Wrap it like a Baby

“Wrap it like a baby. This is the most important part of yogurt making,” the cooking instructor told the class, “and put it someplace warm.” That was over twenty years ago at a cooking class taken from a local restaurant.

Making homemade yogurt from fresh milk is satisfying, yet specific. Every time this PFO makes a batch, the kitchen is transformed back to that cooking class, as every step of the process is mimicked by that excellent teacher.

Measure four cups of fresh whole milk into a very clean stainless steel pot that has been rinsed out with water but not wiped dry. Set on medium/high heat.

Measure 4 cups fresh cold milk.

Use very clean stainless steel pot that has been rinsed out with cold water (do not dry it).

Now the careful watching begins. This is the most time consuming part of the process. Watch and stir, watch and stir. The milk must get just under the point of boiling. On a medium-high heat, this may take 20-30 minutes. Be patient and watch. At the moment it very nearly begins to boil, remove from heat. This starts the cooling step. Every 10 minutes stir the milk. Let sit, stir again, repeat. This step takes about 30 minutes.

Test the temperature of the milk by dipping little finger into milk. It should feel very warm.

When the milk has cooled to very warm, it will be ready to have a spoonful of yogurt (from a previous batch) gently blended in. After stirring gently into milk, transfer to a plastic container with a tight lid. The next step—Wrap it like a Baby!

When milk has cooled to a nice warm temperature, gently blend in a spoonful of yogurt from a previous batch.

Wrap it like a Baby!! Place in warm spot for 6 hours. Do not Disturb!!

Your batch of delicious homemade yogurt will need to grow for 6 hours in a warm spot. Do not disturb! After six hours of growing, your milk will have magically transformed into a beautiful tub of homemade yogurt. There is hardly anything any better on it than a dollop of local honey! Enjoy!!