I find all kinds of great stuff there--including brand-new board games, several brand-new pieces of Pampered Chef stoneware, and a yogurt maker. I gave the yogurt maker a trial run, and I'm pleased to say it passed with flying colors.
It's the Waring Pro Professional Yogurt Maker, which I believe has been discontinued, so don't take this post as an endorsement of that particular yogurt maker--merely as an endorsement for home yogurt making in general. You don't even need a yogurt maker; the internet abounds with recipes for homemade yogurt using only things you already have, and if you like, I can try one of those methods as well and report back.
But since I picked up this yogurt maker for $5, I'm going to use it, dammit.
According to the instructions, there are two ways you can make yogurt: by heating the milk (which gives you firmer yogurt), or by not heating the milk (softer yogurt; or you can add powdered milk to the room temperature pasteurized milk, which makes firmer yogurt without heating).
Since my particular yogurt maker is obsolete, I won't bore you with its specific recipe or details. But I did go through the trouble of heating the milk, and the yogurt turned out beautifully. Next time I'll try the powdered milk/room temperature variation.
I love yogurt, but I hate a) the cost and b) the fact that I have to pay more to get either plain or Greek yogurt, without artificial fruit flavoring and whatever. This way I can keep myself in good, fresh, no-added-crap yogurt.
BONUS: You can make your own sour cream from your own homemade yogurt, thereby negating ever having to buy yogurt or sour cream ever again.
I'll cover that tomorrow.
You can also both heat the milk and add powdered milk to get super thick yogurt! It ends up like Greek yogurt in texture but without having to strain it.
ReplyDeleteI have found that the most important thing for a yogurt maker is having an extra jar for it. Otherwise, it's really difficult to reuse your homemade yogurt as a starter.
Heating the milk and adding powdered milk works well. A French work colleague once told me he used half and half for his yogurt, so I tried that too - seriously good, seriously fattening.
ReplyDeleteI have an old, long-discontinued Salton brand yogurt maker, where the 5 milkglass pots fit neatly into slots in the base of the maker. The pots appear to be similar to the glass ones in yours. Anyway, fwiw the small size of Grey Poupon or Maille mustard jars also fit into the slots really well, as it's a pain not having extra empty pots to make another batch of yogurt.