Yogurt

One of the things I've been doing since I stopped writing this blog is making my own yogurt. I had been sick this fall from one thing or another, and my friend Mari had been telling me about the benefits of yogurt for a long time. I have to admit that I really didn't like yogurt. It wasn't the sourness or anything. It was the texture. The taste didn't seem right for the texture. I think I thought the boughten yogurt should taste like pudding if it was going to have that texture. So I was eating the boughten stuff for a while, and then it dawned on me, I should be able to make this on my own. I went to Amazon.com and ordered a yogurt kit. What's the first thing the kit tells you? That you don't need a kit to make yogurt. Hey, it only cost $20, so it was no big loss.

My first batch flopped. I didn't temper the culture. Tempering means adding a little of the scalded milk to the culture before adding the whole pot. It separated. I really wish companies that include instructions would hire professional writers. It would be a lot easier to follow instructions if they did.

It turns out that I love homemade yogurt, and so does my dog, Teddi. She cleans out the jar each time I have some and then cleans out my dish as well. It also turns out that making yogurt is sooooo easy. You need milk (preferably whole); some cultured yogurt, at this point, I just use one of the jars from the previous batch. You could end right there if you want lighter yogurt, but I've developed a taste for thicker stuff. To get the thicker stuff, you just add powdered milk. The process is that you scald the milk to about 180 degrees, and then let it cool to about 115 degrees. Add a little of the scalded to the yogurt and powdered milk, and then add the rest. Then put the yogurt/milk mixture in jars, set it in the warmer for about 12 hours, at which time you put lids on the jars and refrigerate for at least 3 hours.

I know there are people who eat yogurt straight, but I'm not one of them. I add a little canned fruit to the mixture. My favorite is Mandarin oranges. I'm sure as time goes on, I'll get a little more exotic with my fruit and maybe even other add-ons, but for now, it's a little sunshine for my cold winter days. And there's nothing funnier than seeing Teddi carrying a baby food-size jar around the house so that she can get that very last molecule of yogurt out of the bottom.