A Nifty Gadget... Make Your Own Yogurt

I hate reading food labels.  Lists of ingredients that sound like some kind of list for making the atomic bomb rather than something edible cover the packing of everything sold in today's grocery stories.  Makes me crazy. 

A few years ago I read a book where the author said "if you can't pronounce it and/or don't know what it is, it shouldn't go in your body".  Good advice.  That was when I started trying to do as much on my own as I could.

This time of year especially, I enjoy eating yogurt for breakfast.  Always have.  The thing with yogurt now is that it is not the yogurt of my childhood.  I remember yogurt being tart, and all the fruit was on the bottom and had to be mixed in.  Yogurt today is sweet with it's flavorings suspended so that each bite is the same as the one before it.

I've been reading about making my own yogurt off and on for years, but have always been intimidated by cultures and incubating times.  Making it in an oven just looked like a disaster waiting to happen - I mean there are so many variables!  A yogurt maker sounded great but sounded expensive.

Boy was I wrong!  There are LOTS of yogurt makers available, and they start at just $20!  I ended up selecting the Euro Cuisine Yogurt Maker with the automatic shutoff for $36.  Makes 7, 7oz jars of yogurt at a time.  All you do is heat your milk to 180 degrees, cool it back to lukewarm, add your starter and flavorings, ladle into the jars and place the jars in the maker.  Turn it on and set the timer.  When it's done you just take the jars out, screw on the lids and put them in the refrigerator.  How easy!


So yesterday I made my first batch.  I used 2% milk, and yogurt starter culture that I bought through Walmart.com.  After 9 hours in the yogurt maker I put the jars away, and this morning we had our first homemade yogurts!

Now, I will point out that if you have grown accustomed to today's sweet yogurt, you will be surprised by the bitterness of fresh homemade.  However, we added some homemade strawberry syrup on ours to give some strawberry flavor, and it was WONDERFUL!

I give this unit a 10 out of 10.  It's easy to use and easy to clean.  You can also purchase an extension rack and/or extra jars for it if you choose. 

Just another way to create something healthier for yourself and your family.