Pueblog USa
Monday, February 09, 2009
Making It Cheaper & Better — Yogurt
Tired of paying too much for good yogurt?
What’s yogurt cost, anyway?
I seem to recall that a 6 oz. bottlette of some flavored yogurt cost around $.79. And I thought it had too much sugar in it. [Note: I avoid artificial sweeteners like the plague. Last time I tried something with that stuff in it, I saw stars.]
Then, if you’re interested in Middle Eastern and Indian cooking, you need plain yogurt. But if you buy the quart-sized container, it can go ‘south’ on you before you use it all up. And there is undesirable waste.
What’s a body to do?
Try making it yourself…..
I’ve found it’s almost the easiest thing in the world to do to make your own yogurt. It tastes better. There is no chance of artificial this-that-and-the-other in it, unless you do it to yourself. It’s cheaper than buying it at the grocery. And, you can package it in the sizes you desire to eliminate loss due to spoilage.
As for cost. You get milk by the gallon at Sam’s for about $2.50. That’s 21 6-oz bottlettes. At $.79 each, that’s $16 for a gallon of yogurt at the store.
Why spend so much? Make it yourself and drop in a dollop of your favorite fruit preserves. Or crushed pineapple and shredded coconut for a pina coloda. Or granola. You get greater flexibility.
And, as I stated:
• The flavor is better.
• You know there is nothing in there that YOU didn’t put in.
• You can avoid wasteful spoilage.
The REAL pleasure is that it takes no real trouble at all.
Here’s what you need….
• Buy a gallon of milk. I recommend the whole milk, but you can get what you please.
• Get a 6-oz package of plain yogurt with active pro-biotic bacteria in it. Look for the term on the package.
• Get a 1.25 gallon stainless steel pot. Or a microwaveable container, if you use a microwave.
• A quick-reaction thermometer to test the milk for proper temperature.
• Containers to hold the yogurt. [Note: I use 4 wide-mouth quart-sized tempered glass ‘mason’ jars, with lids and rings. And two pint-sized glass mason jars with lids and rings.]
• A plastic picnic ‘cooler’.
• Some plastic juice containers. [Note: I use two each RubberMaid 2-quart containers.]
Here’s what you do….
[1] Thoroughly clean all the pots and containers and lids and such with soap and VERY hot water. This is to prevent adverse bacteria and mold from getting into the yogurt. [Note: I use my dishwasher on sani-rinse cycle. I leave the containers in there until I’m going to use them.]
[2] Pour the milk into the 1.25 gallon container.
[3] Put the milk to heating on your range or in your microwave.
[4] Bring the milk up to a temperature of between 170 and 180°F. This will kill any remaining lacto-bacillus or other undesirable bacteria or molds. [Note: I use my carousel microwave at 50% power for 60 minutes.] Try not to let the milk boil. This makes the protein that the good bacteria use unusable for them.
[5] Allow the milk to cool down to between 105 and 110°F. This is the temperature that the pro-biotic bacteria in yogurt work best at. [Note: This will take about 4 hours, once you take the milk off the heat and allow it to stand at room temperature.
[6] Once the milk is at the proper temperature, as stated in step 5 (above), add the yogurt and mix it thoroughly into the sterilized milk.
[7] Pour the milk-yogurt mixture into your containers and put the lids on them, but not too tightly. Slightly loose in order to allow the gas generated by the fermentation to escape. Otherwise the containers make explode from internal overpressure.
[8] Put the milk-yogurt filled containers into your ‘cooler’.
[9] Fill you juice containers with hot water.
[10] Place the hot water filled containers into the ‘cooler’ and seal the lid of the ‘cooler’. Your ‘cooler’ is now an incubator that will provide an excellent environment for the pro-biotic bacteria in the yogurt to make your milk into MORE yogurt.
[11] Somewhere between 6 and 12 hours—depending on the viability of the pro-biotic bacteria in your store-bought yogurt—your milk-yogurt will be good plain yogurt. There may be some fluid floating on the top, but that natural dairy whey. More good stuff for you.
The yogurt should keep for weeks in the unopened containers, if you practiced good sterilization procedures.
I store my two pint-sized jars of yogurt in the freezer to inoculate the next batch of yogurt I make. And as my yogurt bacteria are more active than that from the store, my yogurt sets up faster.
Things to do with your yogurt….
These are obvious.
• Breakfast with fruits, granola, etc., etc., etc. We’ve put a lazy susan on the table with dishes of this and that for adding to the yogurt at breakfast.
• Make your own frozen yogurt ice cream, adding whatever flavorings you want.
• Indian and Middle Eastern dipping sauces.
• Additions to cooking where sour cream might be called for.
The key factors are all in your imagination.
Again, the most interesting factor in all of this is that it costs so little compared to what you pay at the store for this excellent food.
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