Laboratory of a Mad Housewife

That is, my kitchen.

I recently felt like a mad housewife-scientist when I was attempting to make yogurt.

Since I’ve entered this new smoothy phase of my existence, I’ve been buying more yogurt than I ever have before.  Yogurt makes a great nutritious base for yummy fruit smoothies. Also goes great with homemade granola.

But it adds up.  And when things add up, I look for ways to “subtract” them down, so to speak.  So I decided to look into home-made yogurt possibilities.

I’ve always wanted to try it on my own ever since I read about the process in my all-time-favorite-frugal book, The Complete Tightwad Gazette. However, I never had the nerve to try it because it seemed a bit too convoluted to me - thermometers, heating pads, inconsistent results.

So I found this interesting: instructions for making yogurt in your crockpot. I had to try this!

Well, I did.  And it came out pretty good.  Not as firm as store bought, but definitely yogurt.

I really liked this, but I needed a way to tailor it to my own circumstances.  That is, I knew this would not become a regular item on my frugal menu if I couldn’t find a way to make it with stuff I already have on hand.  I generally don’t drink (or buy) the full-fat milk required in the above recipe, so I wanted to see if it would be possible to make a reasonable yogurt with my good ol’ dry milk.

Turns out that The CompleteTightwad Gazette was able to help me out with that. The book pointed me in this direction: use nonfat milk, and add additional dry milk powder to it.  This worked like this: I used 2 quarts (1/2 gallon) of liquid nonfat milk, and added 1 cup of dry milk powder.  At that point I followed the instructions above, which are pretty simple: I cooked this mixture on low for 2 1/2 hours, unplugged my slow cooker and let it sit for 3 hours. After 3 hours I then took 2 cups of the warm milk out of the slow cooker and mixed into this 1/2 a cup of “live culture” yogurt.  I added this back to the warm milk in the slow cooker, covered it up with a thick bath towel, and let sit for 8 hours.

I got my “live culture” yogurt for this batch from my original batch of yogurt. Per The Complete Tightwad Gazette, I saved and froze 4 1/2 cup batches from this first go-around to use as my live culture in future yogurt making adventures.  I left it out to reach room temperature before adding to the slow cooker.  For my very first batch, I purchased a small container of Dannon plain yogurt (in addition to the full-fat milk).

This nonfat version compares very favorably with the full-fat variety.  In fact, it seems a tad firmer and a bit more tart (which I like). (Actually, I guess it’s not completely nonfat, as the reserved “live culture” yogurt is from the first, all-fat, version).   Also, I REALLY like the fact that I don’t have to make a special trip to buy a different type of milk, and incubating yogurt.

It cost about $1.17 to make this 1/2 gallon of plain (mostly) non-fat yogurt.  A similar amount of store bought could cost up to $8.00 (I paid .50 for a 4 oz container of Dannon yogurt).  The full-fat version was $2.25 ($1.79 for a 1/2 gallon of milk, plus .50 for a 4 oz container of plain Dannon yogurt). So, well worth the trouble of making my own.  But really, it was easy.

Yay! I am a yogurt-making goddess!