Alchemy, of the dairy variety

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I have been interested in making our yogurt. Good grief we go through a lot of the stuff lately. I was looking at yogurt makers, but the idea of another electric appliance to store and look at was more than I was interested in. I found people out in intertubluar land who sat theirs on a heating pad over night, but that screams fire hazard to me. Then I found a method where you just place the warmed milk in a cooler filled with other glass jars of hot water. This seemed like the low tech method I was looking for. When I showed Eric the first batch and told him how I did it he asked what else I was planning on making with my new alchemy skills. While he was impressed with the yogurt he couldn't help but add that if i really was doing alchemy, it might be more economical if i just made gold. I have to admit, it seems a bit magical, in a simple way, this making your own yogurt. And it is SO yummy.

To make this batch I heated one quart of milk to 185F. I have a cool thermometer that I use for roasts that has a probe attached to a electric readout with a long metal coil. This worked perfectly once I clothes pinned it to the side of the pot. Old school meet techie geek.





Once the milk reaches 185F you cool it to 115F. To do this I put the pot in a sink of cool water. The probe is still working wonderfully. Once it is cool you mix in 1/4 cup of starter. In this case I used store bought plain yogurt, next time I will just use some from this batch. Must remember to always save the last quarter cup.





The milk with it's yogurt added in is poured into a clean canning jar with a lid. Then the milk is put in a cooler with other glass jars which are filled with how water to help maintain the temperature. I ended up also adding one of those rice filled sacks you microwave to use like a heating pad because i wanted to make sure it stayed nice and snuggly.





It is supposed to stay around 110F for 6-10 hours. I tried it after 6 hours and it was lovely. I would say this was a success. We have been eating it with fresh peaches I cooked with a little vanilla. The weather is showing signs of fall, my favorite season and officially the start of granola season. I stocked up on rolled oats this morning :)





I thought I should add some shots of the canning I have been working on. This is some of what I did last weekend. The pantry shelves are really starting to fill up.











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