I have twin babies who run about like double tornadoes touching down in a rural mid-western town; no one knows what sort of destruction might be wrought if they are not tracked carefully. At our house, cooking is done in a hurried, distracted manner, with at least one eye set towards a baby who at any moment is intent on hurting herself or another. Needless to say, simple as a recipe may seem, mistakes can be made. I tried making Son of Food's yogurt posted here. What's the tip of the day? Scald the milk before putting the starter yogurt in, otherwise, you kill all of the bacteria that are needed to start the yogurt. I realised this about 10 seconds after I had done it. I had a little plain yogurt left so I added it to the batch, but no, it was not enough to get the thing started. Oh well, no use crying over un-youged milk.
Since some of the readers may not read our comments, I am going to post Son of Food's comment from the last post including a recipe for yogurt here:
The white cups are totally unnecessary. I still have the old Salton yogurt maker, but it's in storage. You can make it in any kind of container that's handy, as long as you can keep it warm.
Scald about a quart of milk (about 6-8 min. in the microwave or just short of boiling on the stove, when you see bubbles forming around the edge of the pot). Let it cool to about 95 degrees F (use an instant read thermometer) and add about two heaping tablespoons of yogurt, stir, and keep it warm for about 8 hours.
The old yogurt maker with the white cups kept it warm automatically. Lately I just wrap the container in a towel and leave it over the gas pilot on our stove. On a hot day, you can just wrap it in a towel. Another alternative is to put it in the microwave for about 30 sec. every couple of hours.
Translucent white cups cook slowly, evenly, mysteriously multiplying bacteria in the corner of our kitchen. This bacteria is good bacteria, we want it to reproduce. Soon the white cups will fill to the top with slippery white gelled liquid to which we will add fruit or preserves. From when he was a young man, in High School or earlier, maybe Middle School, my Brother made his own Yogurt. At the time I thought the practice was an odd hobby, maybe something my Brother did to help save money on the grocery bill or as an investigative chemistry experiment. We ate this homemade yogurt a lot. It was good. As we moved on with life... he went to college, I went to college... soon we were separated by time, an entire continent, and an ocean of mediocre yogurt. Battling weight, I lived off of low fat dreck for years. The plastic sheen of pastel pink and yellow cultures engulfed damaged, dye infused, soggy fruits. It doesn't compare. I miss the old yogurt, the yogurt from those white cups.
