Bill

–microwaving the milk to heat it did not work for me — I use a “double boiler” — I own 2 stock pots, one of which happens to fit inside the other.

–thermometer really helps.

–I don’t like to use plastic if I can avoid it, so I make my yogurt in quart canning jars.

–putting lids on the jars when the yogurt is still warm seems to make the yogurt last longer in the fridge (several weeks, even). This lets me make bigger batches.

–I use a picnic cooler to keep the milk warm while it’s becoming yogurt. The cooler we have holds 8 quart jars plus a gallon milk jug (more about that in the next step)

–As mentioned above, I use a double boiler. After I pour the milk into jars, I pour the hot water into the now-empty milk carton(s) and put this in the cooler along with the yogurt. This acts as a heat source that helps to maintain the temp of the yogurt for the full fermentation time.

–the longer the cultures work, the tangier the finished product. The cultures will continue to work for several hours after you put the yogurt into the fridge (while the yogurt is cooling down), so plan accordingly.

–my yogurt is always “spoon stands up” thick, and I don’t use pectin, but I do heat the milk to near-boiling.

–to those who want more protein: many recipes call for powdered milk to be added to the liquid milk, which increases the solids content and increases protein. Greek yogurt “cheats” by draining off the whey. We’ll often put the yogurt in a cheesecloth, either to make labneh (delicious!) or frozen yogurt (also amazingly delicious). You can just stick your yogurt into an ice cream maker (add sweetener to taste before freezing), but straight yogurt ends up icy. Strained yogurt is silky smooth and creamy. I’m always amazed to see how much whey comes off — you can lose more than 50% of your original volume when making labneh, and more or less 50% when making frozen yogurt. If we’re losing this much liquid, I can see how the greek yogurt ends up with such a high protein count. That’s one way to get a lot of yogurt, but it seems like a shame to dump that perfectly good whey…as someone else said, just eat more of the yogurt!

I have found, for a tangy thick greek style yogurt (I have never had fage, so I’m guessing this is what it is?), to start with 2% milk, and add nonfat dry milk powder, 1/2 cup per litre of milk, and then bring that mixture up to 180F to denature both milk sources. You could also use evaporated milk (that’s what Cyclops does here in NZ). The point is to increase the amount of milk solids per litre. Old-timers aparently boil the milk for hours to boil off the water content (and I guess they didn’t mind the scalded taste?). I use more powdered milk than any other recipe I’ve seen, but I like the very thick results. I don’t know how much protein it makes.

Ferment for at least 8 hours, I go 12… it firms up in just a few hours, but then the rest of the time makes it get tangier.

At the end, strain in cheesecloth for 6 hours. That concentrates the mixture, allowing some whey (mostly the water part) to drain off. If you start with a concentrated milk, there won’t be nearly as much whey as what most people get in their home yogurt.