I watched a woman on youtube whose method is to heat the milk, cool to 105°F, add starter, pour in quart jars, and place in an igloo cooler overnight to ferment. (She did sterilize her jars.) So "no special equipment needed" for yogurt!!
I've decided to try the slow cooker waterbath method today. I think I prefer making the yogurt in the jar it will be stored in. Less stuff to wash.
I was under the impression that if the cooking container was not sterile, you might be culturing critters that you don't want. I only read one website on the subject. I'm glad to know it's not all that necessary.
That is similar to how I do it too. I have done the cooler method also, but found I like the oven better. I heat the milk up to 180-185.Then cool down to 110, and then add it to a bowl with my container of yogurt, I turn the oven on for a few seconds to reach 100 degrees and then turn it off. I leave the light bulb on all night in the oven. It maintains a constant 100 degrees. (I incubate it for 8-10 hours. Anything longer than that it makes the yogurt to sour or tart for my taste). I strain it through cheese cloth to get the consistency that I like, which is greek style and then spoon it into little plastic containers with lids to single serving size and store in the refrigerator. My yogurt maker.
I would be more concerned about the storage containers than the cooking container. After all, you are "cooking." I have put 3 pint jars in my Breville at 200° to sterilize them. I don't normally bother but I'm not sure how fast I can eat this with my carb restrictions. I put water in my crock pot and used the Low setting. The water heated up to about 130° so I turned it down to Simmer. If the water stays too warm I will use the oven.
Well. That didn't go well. I forgot to consider the depth of my slow cooker, so I had to transfer my mixture to 3 pint jars (yogurt mixture wouldn't quite fit in 2). The jars are this style... So they ended up being too wide for all 3 to fit in the crockpot. So I turned on my Breville oven and set it for the lowest temp (120° F) and put them in there, along with an oven thermometer. I checked the thermometer after an hour and it is holding steady at about 110°. So, we'll see what happens. My "recipe" was 3 cups of half-and-half plus 1 cup of heavy cream and 4 tablespoons of live culture greek yogurt.
OK! We have yogurt! It took about 6 hours at 110°F in the countertop oven. It is thick and I'm not going to strain it. It is very creamy and just a bit tart... my husband said it tastes good and he doesn't care much for yogurt. I'm happy with the outcome but I need to figure out a different fermenting method because I don't like running the oven for that long. I put the "recipe" into MyFitnessPal recipe builder and got this nutrition information, based on 1/2 cup serving.
This one is my fave but I have thought about learning to make Yogurt since I eat some every day. I'm low carb because of T2 Diabetes. I'm almost glad for the diagnosis because lowering carbs has done a lot for me. This what I call my one indulgence as I have it for lunch, or a snack with chopped walnuts and blueberries (my fave berries) which are one of the lowest carb berries. This "treat" never raised my blood glucose so I have no fear eating it. Recently they started putting Vanilla beans, finely ground in with other Vanilla flavoring. I know home-made would be less processed so I will keep some of the info in this thread should I decide to make my own though
Given that you're dehydrating AeroGarden herbs (and may have other uses), might this push you over the edge in getting a larger dehydrator? You could add fruit to that yogurt and dry it for snacks.
I've not pushed the time limits on the Breville. I thing the Proof function max is 60 minutes. Dunno about the other modes. (When you said "oven," did you mean your Breville?)
Dried fruit always made me think of shrunkin heads hey, I wonder if that's how the cannibals shrink them, dehydrators??
Yes, the Breville. And I totally forgot about the proof function. Duh. But 60 minutes wouldn't have worked. When I set it for 120° it never got that warm according to my oven thermometer.
Denise, could you take a picture of the ingredients list for that? I'm curious about what's in there. Is it sweet tasting?