Locavore: Making Yogurt

If there is one thing that Idaho is not short on in the local food chain it is cows. Because of this, a beautiful variety of dairy products are available as well as some fantastic (albeit quite expensive) grass finished beef. Unfortunately yogurt is not among the dairy products available, but is pretty simple to make. I make it from a full gallon, which makes enough yogurt for us to eat and me to cook with for a week or two.

We start with 1 gallon of milk- most milk will work here, as long as it's not ultra pasteurized- they've pasteurized this milk so much that nothing will grow in it. This means no yogurt, cheese, etc. You can use raw milk, non-homogenized, or homogenized and pasteurized, and with any fat content you like. My mother even uses her dry, fat free milk from their food storage. I use whole milk, I like the texture and the fat is important to be able to absorb the fat soluble vitamins in the milk. Some people also thicken their yogurt with additives such as gelatin and dry milk powder, or other things that only an industrial food scientist would understand. Since we're trying so stay away from additives I generally thicken mine by straining it, the traditional Greek way. My yogurt is made with just a couple tablespoons of yogurt and milk

So the basics are easy- you just need to know a few things about bacteria. First they are happiest between 125-80 degrees F, so to make yogurt we simply have to heat the milk, introduce the bacteria, than keep it at that temperature while the bacteria happily munch on the milk sugar. After 3-8 hours your yogurt should have set up.

For those of you recipe people, here are more in depth directions:
You will need:
Milk
2 tablespoons of relatively fresh yogurt for every quart of milk (don't let it sit in your fridge for weeks before you use it)

 A decent thermometer
A smallish cooler
A thick blanket
A large pot to heat the milk (I use my pressure cooker to do a gallon at a time)
A larger pot to heat the water (I use my hot water canner)
Canning jars or other watertight containers to put your yogurt in (Big ones, or little ones for individual servings)

1. Heat the milk to 180 F, to pasteurize. Take it off the heat and let it cool to 120-125 with the thermometer in it to monitor the temperature (It's really handy if your thermometer has an alarm). 
2. While the milk is cooling heat enough water to cover the jars in the cooler, plus an inch or two. Also put the jars in here to warm and sterilize them.
3.When the milk reaches 120 take out a cup of the milk and mix it with the yogurt to thin it and make it easier to mix in, when mixed well put the yogurt mixture into the pot of warmed milk.
4. Fill the jars with the milk mixture and screw the lids on tightly-- they'll be underwater for a while.
5. Put the jars in the cooler and cover them with 125 degree water plus a couple inches You may have to add some cool water to your large pot to get it to the right temperature.
6. Put the cooler somewhere out the the way and cover it with the thick blanket, tucking it around the cooler to keep the heat in. Set a timer for 3 hours
7. Check it at 3 hours. It should be getting thick. I leave mine for another couple hours than put it in the fridge to finish thickening.

Your yogurt is finished!

To thicken it put the yogurt in a cheese cloth and let it drain for an hour for a thicker yogurt. For yogurt cheese let it drain overnight. Yogurt cheese makes a great spread and can be used just like cream cheese, though it has a little different flavor. I've even made a yogurt cheesecake before and it worked great!