I am a great fan of Albert Enstein’s , “things should be as simple as they can be but not simpler”

I have been making yoghurt for about three years, since being inspired by a Kenyan’s story about his grandfathers yoghurt plant; a earthenware jar in the corner of his hut on the slopes of Mt Kiliminjaro. He ran a small mob of milking sheep which ate the weeds he pulled from his beans, corn and bananas. What he did not drink he threw in the yoghurt jar.

I now use a “Esiyo” yoghurt maker $20 from Kmart Aust.
It is a 1 liter polythene flask that fits into a larger 2L insulated container that contains a body of boiling water 2L. I half fill the flask with cold tap water, as a teaspoon of yoghurt, shake, fill the rest with powdered milk of choice, mix by placing a fork through the powder, stirring from the bottom side till dissolved, shake again until all lumps dissolve, top up with water, shake again and place in the insulated jar.

This jar works much better than earlier jars as the volume of boiling water is sufficient to bring tap water to optimum fermentation temperature.Takes 6 hrs in the tropics, 8 hrs in temperate climates. All sorts of variations are possible depending on taste and nutritional requirements; from using full cream powder, organic full cream whole milk instead of water, even adding cream.

I use skim to keep my calorie budget balanced, as a vegetarian I use it with oats in the morning, with kebabs for lunch and often as a yoghurt drink before dinner and also added in the last minute of cooking curries.

I cannot recommend the yoghurt drink highly enough; it is an ideal balance to inflammatory foods such as carbohydrates and sugars, for sufferers of digestive disorders. It is a snack in its own right, killing hunger pangs immediately. It can be made less bitter by adding Stevia and if you want variation from the natural lemon flavour add vanilla essence or fruit flavouring.

This is all stuff the peddlers of toxic beverages such as alcohol and soft drinks don’t want us to know. They have no interest in our health or longevity.

cheers Duncan

- add some powdered, dry milk to the tune of 1/2 cup per quart and stir it in well before heating it to 190F.

- try another yogurt as culture and make sure it says that it has live active cultures in it.

- put the culture in a blender with some of the warm milk and blend it for 10 seconds. This makes sure the culture is distributed well. And make sure you stir the blended culture well into the rest of the warm milk – I use a whisk.

Make sure your thermometer is working right – test it with boiling water and ice water. If it is off by more than a degree or so, then get another one that is right.

Good luck,

Bill

1) If you want thick yogurt more like the commercial variety, add non-fat dry milk powder to the milk. It gives more protein solids to the yogurt. I don’t remember exactly how much to add per quart of milk, but this information is easily obtained on the web.

2) The “sourness” or tang in the yogurt is related to the temperature and fermentation length. The culture will be WAY less tangy if given a short ferment at a low temp. Conversely if your yogurt is TOO tangy, give it a much shorter fermentation time. I have had the yogurt come out both ways, and I would suggest that the temperature was too low or the fermentation time too short. But I HAVE eaten yogurt which was sweet and creamy as described. Still alive and never got sick either. Perfectly fine.

3) If yogurt is disturbed or jiggled during fermentation it will not set properly – by that I mean that it won’t have that solid coagulation like you see in commercial yogurt. It will be thick and soupy instead. Again perfectly fine.

4) The type of milk used affects the texture of the final product. Skim milk produces the firmest yogurt, especially when nonfat dry milk is added. I think whole milk would account for much softer yogurt. In areas such as Greece and the Middle-East they use full fat milk AND add cream!

Been a while since I’ve made it! But I did enjoy it. Very tasty. I stopped because it was not cost effective for me as my local stores sell plain yogurt for cheap.

Hope this helps!
Irene

P.S. I would love to have your oatmeal bread recipe, if you wouldn’t mind sharing. :-)

i found this site with tips for yogurt making. I just bought a yogurt maker and I have tried making yogurt twice but somehow it comes out too liquid. I am using as a starter plain bought yogurt from the store with live cultures. I am following instructions to the letter. I am not sure what is going on. The machine has a timer and it is working right. I have left it once for 10 hrs and another time for 14 in hopes that maybe the consistency would change.

PS> I wait till the temperature is right before adding the two tablespoons of the starter yogurt and mix it first in a small amount of the meilk and once it is completly mixed I pour it with the rest of the milk (as instructed in the booklet)

Ivonne