Making homemade yogurt is very simple. You’ll only need a few things. Anybody can do it and the rewards far exceed the efforts.
What you will need:
- A dairy thermometer– (you can get it at any cooking supply store like bed bath and beyond, williams sonoma or online. )
- Milk – preferrably raw (half gallon)
- Some yogurt with active cultures
- Clean and disinfect bowl and pot you’ll be using to make the yogurt. (see note at end for this)
- Take the milk (about half gallon – 8 cups) and bring it to a boil slowly. You have to be careful boiling milk, it will foam over. Best to stir it and when it starts to foam shut it. (this is where you add the turmeric if you’re making golden yogurt.
- Pour the boiled milk into a clean glass bowl (washed with hot hot water and preferably sterilized)
- Place the thermometer into the bowl. There is a marking on there for the correct temperature to add the “starter” or yogurt. It’s at about 110 deg F I believe. When at the proper temperature add about a cup of the yogurt to the milk.
- Place the bowl in the oven (gas oven with pilot light keeps it warm) overnight for at least 7 hours. In the morning you will have yogurt. You can leave it in longer if you like it tangy… the longer it sits the more the probiotics will do the work and the stronger the yogurt.
***Greek style strained yogurt:
Additionally you can strain the yogurt with a fine strainer (make sure the
grid is fine) or use a fine sieve/seine. Just put the yogurt in the strainer with a bowl underneath and let it sit for a while. The whey will drain out and you’ll be left with greek-style creamy yogurt. Keep the whey and drink it or make a smoothie out of it. The whey is very high in vitamins (particulary b-12) and also has the probiotic cultures in it which are good for the digestion.
Variations:
Golden Yogurt– add a tablespoon of ground turmeric powder to the milk while boiling and continue the recipe as otherwise directed. You’ll be left with “Golden Yogurt.” an amazing dish which you can sweeten with honey. It’s very good for
- Finished Golden Yogurt
you. Turmeric lubricates the joints and is very good for the colon (prevents colon cancer according to some studies.)
Hot Golden Yogurt– in addition to the turmeric, puree about 6-8 fresh jalapeno peppers and add to the boiling milk mixture. You’ll be left with a spicy golden yogurt which Yogi Bhajan says is a very high potency food for men.
***Note to disinfect equipment: It’s best to boil some water in the pot you will use to boil the milk in, first. Then dump that water into the glass bowl you’ll use to ultimately make the yogurt to disinfect the pot and the bowl. (you can also add 1 tsp of chlorine bleach to the boiled water and then fill the bowl to top and let sit for at least two minutes, to further disinfect.)