Yogurt

For every oz of milk you have- it can become yogurt.  All you need is a pan, some heat and a starter.... ie: a little left over yogurt from a store container.

Original directions:  

~heat milk until 175-185 (almost boiling)

~let cool until 110-112

~whisk in starter

~place in either of the following:

*Oven heated to 170 then turned off

*Food dehydrator set at "yogurt"

*Lunch box filled with hot water

*Yogurt maker....all for 8-12 hours

I don't do that......

My directions:

I take my milk (always 1 gallon for me),

put it in a pot and heat it until it reaches about 115*

(I go with that temp to avoid stages of pasteurization since I use raw milk)  

Remove from heat and allow to cool until it reaches the temp of about 112*.  

At this point I whisk in my starter (approximately 1/2 cup- to be honest I just add a bit)

 and put a lid on my pan. 

Jacket the pot by wrapping it in 2 towels and place somewhere off the floor and warm-ish.

I check between 18-24 hours after I wrap up the pan.  If it seems a little watery then I allow it to sit for a bit longer, but that has only happened once.

***By allowing 24 hours of curing, this will eliminate much of the lactose out of the milk*** 

Here I am allowing the whey to filter through the cloth so I wind up with a Greek style yogurt that also doubles as "sour cream" (very similar process) if you add a little lemon in it.

You can see the thick Greek style on the bottom side of the spoon 

and the thinner traditional yogurt on the left.

When you make this yogurt, the exact amount of milk used is the exact amount you will get.  However, when I make my Greek style yogurt I wind up with about half of what I start with.

Don't toss the whey!  I always try to keep at least a cup or more on hand for getting rust off of...anything.  Seriously- It will remove massive amounts of rust.

Since you began with just milk- there will be just milk in the yogurt.  Zero sugar.  In my house we like it with honey, cinnamon and lime zest over granola.  

Some times we add grilled apples and maple syrup.

In the end when I believe it might be on its way out-

 we make yogurt drops out of it or freeze it for- well- frozen yogurt.  

 White and refined sugar is awful for you.  It feeds the nasty things inside you and allows it to grow.... it grows cancer among other terrible things.  You might want to stop eating it....

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Back to the whey:

My friends father (in his late 80's!)  is using the whey to fix this old milking bucket and filter.  Originally this thing was covered in rust.  I believe I heard that this was a few treatments into the process.  I asked if it would remove rust successfully from clothing and got a blank expression.... so that will be for another day. 

There have been studies that have shown that the world is "in environmental peril" because no one knows what to do with all the whey that it leaves behind from this massive Greek yogurt phase.  There are processes that allow you to use whey to make other cheeses like Ricotta, 

but this is not one of them.... so the world is "in peril"? 

For real?

  The easiest answer is to feed it to your pigs, chickens, dogs or any pet for that matter- not to mention you can easily use it for your protein shakes or a substitution for water in anything baked.  

 On a side note:

 I don't recommend consuming a lot of dairy or meat.  But I do have a hard time understanding people who "don't eat dairy" because of  lifting weights and yet they consume whey protein- more specifically... Casein.   How confusing.  There has to be like 100 cows inside each 10# container of Casein.  Okay, that MIGHT be an exaggeration, but I can't even say that for a fact. Casein causes cancer.  End of.  I have years worth of reading material that proves this if you want it.