Yogurt is extremely easy to make, once you figure out a good place to make it. If you have an oven that can maintain a yeast proofing temperature, you are in good shape. I have a small oven with an analog dial (versus my large oven that has a digital controller with the lowest temperature setting of 170 °F, which is too hot). I make my yogurt in my small oven, which can hold 16 jars at a time - thus I make 16 pints of plain yogurt per batch about every 2 to 3 weeks.
My method of making yogurt is unconventional. Most people (particularly businesses) heat up the milk to at least 180 °F, thus pasteurizing it, prior to adding their yogurt culture. This allows for a very consistent product in terms of flavor and texture, which customers in today's society expect.
I do not heat my milk first because I want raw milk yogurt; I do not want to harm any of the beneficial aspects of the raw milk in making my yogurt. Of course, each batch turns out a bit differently, typically the texture, but it is always delicious unless I get it too hot and kill the bacteria. Very mild and smooth, thus I usually eat my yogurt topped with just fresh/frozen fruit, though adding raw unfiltered honey is fine too.
Ingredients:
1 - 2 gallons raw milk
1 quart good quality plain whole milk yogurt*
A must for making yogurt (unlike kefir), is being able to maintain a constant temperature of 95 °F to 100 °F. Start to finish it takes about 6 to 12 hours (it takes awhile for the cold refrigerator temperature milk and yogurt to get to incubation temperature so it is not at the incubation temperature that whole time).
First sterilize 12 to 16 pint size glass jars. I run my dishwasher on a sanitize cycle with heated dry. Once the jars are ready, line them up on your counter and place 1 - 2 Tbls of plain yogurt into each jar. I don't measure this, I just drop a blob off the spoon into each jar. Since I do not heat my milk first, I always start with new yogurt (versus using some of my own yogurt as my starter).
Next skim the cream off your raw milk (and use the cream to make butter). Then fill each jar with fresh raw milk. Gently stir, lifting the yogurt into the milk. Once stirred, loosely screw the lid onto the jar. Place the jars in a warm location where you can maintain a temperature of 95 °F to 100 °F for several hours. I place a electric temperature probe, with a high temperature alarm, in my oven to monitor the temperature. If the measured temperature of my thermometer exceeds about 108 °F, the yogurt will not thicken. Using the thermometer probe, I determined the setting (well below the lowest temperature marked on the dial) to place the dial to achieve this low temperature. I still use the probe for each batch because I sometimes have to tweak the dial a bit depending upon the room temperature and if I am using the stove top. I have found I cannot use my big oven when making yogurt because it transfers too much heat into the little oven.
Allow the temperature to slowly rise to 95 °F to 100 °F. I usually start my yogurt late in the afternoon. Then first thing in the morning, about 12 hours later, I screw the lids on tightly and put the jars away in the refrigerator. Use your plain yogurt to make fruited yogurt, smoothies, yogurt cream cheese, etc.
* I have found that most commercial yogurts found in the store do not have enough live bacteria to use as a starter. Thus these yogurts are not a good choice, either for making yogurt or to eat for their health benefits. For years I used Stoneyfield plain whole milk yogurt as my starter (when it was sold as plain whole milk yogurt with cream on top), but I have now switched to a local more natural yogurt as the quality of the Stoneyfield yogurt began to drop. After Stoneyfield was bought out by Danone, who makes Dannon yogurt, they have changed the yogurt 'recipe', have added pectin, and have added Vitamin D. Be leery and suspicious when big companies take over small natural foods companies because the quality almost always is reduced as they work to maximize their profits.
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