Makin Yogurt!

Yes! I am on yet another tangent!
I have decided to return to days long ago where I was interested in being TOTALLY self sufficient and make as much as I can rather than buy it pre-fabricated.

So boys and girls, today's lesson is Yogurt making 101.
Believe it or not, before I got married I owned goats and made MANY products from their milk.
I made cheese, yogurt and also soap.
My father loved to make bread in his bread machine and so he used to love to use my goats milk.
My goat gave sooooo much milk I could not keep up with her. I guess thats why they call the goat the poor mans cow.



Now, when making milk products you have to keep in mind that milk is extra absorbent of odors as well as flavors. My father used to make me so mad because just as I was making cheese he would decide to boil hot dogs. That really made for some disgusting cheese because it picked up the flavor immediately. Milk can also pick up stinkiness from your fridge so you have to be sure and keep a top on whatever you do. Another important thing is that you need to use only metal or glass utensils. Other than the fact that plastic is bad for you, it is also porous, so whatever you made in it a week ago, lives on forever in it's nooks and crannies.
So, now we are ready to begin.
To start you will need 3.5 cups of milk. If you are using cows milk, you will need to stir in 1/4-1/2 a cup dry/powdered milk(be careful of it's country of origin as you don't want melamine).
Next, bring the milk to a boil. It's most convenient if you put it in the microwave as it is less likely to stick, however, you can also cook it on the stove, but of course you have to bring it slowly to a boil and continuously stir with a whisk. When it starts to rise and head toward boiling over, remove it from the heat immediately and let it cool, still whisking.
After it cools to a temperature of approximately 118-115 degrees (if you don't have a thermometer, test it by sticking your pinky in it. The temperature should be around the same if you were taking a nice hot bath, it shouldn't burn your pinky. Remember, you don't want to kill all of the critters in the milk(they love a bath just the right temperature,with a little sugar, they will give you a lovely and yummy texture).

After the milk has sufficiently cooled, it will be time to add the yogurt. You can use some store bought yogurt as a starter, but be SURE that the culture is alive and kicking or it WILL NOT WORK!
Now you will put about three heaping tablespoons of yogurt into a seperate bowl. Into that bowl add a little of your cooled milk and whisk gently. You can buy cultures from online stores too and probably from health food stores(you can also buy cultures to make cheese if you are adventurous).
Pour into glass cups.
Cover, and let rest up to 10 hours.
If it does not congeal by 10 hours, its not going to...so you'll have to retrace your steps and try and figure out where you went wrong.
The most important thing is that the yogurt (like yeast) has to be kept warm and cozy if you want it to do it's job. I have a little yogurt maker that I got a long time ago. You can find those easily at thrift stores (along with breadmakers). If you don't have a yogurt maker, you can keep your concoction in the oven on the lowest warm setting, or even put it on a heating pad all wrapped up on low.
After it has congealed, keep it in the fridge. You can flavor the yogurt at the time you make it with vanilla or? Or you can flavor afterward with fruit or jelly, honey, etc.