Yogurt, etc.

I took a class offered through TOFGA (Texas Organic Farmers and Gardeners) to learn how to make homemade dairy products.

I loved learning about yogurt and the butter that is created as it rises to the top during the curing process.

I made yogurt from instructions in The Home Creamery.

I made yogurt with the Yogourmet packets in the refrigerated area of the grocery store.

I made yogurt with a little bit of leftover yogurt for starter.

And then I discovered making yogurt with Icelandic Skyr from the local dairy farm.

My experiments have shown me that I can make yogurt from  almost any kind of dairy starter.

My favorite is with about two teaspoons of Skyr in a pint of milk.

Although my attention to the temperature varies, (heating the milk up to 185 degrees F and then cooling it to between 105 and 115 degrees F.), generally the yogurt sets up.

When it doesn’t, we just drink it.

But usually it does set up, either over night in a gas oven with just the pilot light, in an unheated electric oven, or in our outdoor kitchen, it simply sits in an empty, dry cooler.

It gets refrigerated or put in a cooler with ice to stop the curing.

When I eat it, I always start with the delicious yogurt butter.

That comes from the thicker yellowish part that I personally do not skim off the milk as it heats.

Sometimes I eat it plain, or I will alternate it with spoonfuls of homemade strawberry preserves, fresh blueberries or some other type of fruit preserves.

Bottom line, I love eating my homemade yogurt!

© 2014 Kathryn Hardage