I made yogurt and it was EASY!

YES I have an awesome dehydrator that would do the trick it’s a big tall one that holds like 15 trays! (maybe more!).

Please give any advice you can this will be my 1st time and we would like to eat it for breakfast weekly!  Thanks

For those that can’t have dairy, I make coconut milk yogurt.  It’s very easy!

I have made yogurt from raw goat’s milk many times, and it works fine.  I have a deva bridge yogurt maker that is essentially just a thermos.  The instructions are to heat the milk to some high temp (I can’t remember exactly, you will have to refer to the instructions on your machine or your starter) then cool to some lower temp, then add the starter.  

What I do is just heat to the lower temp, skipping the initial high temp entirely.  Then I add the starter and proceed from there.  It has always worked fine.

I do usually start each batch with fresh starter, either powdered or from good quality storebought yogurt.  That way, if I get some not-so-desirable bacteria growing, I won’t be actively culturing it each time.  In my experience, raw milk makes a thinner, more liquid, yogurt.  I have never tried any of the tricks to thicken it up, I just use it as is.  I have a yogurt strainer that is wonderful – turn plain yogurt into greek style yogurt – but I have never tried putting that really thin yogurt through the strainer. I suspect it would just run right through. 

how much yogurt would you say you’d get from a gallon of milk?

You should get a 1:1 ratio of milk to yogurt, if you make one gallon of milk into yogurt, you will get one gallon of yogurt.

Also try raw milk kefir – I get the powdered starter at the health food store.  It works at room temp, and is perfect for the fresh milk temp that you have right after it is strained following milking.  Wonderful stuff, I like it better than yogurt.  I ordered some kefir grains, but have never successfully got them to make kefir for me  so I just stick with the powder.  I do use a bit of the kefir from the last batch to start the next one, then from time to time I start fresh with the powder.

Hope that helps!  Don’t be afraid to try it, the worst that can happen is that the yogurt won’t make and you have to feed it to the chickens LOL.  

I very slowly heat 2 qrts. of milk to no higher than 145 degrees (that’s the beginning of pasteurization); I usually stay below 130. You can heat it up to no higher than 110, but it will be runnier. I think it’s better to take away some of the enzymes while adding in the other, in order to have the thicker yogurt without the processed additions. Does that make sense?

Then I let it cool down to 110 degrees. In the meantime, sterilize whatever jar you’re going to use; I use the 1/2 pint canning jars and lids for convenient single servings, but I only have 2 children, so use whatever size suits your needs. I have a goal of collecting enough of the BPA-free plastic lids so I don’t have to keep using my metal lids.

Add 2 tblsp. of (preferably) whole, plain yogurt per qrt. of milk after it’s cooled to 110 (I stick the saucepan into the fridge to speed up the cooling). Then I either add nothing or add some plain stevia, flavored stevia, flavored extract or my most common-some plain stevia and vanilla extract. The children add honey or frozen fruit to it when they eat it.

Then I pour into the jars, close, and place them into my Excalibur, in a staggard position; set at 110 deg., for 6-12 hours. Play around with different times to see what works best; too long and it will separate into curds and whey. You can find out how ya’ll prefer it best. Mine is generally less than 8 hrs. Then I let it sit in the fridge overnight (apparently you can do it for only 2 hours or so, but I haven’t tried that).

I also like making yogurt cheese and plain cream cheese from straining the curds and whey, then I use the whey in fermenting and for adding to drinks. Whey has electrolytes so it’s very refreshing to drink in water with lemon juice added.

@Robin-you could make a bunch of cheese with your supply. Have you checked out GNOWFGLINS dairy fermenting class?

I also make kefir, but I use the grains. Starting with room temp. grains, I let mine sit for about 12 hours; a medium thickness and tartness. GNOWFGLINS goes 24-48 I think. She makes these really cool middle eastern cheese balls preserved in olive oil with kefir/yogurt cheese. If you store them in raw milk and use them as frequently as 1x a week at room temp (I take mine out of the fridge 1 day before I use them), they’ll be fine and continue growing-no need to keep purchasing powder. Here’s a great site. kefir also makes a good sald dressing/dips base because of it’s consistancy.

If it turns out too runny use it as a salad dressing base, dips and/or smoothies and/or soaking medium for grains. You could intentionally make runnier yogurt by only heating to 110 or lower and making great salad dressings/dips that way.

There’s also room temp. yogurt cultures you can buy.

I read that you can take the quart of yogurt from the store and pour into ice cube trays for future use. Each cube is about 2 tblsp. That way you can just buy one large size and use it as needed. That’s good news to me because I found the whole milk yogurt works the best as a starter, but I can only find it in quart sizes. I tend to use a new starter each time, as I forget to set out my saved portion, but you could set aside your new starter from your batch, or use a smaller jar specifically as a starter; that way you wouldn’t have to worry about separating it out and/or someone eating it.

HTH, let me know if I’ve left anything out!

Rachel

I make yogurt from raw milk about once a week.  I haven’t read all the posts thoroughly, but I think my method is a bit different (and very easy) so I’ll post it.  I use a thermometer that I purchased for cheese making.

Heat one gallon of milk (whole or skim) to 180 degrees, stirring ocasionally.  This takes about 30 minutes.  Remove from heat and let stand at room temperature until milk reaches 110 degrees.  This takes anywhere from 30 minutes if I’m stirring often, or an hour if I just leave it. 

Mix one cup of dry powdered milk(optional), about one cup of sugar (optional) and one cup of yogurt with active culture together and add 3-4 cups of the warm milk.  Mix well and add to the rest of the milk.   Put into five quart canning jars with lids.  Put these into a large cooler, fill four more quart jars with very hot water (just from the tap) and place these around the yogurt jars.  Lay a large towel over all and shut the cooler.  Leave this for 8 hours, then refrigerate yogurt.  Done! 

I like adding the dry milk and the sugar, but they are both optional.   Mine turns out perfectly everytime.  You can add flavoring when you add the other ingredients, but my kids like to add their own choices when they eat it. 

I add in a capful of vanilla for those two qrts. My dd likes maple, which she adds when she eats it.

Rachel

ok so in my own words:

take 2 qt milk (raw) and heat on stove to no higher than 145 but stay below 130 best.  Then turn off heat and let it get to 110 and get jars ready.  When it’s 110 add 2tblsp of whole plain yogurt PER quart of milk.  Add extras if like at this point.  pour into jars, close and place in my excalibur (I have the same one) and set at 110 for 6-12hrs then let it sit overnight in fridge.  To long and gets runny.

If I let it go to long i’ts whey and curds.  The the curds is cream cheese?

does that sum it up?