Fermenting -Part 1: Homemade Yogurt

I have come to the conclusion, that after many months/year of researching homemade yogurt techniques and recipes, that they are pretty much all the same. Some are super technical and strictly to the book and other recipes are just throwing stuff together and waiting for the natural fermentation process.

I do not own a yogurt maker, and quite frankly, glad I don't. I've made runny yogurt and the super thick shit -both massively tasty and always just right. All are relatively easy once you've got the basics down and I hope my clumsy tutorial helps.

milk, raw milk yogurt starter, quart jars

~non reactive pot -enamel cast iron dutch oven, stainless pot

~food themometer -

~wooden spoon/high heat spatula -I've used both

~2 quart jars with lids-sterilized and prepped

~1/2 gallon milk -I've used everything from 2% to raw, unpasturized whole milk

~yogurt starter -my fave is a plain greek yogurt starter or some leftover yogurt from thelast batch

~dry milk powder -

milk -in this case I used whole raw jersey milk

1. Pour milk into pot and bring to a steady boil. Add powdered milk sometime during this process, I usually do around 160-170*F. I've read it helps thicken it up. Milk should be warmed to 180*F. Turn on oven to 350*F for one minute, turn off and turn on oven light -it shouldn't be 350*F, but more like 100* or less. I like to put the jars of yogurt in the oven for a bit and then move them to a cooler for the night or afternoon.

milk, slowly brought to 180*f

2. Immediately move pot to a sink filled with ice cold water(add ice if needed). Cool milk to 110*F. Drain sink. Pull out a cup or so of the heated milk and stir in the yogurt until dissolved. Approximately 2tbsp. of yogurt starter per 1/2 gallon of milk. Then add milk/yogurt mixture to heated milk and stir to completely mix in the yogurt mixture.

sorry that I don't pictures of this process for some reason

3. Pour your yogurt into the sterilized jars and screw on sterilized lids.

4. Put your jars of yogurt in the oven and cover with a towel. An hour or so later I usually put them in a cooler with the jars wrapped in many towels for 6-8 hours (really, this can be anywhere from 4-24 hours depending on your taste).

5. Pull the jars from the oven/cooler, and take a peek to make sure they have thickened up a bit. Put in the refrigerator for overnight or 8-10 hours, this will help thicken up even more.

6. DONE!

finished product! Your own yogurt

We love to add a bit of sugar (shh...yes, white sugar), brown sugar, honey, granola, jam, or fruit to ours. Yogurt is great for breakfast, lunch, or dinner and the health benefits have been lauded world wide.

For more information on the benefits of making your own yogurt check out this article on Motherearthnews.com or some of the other books I used for reference over time are listed below.

Look for part 2 of fermenting on Homegrown.org in the next couple of days

Cheers!

The Urban Homestead by Kelly Coyne & Erik Knutzen

Reader's Digest Back to Basics

The Backyard Homestead by Carleen Madigan

More-With-Less by Doris Janzen Longacre

Yogurt, Pancakes, & Buttermilk oh my!

I made yogurt! And it's actually good! The girls have mentioned a couple of times they wanted yogurt. Funny thing is, when I buy yogurt they either don't like it or it doesn't get eaten before the expiration date. I like plain yogurt, okay vanilla too, but I like to add stuff to it and the stuff you buy at the store is either too sweet, has too much old fruit in it, or it's too sour. So, I decided to do some research to see how I could make yogurt without a yogurt maker.

I finally decided to try this recipe. It was a very easy process -although I wanted to add some sugar and vanilla to the batch, I'm glad I didn't- and my son got to help. This morning when we opened the jar to have some it was the best plain yogurt I have ever had. Nothing in the stores compares. It is definitely one that we are going to keep. We are going to tweak it a bit next time, as I would like a thicker product. I made a half batch and I may have been off a bit in my measurements.

Next time I make it I will photograph the process and share the recipe with my tweaks.

Of course we made pancakes this last week and with homemade buttermilk too! I've raved of these pancakes before and now I'm going to share with you the recipe. I've shared before how much I enjoy Happy's recipe I make her recipe and the only exception is I've been using unbleached flour. I did discover with our homemade buttermilk I need to use a little bit more buttermilk (really just a couple of tablespoons)because of the thickness of the batter. It is a thick batter on its own but add in our buttermilk and it's almost a dough :)

Fluffy Whole Wheat Pancakes

Ingredients
3 cups buttermilk *homemade buttermilk recipe to follow
4 eggs
1/2 cup butter, melted
1/2 cup white sugar
1 tablespoon and 1 teaspoon baking powder
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons salt
4 cups whole wheat flour *or in our case just flour

Mix all the liquid ingredients, beat for one minute on high. Mix in sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Slowly mix in flour until batter is smooth but thick.
Cook on a hot (350 degree) buttered griddle.
Making your own buttermilk is incredibly easy, you just have to be patient. I could have sworn that I took pictures, but I can't find them. So, I will have to share those at a later time. The recipe, as mentioned, is so easy.

Homemade buttermilk

3 cups milk
1 cup buttermilk starter (any buttermilk)

Pour it directly into a clean quart size jar, mix well. Put the lid on. Wrap it in a kitchen towel and place in a warm place, undisturbed for 24 hours. *I put mine in the oven with the light on overnight, but it was on the counter before that* After the 24 hrs is up, shake it up, and open to make sure it has thickened up and smells sweet. Perfect! Just put it in the fridge, it will thicken more once it's in the fridge. You've made buttermilk and now you can go enjoy your pancakes. If you save a cup of this buttermilk, you'll have a starter for next batch and you'll never run out of buttermilk and all the land will be happy because they can have pancakes and buttermilk whenever they want.