to speed up the process, but you don't have to.  After a half hour goes by, give the jars a little stir and stick your finger in it, seriously. If you can comfortably put your finger in the milk (very warm but not hot) it's ready to add your starter yogurt. At this point, turn your pot of water on high on the stove.

I didn't take a picture of this part because it's literally me using a measuring spoon. Put 2 tablespoons of your plain yogurt into each jar and stir. 

Pop your jars & pot of hot water into the cooler and wrap everything up with a towel to keep all snug and warm. One more time, walk away. Until tomorrow morning. I usually make this around noon-ish and take it out of the cooler at breakfast time the next day.

   

This is what it looks like when you take it out of the cooler. The liquid is cool if you want a more watery yogurt (think smoothies) so you can just give it a good stir and put it in the fridge, or you can drain off the liquid.

                                 

The left is yogurt mixed with the watery stuff, the yogurt on the right is drained off. At this point you can take the yogurt and put it in a strainer lined with cheese cloth to create a thicker Greek-style yogurt.

Remember this is plain yogurt. Some people dig plain yogurt, I do not unless it's going into a smoothie. So add some fruit, honey, vanilla, sugar or whatever and enjoy ^_^