I like yogurt, but I don’t like the amount of extra ingredients in most store-bought yogurt. And I don’t like the waste. And I like saving money.
I’ve made my own yogurt off and on now for a few years, but more lately since Gabe is a huge fan of yogurt. Huge. Plus, it makes an easy take-to-work snack.
Before I got my EuroCuisine Yogurt Maker for my birthday three years ago, I’d read about making yogurt, but figured it’d be a lot of work.
Not so. In fact, it’s super, stupidly easy.
In case you’ve thought about getting a yogurt maker, but were similarly worried that it’d go to waste because it’s such a pain to use – check it out:
Super easy, right?
I usually eat it with a little squeeze of agave or maple syrup and a sprinkle of toasted wheat germ. (But I didn’t want to show you the wheat germ because Mike says it looks like sawdust and, okay, it does, which isn’t pretty. But it tastes so good.) You can also make it flavored – but I a) am lazy and b) sometimes use it in place of sour cream with tacos. Versatility, y’all!
(Oh, goodness, why do I continue to try to pull ‘y’all’ off? It just isn’t me.)
Also, if you’ve made yogurt without a yogurt machine you are super awesome (and should probably tell us how in the comments). I tried that once and failed. I need handholding when it comes to dairy products.
Next up, cheese…?
This is awesome! I’ve made yogurt without a machine a few times, and it was pretty successful. It’s basically the same process you described, but you put the jars under lots of towels on the counter overnight instead of putting them in the machine. It wasn’t too hard at all – I just got too lazy to keep making it!
We have made our own yogurt a few times but haven’t since Elijah was born. I’d love to get back into it, and I think maybe a yogurt maker is what I’m missing. It was a bit much for us to go through all of the heating and cooling “by hand.” I just don’t have that kind of time anymore! FYI, here’s our post from a few years ago showing our homemade yogurt as well as a link to the recipe we used: http://sojolife.wordpress.com/2009/05/07/the-mad-scientist/
I eat yogurt everyday at work but always feel bad about the sugar in it and the plastic container (I keep a huge yogurt container at work that lasts me two weeks and scoop it into a bowl at work) but I love this idea even more. I also have a ton of mason jars…hmmm new project!
PS. I would love sometime to hear your thoughts in a blog post on using plastic containers to keep food in or those popular plastic cold drink cups with the reusable plastic straw…I wonder if I just ban plastic touching my food period. Too many Netflix documentaries haunting me about plastic as it relates to cancer, fertility, hormones, ect…! :)
We went to visit friends a couple weeks ago and she was making her own yogurt. It’s part of her “buy nothing new in 2012” mandate (though, she is buying her family food – just figured if she could make it on her own, why not!). Anyway … it does seem like a simple process. For me, like making baby food, I’m short on time, so I know it’s not for me.
Oh my goodness, I must try this! It looks so easy and I think my baby will be ready to start eating something like this soon!
One question though… so, for your first time making yogurt I guess you’d have to buy plain yogurt to mix in? Then do you keep a bit of the yogurt you just made to mix in for your next batch? Hope that makes sense!
If you knew how often we’ve scalded milk making yogurt, you’d cringe. We make our own because we prefer raw milk and it ends up saving us some money. So, so, so delicious. Watch out–you’ll be making your own kombucha next (SO easy, really)!
Making cheese sounds like a fun adventure! We’ve only made cream cheese and whey, but that was ridiculously easy, and ridiculously delicious! I’d love to figure out mozzarella. The farmer we get our milk from sells some but it’s too darn expensive to buy all the time.
I am so bad at cooking milk! I don’t know how to avoid the gunk on the bottom or a skin forming!
I used to make yogurt all the time without a yogurt maker. Same with sour cream. Both were very easy. I don’t remember the process or where I learned to do it, just through googling my heart out most likely, it was very similar to what you did but I used my oven to keep it warm or something like that. I don’t eat either anymore as I am vegan now but I did do it a lot and quite enjoyed it.
I haven’t made yogurt without a machine, but I did find The Frugal Girl’s recipe for doing it and I’ve been meaning to try it out. http://www.thefrugalgirl.com/2009/10/how-to-make-homemade-yogurt-2/
At first I didn’t get that you had it sitting in a machine and I was like, eww, that’s just curdled milk. So I’m glad I was wrong! Anyway, I don’t like plain yogurt but I love the organic flavored kind. I think I’m too busy to make my own right now though!
This is why you are an awesome blogger, and I am a horrible blogger. I’ve had plans to write basically this exact same post since at least 2009. (Hey, actually… we may have gotten our yogurt makers around the same time!) I’ve taken so many awesome pictures. But, writing is work. :-)
Those are really cute, may try this out for my kids party in the next couple of months