[stoney]

I might not ber doing the later re-heat setup correctly. I'm having trouble holding the temp at ~110*, as my crockpot goes higher. I might try putting the jars into a large pot and keep the water at that temp range.

Although the sous vide setup is expensive (even with your temp controller)... I'll look into that.

 

[dante]

I might not ber doing the later re-heat setup correctly. I'm having trouble holding the temp at ~110*, as my crockpot goes higher. I might try putting the jars into a large pot and keep the water at that temp range.

Although the sous vide setup is expensive (even with your temp controller)... I'll look into that.

Jars in a large pot of water would probably work pretty well. You just need it around 110 for a long enough period of time for the cultures to propagate throughout the milk. For our sous vide setup we usually just have it on "keep warm" and even then it's only on ~10-20% of the time.

Another option is if you have a gas oven to put it right underneath the pilot light. My cousin does that when she's making yogurt, and claims that it's just enough heat to hold it at ~110deg. Heck, even a nice incandescent light bulb positioned closely enough to it might do the trick. You just need to figure out a way to keep it at that temp for a while...

For our sous vide setup, we're coming close on saving enough money that it's already paid for itself. We figure we save ~$5/qt of yogurt, and so we're looking at having saved ~$30 so far just in yogurt. Throw in the $5/lb that we've saved in eating cheaper cuts of meat and we're probably almost there...

 

[stoney]

That's my plan. Although my rate of milk burn is getting expensive... I have just been eating some of my 20# bag of oats in the interim.

 

[dante]

That's my plan. Although my rate of milk burn is getting expensive... I have just been eating some of my 20# bag of oats in the interim.

Maybe only experiment with non-hippie/yuppie "ordinary" milk until you get the process right?

 

[SkaredShtles]

Maybe only experiment with non-hippie/yuppie "ordinary" milk until you get the process right?

But the hormones will make him grow man-boobs!!

 

[dante]

Never said he had to eat the hormone-infested mutant yogurt-style dairy-substitute that he ended up with. It's just that it might make more sense to experiment with $2.60 "peasant" milk instead of the $6/gallon hormone-free, grass-fed-cow, blessed-by-the-ASPCA-&-PETA milk.

 

[stoney]

But the hormones will make him grow man-boobs!!

I already have them , too many years of hormone milk. Clearly has nothing to do with my lack of fitness and huge beer consumption.

 

[SkaredShtles]

Mmm... beer... you're gonna like it in Colorado.

 

[stoney]

I've got good yogurt finally! This time I used normal, whole fat milk and a cup of plain yogurt. Where as last time I used lowfat milk and Greek yogurt as my ingredients. I let the cultures grow on low heat in a large pot on the stove, this will be my process going forward. Next time I will do a full gallon and test my results then.

On a side note, I made a really good loaf of French bread yesterday. I used he bread machine to mix and rise the dough, then shaped it and baked it in the oven. I took he other half of the dough and made some French bread pizza too; that also turned out really well.

I'm going to get a sourdough starter going today so that I can start making sourdough bread and pizza dough.

Very stoked on this weekend's successes.

 

[stoney]

I had some store bought Greek yogurt with breakfast this morning. Two points of note are the thickness of the consistency and the tartness of taste. To get more sour/tart flavor do I need to leave it in the warm bath longer for continued culture growth? I am assuming that I need to cheese cloth it to get it thicker too?