Yogurting

Ever since watching Yang Haiying make her own yogurt (over and over and over again) on her YouTube channel in her calming, accented voice, I had wanted to try it. However, at the time, we had an insanely tiny kitchen where a warm-water bath on the stove meant no other food could be prepared on said stove. So I coped out and continued to buy my yogurt for upwards of $1.10 per cup (I like Siggi's best--I liked Chobani until they started to add ridiculous amounts of sugar to it). Then, I read Jenifer Reese's Make the Bread, Buy the Butter, and we were in our new (1978) house with a HUGE kitchen.

She explains the process and shows very well how to make it with normal kitchen stuff in this video. (If you are into ASMR, my favorite ones she has created are the ones of her in museums talking about art...but ASMR isn't everybody's thing.)

 The cost-benefit analysis of making yogurt yourself is really clear. If you don't believe me, check out the US Labor Bureau's website for current cost of milk and compare that to whatever you spent on yogurt lately. I buy grassfed organic milk for around $4 a half-gallon, so for me this was even more cost-effective. If you triple my recipe the second go-round (As I intend to) with your own yogurt as a starter, you'll end up with about 6 cups of yogurt from your half-gallon, or 67 cents per-cup, probably closer to 75 cents considering honey and vanilla...WAY less than what I pay for Siggis and marginally less than what I would pay for Chobani.

Supposedly, this process is pretty idiot proof, so I invented my own small-batch recipe to use as a trial:

500 ml whole milk (a pint is good, if you are buying milk just for this)
1/4 cup Siggis coconut yogurt (it's what I had on hand)
1 Tbsp. honey
1 Tbsp. vanilla

I boiled the milk and added what I wanted, as Haiying describes, but then I filled a pot with water and put my liquid back in the measuring pitcher I used to measure the milk over low heat for eight-ish hours (Basically, until I was finished cleaning up supper for the night and ready to close down the kitchen). Because I left the milk uncovered, I did have to add water to the pot (not the cup with the yogurt) a few times. While I have a cooler, I'm not super keen on putting boiling water in anything plastic. Next time, I'll try doing the water bath in the crok pot on warm overnight, I think. That seems a bit less of a hassle than using the stove, and doesn't seem like it would require water-level monitoring; I just didn't have it out at the time.

After two hours: Still as liquidy as standard milk
After four hours:
After six hours: 

Now, I like my yogurt pretty thick (okay, REALLY thick), so the next morning, it didn't resemble anything I would normally eat. 

The following day it was all curdled-looking, but tasted okay and was thicker.

Then, I went to the store and Siggis was on sale for less than what making this mess cost. 

Bottom Line: just buy the yogurt you cheapskate.