Yogurt

I've been looking for something really deep to post about and even had a huge monologue going on last night as I was trying to fall asleep. Unfortunately, it was all about work stuff which I really can't post about. Sorry! Let's just leave the work stuff with this: there was a public hearing regarding the fate of my school last week. It goes up for a vote on the 26th.

On the home front, I'm still plugging away on Little Squid's sweater -- front, back and right arm are done. Left arm is about halfway up his forearm. My rigid heddle loom is now clear of weaving and the final product will be run through the wash tomorrow. And I've started spinning the alpaca-merino blend that I bought at Rhinebeck.

I've also made some yogurt.

You may remember this post where Little Squid and I experimented with frozen yogurt using our homemade product. We never did master it but hey, that's what next summer is for. Right?

Meanwhile I have continued to make yogurt every week or two using the same method. Recently I've seen some posts on other blogs raving about a Crock-pot method of making yogurt.

I studied it, thought hard about it, and decided that I will stick with my method. It is fairly simple and only requires about 2 hours of my time depending on the temperature of my kitchen. In cooler weather the cooling processes occurs much more quickly then it does in the heat of summer.So, for those who are interested, this is my adaptation of Harold McGee's yogurt making technique as originally published in the New York Time on April 15, 2009.

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First, heat the milk to 180 degrees Fahrenheit. I do this by heating about 12 ounces milk at a time on high in the microwave for 1 minute (in a 4 cup measuring cup) and then dumping it into a pot on the stove with the flame at a medium setting. (I make a gallon of yogurt at a time. You can easily make less.)

While it is heating, I monitor the temperature and twiddle my thumbs. This is actually why I microwave the milk. The one minute intervals keep me interested enough that I do not walk away and then forget that I have milk heating.


Once the milk reaches 180 degrees it is time to cool it. I do this in two or three or, when making 2 gallons at a time as I do during the summer, 4 bowls.


During the warmer weather I surround the bowls with reusable cold packs to help it cool faster. I also stir it frequently to increase the amount of milk that comes in contact with the cooler parts of the bowl (and the air).

When the temperature of the milk reaches 120 degrees, I take yogurt that I've set aside from the last batch (2 tablespoons of yogurt for every quart of milk used) and mix it with some of the warm milk to thin out the yogurt.



This yogurt-milk slurry then gets mixed into the warm milk and the mixture gets put into a large container. I use a gallon Tupperware pitcher that we've had forever.


The pitcher gets a lid (I have no idea where the official lid is these days) and then gets wrapped in towels.


Usually I use three towels but this time I used four -- one underneath the pitcher to insulate it from the cold counter. Our kitchen was really cold.


Then the wrapped pitcher of pre-yogurt sits on the counter for about 6 hours, more or less. More if you like it tarter, less if you like it more naturally sweet.

The neo-yogurt then chills overnight in the fridge and is ready for eating in the morning.

I, personally, take it one step further and strain the yogurt in a HUGE fine meshed strainer that we got at a restaurant supply store. Mike cut the handle off of it so that the strainer, sitting on top of a storage container, fits in the fridge. Half a gallon of yogurt fits in the strainer at a time.

One hour usually makes it thick enough for my taste but you can strain longer if you want. Half of the last batch strained overnight by accident. It is incredibly thick and smooth and luscious!

And there you go. A gallon of milk costs between $2.39 (Costco) and $3.50 (Whole Foods 365 brand). A quart of my previous favorite yogurt, Greek Goddess, costs $5.99 at Fairway -- more elsewhere. A gallon of milk makes 2.5 to 4 quarts of yogurt depending on how much you strain it. Monetarily it makes sense but that's not why I do it.

I do it because it is too easy and too good not to.The only down-side is the cleaning of the pan. The stuck on milk can be tough to clean with a regular sponge or dishrag so I use this curly thing. It gets it right off and then I toss the curly thing into the dishwasher to get all the milk-curd crud out. Hey, it works.

Long, Productive, Weekend

I'd love to show you what I've done this weekend but I keep losing my camera! It reappears, briefly, but disappears when I most want to photograph something. Like, say, the sweater that my mother-in-law made for Mike which I have now mostly ripped out in order to reknit the wool for a sweater for Little Squid.

(The sweater was huge on Mike, made when he was ... um ... huge. He is 60 pounds lighter then when the sweater was knit and mom never got around to reknitting it for him. And, since I am in the process of spinning and then knitting a new, custom sweater for Mike, Little Squid will reap the rewards of the recycled yarn.)

And you also don't get to see the weaving that I finally finished. And the rewarped loom, now set for scarves for holiday gifts. Or the gallon of yogurt that I made.

In addition, you do not get to see the wonderful cleaning and waxing job that I did on my Minstrel. She's so nice and shiny -- and no longer dusty and dingy. And spinning a bit better, too.

Nor do you get to see the lesson plan I wrote. Tho I suppose you could if you asked nicely. But it's really not that exciting -- thought it does include some neat pictures of nerve cells. (I love google docs! So easy to share things!)

And you really can't see the grades that I worked so hard on.

Oh wait ... I didn't actually work on those ... well, you won't get to see them after I finish them on Wednesday night ... right before they are due. Or maybe Thursday, well after they are due. Rank has it's privileges ...

And you also can't see the cute knitting sheep that the kids gave me for my birthday.

But I got a lot done. Really!

Experiments with Yogurt

A few weeks ago this article about yogurt appeared in the New York Times. It caught my eye and reminded me of the days when we used to make yogurt. Back in the days when I actually cooked.

Back then we had a yogurt maker like this one, the purpose of which is to keep the yogurt at the right temperature for a long time. It does not, however, heat, mix or chill the yogurt making it a one trick pony with expensive jars.

After mulling it over for a few days I decided to give the method in the Times article a shot. I heated a quart of milk, cooled it back down to the right temperature for the bacteria to do their thing, and added a few tablespoons of my favorite yogurt (Greek Goddess, non-fat).

I did as instructed and swaddled it in towels and left it for about 6 hours, chilled, and tasted. Yum! A bit loose, though, so I strained it in a Melita coffee filter until it was just right. Even better!

That batch yielded about 3 cups (maybe 2.5) for the quart and I gobbled it up in less than a week.

The following weekend I tried again with a gallon of milk. This took a long time to heat and, due to a longer fermentation time (I forgot about it and it went about 12 hours), it yielded a grainy, very thick yogurt (after a very brief straining), though still tasty. I still have some at work stuck in the bottom of a mason jar.

Last weekend was the third try and you know what they say about the third time. This time I used Stonyfield yogurt as the started and only let it ferment about 4-5 hours. Must I say it? This batch was the best! I strained it a little to thicken it somewhat but the texture was pudding like and just beguiling. I used my new, huge, strainer and had a fair amount of the yogurt escape with the whey, so I restrained the whey with the gold melita filter and used the really fine yogurt for our first experiment with frozen yogurt.

Little Squid and I took the fine yogart and combined it with some maple syrup and froze it.

Wrong move! It turned into a solid slab of icey mapley yogurt. I threw it in the food processor and ate it as a granita. Yummy but not scoopable and not what we were aiming for.

Yesterday we took 3 cups of the remaining yogurt and added about a cup of maple sugar granules that we acquired during our visit to Canada last summer. I ground it up a bit to get some of it really fine and left the rest in chunk form to add some texture. Then we tossed it into the ice cream maker which I had dug out of the recesses of several cabinets. (Its parts were scattered hither and yon.) The initial result, right out of the maker, was good but a bit sweet. It had, however, that great tang of real yogurt and was definetly a Pink Berry contender. There was a bit of a panic moment when, after several hours of freezing, it looked like it was a solid brick, but a bit of power on the ice cream scoop served to extract real, almost scoop like, portions. The general consensus is that it is good, but as previously determined, a little too sweet,

Last night I finally watched the episode of Good Eats on yogurt and, following Alton's recommendation, set more yogurt up to strain for yogurt cheese with which to make frozen yogurt. I was going to use corn syrup to sweeten it but with only dark syrup in the house we decided to go for plain.

There is a reason why frozen yogurt is sweetened.

Mike had some of it for dessert and agreed that even with fresh pineapple on top it needed sweetening.

All of that said, I am now almost out of yogurt and am now in the process of making another batch. We'll experiment some more with the frozen side of it next weekend. This batch is destined for breakfast.