How to make plain homemade yogurt.:)

MAKING PLAIN HOMEMADE YOGURT!:)
1. AMOUNT TO BE MADE:
-Roughly about 1 kilogram
Note1: You can use ratio and proportion if you want to make more yogurt, or less if so.:)
2. MATERIALS
-Equipment/ Utensils
--Double boiler or an improvised double boiler that can hold at least 1 liter
---Note2: You can use a smaller sauce pot placed on top of a bigger saucepot with water for improvisation.
--Thermometer (Temperature range up to 200˚F/100˚C)
--Container to hold 1kg yogurt (glass jar, stainless steel, food grade plastic cups with cover/lids)
---Note 3: You can use aluminium foil secured with rubber bands if you don’t have any lids.
--Bowl and big spoon for mixing
--Improvised incubator-you could use an ice chest/cooler lined with aluminium foil or an oven.
    
-Ingredients
--1 liter low fat pasteurized milk (you may also use whole, skim, reconstituted, or non-fat milk)
--1/3 cup whole or low-fat dry milk powder (use 2/3 cup if you’ll use skim or non-fat dry milk)
--1/2 cup commercial, unflavored, cultured yogurt (the label must read “with live active cultures” or “with live microorganisms”)

Figure 1. Materials for yogurt making.

3. METHODOLOGY
1.) Make sure all materials are ready (present, thoroughly washed, and dried).
2.) Place milk in a double boiler (smaller sauce pot) and stir in the dry milk powder. Make sure it is completely dissolved.

 Figure 2. Improvised double boiler.

3.) Heat milk to 200˚F/~93˚C for 10 minutes with gentle stirring. DO NOT BOIL.

Figure 3. Heating milk on a double boiler to avoid scorching.

4.) Place top of the double-boiler (smaller sauce pot) in cold water to cool milk to 112-115˚F (44- 46˚C). Temperature falls rapidly as soon as 125˚F/52˚C is reached. Remove pan from cold water. Do not discard hot water from the double boiler (if will be using the picnic cooler).

Figures 4-5. Cooling heated milk.






5.) Take 1 cup of warm milk and mix with the yogurt culture. Add the mixture to the rest of the warm milk.

Figure 6. Mixing yogurt culture to warm milk.

6.) Pour immediately into the clean and hot containers, cover and place in incubator with a thermometer for temperature monitoring. Temperature must be maintained at 42-44˚C. Close incubator.

Figure 7. Transferred milk yogurt mixture-ready for incubation.

Note 4: It is best to sterilize your jars (boil cups for 15 minutes) and keep it warm until use.

Figure 8. Boiling jars and keeping it hot until use.

Note 5: Using a picnic cooler--line cooler with aluminium foil and pour (42-44˚C) water from double boiler to the cooler. Make sure containers are evenly spaced, water does not touch the lid, and that a thermometer is placed inside to monitor temp (must be maintained at 42-44˚C/ 108-112˚F). If the temperature goes down remove spoonfuls of water from the chest and replace with hot water.

Figures 9-11. Using the ice chest/picnic cooler for incubation.

Note 6: Using an oven--pre-heat oven to 200˚F/90˚C for 2 minutes, open oven lights, and place yogurt inside. Monitor temperature (once per hour; must be maintained at 42-44˚C/ 108-112˚F) and reheat again(~2minutes) when necessary.

Figure 12. Using the oven for incubation.

7.) Incubate for about 6 hours rule is ↑time=↑acidity
8.) Refrigerate immediately to stop development of acid. Shelf-life is 10 days at ~5˚C/41˚F.

                                           Figure 13. End product.
You’re yogurt must smell like yogurt and must have a creamy to firm texture. Save some of your yogurt to start your next batch (you can do this up to 4-5 batches then just purchase commercial yogurt again) if you have plans to do so. From here you can go on your own to experiment making flavoured yogurt, shakes, smoothies, or even yogurt ice cream etc. Good luck!:)

Thoughts...

The process of making yogurt is really fun as long as you prepared everything that you need. Smelling your end product and detecting yogurt is like the “smell of success”. Personally, I found using the ice chest/ picnic cooler more efficient than using the oven. It saves electricity for one, and the temperature inside did not fluctuated for the whole 6 hours I incubated the milk-yogurt mixture. It could be due to the oven I used since there are a lot of reviews in homemade yogurt making depicting how easy it is to use the oven. I hope you’ll enjoy making yogurt and in the end maybe share some delicious and healthy recipes you’ve created. Goodluck!

Additional info...

Yogurt has been very popular for thousands of years in the Middle East and can be produced by mixing two types of bacteria, Lactobacillus bulgaricus and Streptococcus thermophilus, and adding them to pasteurized milk. The whole mixture is held at warm temperatures for fermentation to occur, hence converting lactose to lactic acid bacteria (that’s why it’s sour :) ). Fermentation is said to decrease the amount of lactose to 4%. We refrigerate them immediately to discontinue fermentation and other accompanying changes while still keeping the culture alive since heating it would destroy the cultures. Consuming fermented milk products with live cultures has been said to be helpful in the restoration of the normal intestinal bacteria and treatment of diarrhea and also has lots of benefits.


Is every Yogurt really yogurt?

To be called yogurt, the milk product must contain at least 8.25% Milk-Solids-Not-Fat(MSNF) and 0.5% acid. Fat content requirements for whole, reduced-fat, and nonfat yogurt are 3.25%, 0.5-3%, and <0,5% respectively.



4. REFERENCES
Brown, A. 2005. Understanding food: principles and preparation 2nd edition. USA:Thomson Wadsworth.
Willenberg, J. K. Hughes, and L. Konstant. Making yogurt at home.
     Accessed at: chetday.com/howtomakeyogurt.htm
     Date accessed: August 2010