Yogurt

I haven't made yogurt for years.  Probably because it was always thin and not as good as the store-bought stuff.  I've gone through using one of those little warmer things, and I've done it the easy way, just setting a jar in a warm place over night.

So when my favorite discount grocery store didn't have a single yogurt container for sale, and I didn't want to spend retail price to get something that's basically plain, low-fat milk that's got a bunch of acidolphilus in it, I bought a gallon of milk.  I still had a half of a quart of yogurt.  It was my starter.

I must admit, I eat a bowl of yogurt a day.  I throw various things in it, like nuts, raisins, and chocolate chips. I don't eat cereal any more, but I used to do granola with it too.

I simmered the milk, added about three quarters of a cup of dry milk...so there was probably a quart and a half total.  Cooled it...which was pretty fast today, setting it in the unheated laundry room.

Then I scalded some glass mason jars, the one cup size, and their lids, (pour boiling water over them).  And I also had to do one regular large yogurt container, because I was pretty sure I have more than 4 cups worth.  (See, I did this the good old "wise woman way" without measuring a thing.

I took about a third cup of my starter, mixed it with the warm milk, stirred it really good in one of the little jars first, then added it to the whole pot of milk.

I heated the oven with the "warm" setting, turned it off, then put the jars of yogurt in a pan of hot tap water.  I had to turn the oven onto warm again once about an hour later.  I left the oven light on, and it stayed pretty warm for the 8 hours that I left the yogurt growing.

Now my home-made yogurt is in the fridge waiting for me to try it for breakfast tomorrow.

Have you ever tried to make yogurt?  How did you do it?