Homemade Yogurt – It’s Easy (Update)
UPDATE:If you are using raw milk, you can adjust the recipe as follows: Heat the milk long enough to get it quite warm but not hot, 100 to 110 degrees, then turn off crockpot. In our crock that’s about two hours on low. Add yogurt starter, then cover and let sit overnight. We do it this way now because we found out accidentally that the original recipe was getting the milk too hot and essentially pasteurizing (killing) our lovely, living milk.
Megan Ryan’s Voice – I just made yogurt for the first time, and boy it is EASY! Most of the recipes I looked up online were rather daunting and complicated looking, but this recipe for yogurt in the crockpot was easy and fabulous! The only change I made was I used organic raw milk, heat it to ONLY 105 degrees, and instead of using a cheesecloth or coffee filters to strain the yogurt I used Crunchy Catholic Momma’s idea of making your own reusable straining cloth. The yogurt is delicious and SO much cheaper to make it yourself – not to mention how much healthier than the organic, store-bought, pasteurized junk. The final yield was 32 ounces of thick greek style yogurt, and 32 ounces of leftover whey. I use the leftover probiotic whey for making oatmeal, pancakes, muffins, smoothies, or just mix in some honey and slurp it up with a straw! With so many uses, why let it waste a-whey? <guffaw> 
Liam Marcus’ Voice- Wow! This yogurts beats them all, even itself. No, wait, that doesn’t make much sense. It is ridonculously delicious, though. What I love about it the most is that it has a recyclable feature – ‘da whey! Finally, a food that gives back in more than one “whey”. 
Responses to “Homemade Yogurt – It’s Easy (Update)”
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Visit Alien Country
We all wonder many times over… WHY?
Sometimes we wonder, “What did I do to deserve this?” or “Why did God have to do this to me?” Here is a wonderful explanation! A daughter is telling her Mother how everything is going wrong, she’s failing algebra, her boyfriend broke up with her and her best friend is moving away.
Meanwhile, her Mother is baking a cake and asks her daughter if she would like a snack, and the daughter says, “Absolutely Mom, I love your cake.”
“Here, have some cooking oil,” her Mother offers.
“Yuck” says her daughter.
“How about a couple raw eggs?” “Gross, Mom!”
“Would you like some flour then? Or maybe baking soda?”
“Mom, those are all yucky!”
To which the mother replies: “Yes, all those things seem bad all by themselves. But when they are put together in the right way, they make a wonderfully delicious cake! ”
God works the same way. Many times we wonder why He would let us go through such bad and difficult times. But God knows that when He puts these things all in His order, they always work for good! We just have to trust Him and, eventually, they will all make something wonderful!
God is crazy about you. He sends you flowers every spring and a sunrise every morning. Every heartbeat is a gift of love from God to you.
Whenever you want to talk, He’ll listen. He can live anywhere in the universe, and He chose your heart. And, He likes your yogurt just because you made it.
Just thinking outside the box… I wonder if your leftover whey could be used for growing mushrooms.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yGWjZXDstbc
Here is a site regarding the value of mushrooms.
http://www.mushroom-appreciation.com/nutritional-value-of-mushrooms.html
That was so cool! Thanks!
We’ll remember this story for when the Teenagers complain!
Well, it is easy and cheap but getting it from between your toes can be taxing.
Oh, that is making wine… sorry about that.
I tried making the crockpot yogurt with the modifications you listed above for raw milk, but I don’t think it turned out. I heated it to 105 F, then added 4 oz plain organic Greek yogurt plus a tablespoon of organic gelatin powder, whisked them together with a couple of cups of the warm milk in a bowl and then added them back to the 2 quarts of warm milk, unplugged the crockpot, covered it with a big towel and left overnight.
This morning, the top looked a little like it had set but it was still a pretty runny mixture, so I poured it into a colander with a coffee filter in it and let it sit most of the day, but now it just looks clumpy…about 1.5 cups of whey have filtered through, but there’s a layer of whey on top and the rest is kind of blobby. What did I do wrong?
It was whole, raw milk…
It sounds like you are just fine! The “clumpy/blobby” stuff will smooth out with a little stirring, transferring it to your storage containers,mixing in your honey, fruits, etc. The layer of whey on top of the yogurt in the colander may be due to the extremely slow draining caused by the coffee filter. I use a homemade cheesecloth (a square of leftover sheer curtain fabric) and this allows the whey to drain a bit faster. It only takes a few hours to drain an entire gallon of yogurt/whey, and that’s if I get busy around the house and forget to stir it around a bit. Also, I don’t find it necessary to use gelatin powder. I merely allow it to drain more or less depending on how thick I want it. In fact, life was so hectic this week that I couldn’t find the time to strain it. So I just dumped it all into containers and we drank our yogurt with a straw!
Wow, that was a fast reply! Thanks!
What I was trying to accomplish with the gelatin was twofold — 1. I was hoping to avoid having to strain it and 2. I working on some digestive issues and I understand gelatin is very healing, so I thought it would be an added bonus.
I bought a cheesecloth and am restraining it now — that will probably help:-). Do you think if I added more gelatin to the starter/warm milk that the entire product would get thicker or am I just barking up the wrong tree with that approach?
Sharon
Another quick question: I’m trying to follow a GAPS/SCD type diet and both call for fermenting yogurt a full 24 hrs to eat up all the lactose. Any suggestions as to how to do that using the crockpot technique?
Sharon
Refer to this article (http://www.thehealthyhomeeconomist.com/the-crucial-reason-you-need-more-gelatin-in-your-diet/) for some good info on gelatin, especially if you read the comments. Unfortunately I’m not familiar with how adding gelatin to avoid straining would work.
I’m not as familiar with GAPS as I’d like to be, BUT if you let your raw yogurt sit in the crockpot on the counter for a full 24 hours it will still be just fine. I have been known to get distracted and completely forget about the yogurt!
Technically it will clabber and simply give you a tart tasting yogurt whereas overnight will yield a very mild yogurt. Clabbered yogurt is also thicker, but you’ll still get a couple of cups or more of whey. Read this link (http://www.thehealthyhomeeconomist.com/101-uses-for-soured-raw-milk/) for a good article on clabbered milk.