I have been making homemade yogurt off and on, using a couple of different yogurt makers, for five decades. Mostly off, because good yogurt is readily available, and it was just so much easier to buy it at the store.
Recently, however, I've fallen into a system that works well for me. And all because my Anova Precision Oven, which we bought for other purposes (sous vide, bread baking), makes it easy to hold the milk at a fermenting-comfortable 110 degrees.
This glass jar, which I conveniently had in my cupboard, holds one quart. I fill it with milk, microwave it to 180 degrees, let it cool to 110 degrees, stir in some yogurt from the previous batch, stick it in the 110-degree oven, and forget it for eight hours or so before putting it in the refrigerator. Voilà: delicious, homemade yogurt! It tastes great, even with no added sweeteners or flavorings, but I especially like it with homemade granola, local raw honey, and fresh fruit. Now if only I had a reliable source of raw milk!
I have used the 180/110 degree settings because that's what one recipe I found specified. In the future, I plan to play around with the temperatures, which I understand changes the thickness and acidity of the end product, but I'm very happy with this as it is.
I usually use about a quarter cup of the previous yogurt batch as the starter for the new one. Recipes I've seen recommend anything from a tablespoon to a cup. I may play around with that, too, but a quarter cup works fine, and a cup sure seems excessive. Possibly the larger quantity make the process faster, but eight hours works for me.
I took my initial starter from a tub of Stonyfield Organic plain whole milk yogurt, which has been my favorite for years.
Recently, the Stonyfield yogurt was buy-one-get-one at Publix, the price at which I wouldn't hesitate to snap up a couple of quarts. This time, I wondered: should I grab some, even though I now make my own? Here are my calculations:
Publix prices:
- Publix milk: $4.79/gallon. One quart makes approximately one quart of yogurt.
- Stonyfield plain yogurt: $5.25/quart
- Yoplait plain yogurt: $3.39 (Publix yogurt was just a little less, but I forgot to write it down.)
- Stonyfield plain yogurt, BOGO: $2.63/quart
- Homemade yogurt: approximately $1.20/quart, not taking into account the electricity used, nor the value of my time; it takes very little of either.
Even at BOGO prices, making yogurt at home is a great deal. I'm so happy to have figured this out. It's amazing what a difference finding the right tool or procedure can make!
