Yogurt making is very easy and extremely economical if you follow the right steps. You can use nonfat/full fat/ 2% whatever milk type you prefer and it will still come out great yogurt depending upon how much fat content you wish to have. Some add half and half so go for it, whatever you wish to add or not add. Needed things:
1. A gallon of milk which is 16 cups. This will yield 6-8 cups of Greek Yogurt and about the respective amount of whey liquid. (Depending on how much you choose to drain)
2. Yogurt starter one or two tablespoons (if you have plain yogurt at home, use it) or buy Greek Yogurt at any store. Meijer now has a small size for only .79 cent. (Yesterday for half a gallon of milk, I used only half a tablespoon.)
3. Cheese cloth/thin cotton cloth/or muslin cloth like a thin cotton curtain lining material. A clean pillow case would even do.
4. A good heavy bottomed pot to hold milk and heat up.
Here are 6 stages:
1. Heating the Milk to a boiling point on a low heat.
2. Cooling it to a lukewarm temperature.
3. Fermentation: Add a tablespoon or two of the yogurt starter to your lukewarm milk to ferment it for 6-8 hours or overnight. (after this stage yogurt is actually ready and many use it like this. For years we have done up to this point unless we were making a dessert then we would drain)
4. Cooling in the Refrigerator for 4-6 hours (This helps to thicken)
5. Straining/drain- (3-5 hours: this is an additional step to make the thick Greek yogurt)
6. Cooling back in the refrigerator. (This helps thicken a bit more) and final product
So here step by step method.
1. When you heat the milk on the stove top make sure that the pot is clean and rinsed in water before adding the milk so the milk does not burn at the bottom. Use a heavy base pot and please keep the flame low so that it heats up well. If you keep it high flame, it will burn your milk and smell not so good. As it progresses you may later on turn up the high flame but you will have to be present to keep stirring it constantly so it does not burn at the bottom. (If you multitask like me, you may want to keep it on low heat.)
2. Let it cool to a room temperature or like what you can drink. Not too cold and not too hot.
3. Now take your yogurt starter and add into the milk and mix well with a ladle or a hand mixer so it goes evenly in every part of the milk.
4. Cover and keep it in a warm place like in an oven that is turned off and is not hot. Do NOT turn the oven on. Leave it overnight. Please know that during summer's warm/hot days it gets done quickly due to hot temperature but during winter you may need to wrap a towel and keep it warm and perhaps overnight.
Next day morning your yogurt is practically ready and you can have it as is or keep it in the fridge for few hours and it will thicken a little more.
Now for Greek yogurt the process goes on two steps further.
5. Take a colander and line it with a clean muslin/cheese/cotton cloth big enough to hold the yogurt.
You may do 3-4 pouches as I have done here so it drains evenly all round well inside and outside too. Leave it to drain for 4-6 hours.
6. Carefully remove from the cloth and transfer it in the containers and store it in the fridge. If you find the yogurt is too dry you can add some of the whey liquid back into it as per your taste/texture.
Eat as is or you may keep it in the fridge for few hours to cool and thicken. So rich and creamy and full of protein. You may eat it plain as is, or you may want to add your own flavors like cardamom/vanilla/ and just before eating add nuts or fruits.
Enjoy! ------------
Now regarding the left over liquid/whey:
1. instead of discarding off the whey (drained liquid) you can use it in smoothies, or what I do is put in the jars. (You can add sugar or sugar substitute if you like) or drink it on its own as my husband does before he goes for a work out. Its low calorie, low sodium, good protein. I like to add a little sweet taste and a teaspoon of cardamom, it tastes SO yummy!
2. You can also keep the yogurt whey liquids is in the refrigerator and whenever you want to make yogurt Kadhi(Curry) just add back the whey into the Greek yogurt and follow the kadhi recipe procedure.
3. Make Chhaas (lighter sort of buttermilk type drink that has less yogurt and more water/whey) People make Lassi drink from it too. You can make it salty or sweet.
I hope you enjoy making this and let me know how it goes. Please do not give up. Try with a smaller amount first like half or a quarter gallon of milk and see how it goes if you are in doubt.
Blessings!
Kalpana Christian Sharma (KC)
