Baggywrinkle
09-14-2008, 05:52 PM
We woke up and saw it coming almost three years ago now. Thank God for visionaries like J.R. Moore, Steve Shenk, Jim Phillips, James Wesley Rawles, And Miles Stair.
That summer of 2005 we started executing the law of provident living as practiced by the Church of the LDS.
We also slashed our costs to the bone, seeking to save
where ever possible. I am old enough that my grandparents not only lived through the great depression, they lived before internal combustion engines and electricity. Happily, some of their ethic rubbed off.
When it all comes tumbling down, preparation ends. What you have is what you've got. We currently do not own enough land to comfortably support our own dairy cow. What we do have is not ready for goats. So we rely on the market for our dairy. Milk is still classified as a loss leader, even if it is six dollars a gallon in some districts. If you think I'm kidding go to your market yogurt aisle and price out a gallon of plain yogurt, then just to rub salt in the wound price out a gallon of your favorite flavored yogurt. enuf said.
We start with a gallon of milk, a large kettle, and a small container of plain or vanilla yogurt as starter. Heat the milk to 160 degrees and allow to cool to below 130
Add the starter, stir and pour into four quart sized mason jars. Then incubate for 6-12 hours between 110-126 degrees F .
Ideally you never go below 120 degrees and never ever
exceed 130. That will kill the culture. We chuck our jars
into a styrofoam cooler lined with a plastic garbage bag
and filled with hot water.
The longer the yogurt culture incubates the more tart the flavor - yum! This keeps us in yogurt for a month, which (admittedly) is really stretching the use by date.
If you are really hard core, only make a quart at a time and save a small jar to use as starter. Doing this, you will never need to buy yogurt again. Using your own starter yogurt should be made once
a week. It is a sad day when the yogurt fails because your starter was too old...
The end result is nothing like what you buy in the store.
There are no thickeners or additives. The difference is
striking.
That summer of 2005 we started executing the law of provident living as practiced by the Church of the LDS.
We also slashed our costs to the bone, seeking to save
where ever possible. I am old enough that my grandparents not only lived through the great depression, they lived before internal combustion engines and electricity. Happily, some of their ethic rubbed off.
When it all comes tumbling down, preparation ends. What you have is what you've got. We currently do not own enough land to comfortably support our own dairy cow. What we do have is not ready for goats. So we rely on the market for our dairy. Milk is still classified as a loss leader, even if it is six dollars a gallon in some districts. If you think I'm kidding go to your market yogurt aisle and price out a gallon of plain yogurt, then just to rub salt in the wound price out a gallon of your favorite flavored yogurt. enuf said.
We start with a gallon of milk, a large kettle, and a small container of plain or vanilla yogurt as starter. Heat the milk to 160 degrees and allow to cool to below 130
Add the starter, stir and pour into four quart sized mason jars. Then incubate for 6-12 hours between 110-126 degrees F .
Ideally you never go below 120 degrees and never ever
exceed 130. That will kill the culture. We chuck our jars
into a styrofoam cooler lined with a plastic garbage bag
and filled with hot water.
The longer the yogurt culture incubates the more tart the flavor - yum! This keeps us in yogurt for a month, which (admittedly) is really stretching the use by date.
If you are really hard core, only make a quart at a time and save a small jar to use as starter. Doing this, you will never need to buy yogurt again. Using your own starter yogurt should be made once
a week. It is a sad day when the yogurt fails because your starter was too old...
The end result is nothing like what you buy in the store.
There are no thickeners or additives. The difference is
striking.