For Eileen-heating pad for yogurt

[Guest guest]

Hi Eileen,

Have you tried using a heating pad?....if you have one, you might want to try it:

Basically I heat the milk to the simmer stage and remove from the heat. (Stir to prevent scorching and sticking). I usually strain it at this point and stir to cool it a little.

I hasten cooling by putting the heated milk in the refrigerator until it reaches a temperature of about 77 degrees. (When I place it in the refrigerator I cover it with some plastic wrap and insert a small digital thermometer in it so that it's easy to read the temperature.)

When it reaches 77 degrees I plug in the heating pad, (cover removed) and put it on high to warm up. Following the directions in BTVC I remove 1/4 cup of starter (I use Dannon whole milk) and mix it with about 1/2 cup of room temperature milk. Mix thoroughly.

Then place this mixture in the room temperature milk and mix thoroughly. These are the same directions for all the other methods of making yogurt.

Pour this mixture in any container (I use a glass pyrex bowl covered with plastic wrap with a thermometer in it). Place this on the heating pad. I surround the bowl with a towel-- in order to help raise the temperature to the fermenting temperature of about 100 degrees. This can take two hours. When it's around 100 degrees I lower the setting to medium. Temperature changes slowly with this method --this is the time you have to watch it carefully the first time you make it, so that you know which setting to use. Medium usually works for me. You can add towels or remove them to adjust the temperature. Once you know which setting to use, you don't have to fuss with it. It's easy to monitor with the thermometer in it. I aim for 105 degrees.

The plus of using this method is that you can be sure it's the right temperature. The minus is that you have to monitor it until it reaches the fermenting temperature. I find having one less appliance a plus also.

I haven't tried any other method of making yogurt so I can't compare it to the others.

If you have a heating pad, it would be easy for you to try this method.

Hope these instructions make sense to you. Good luck.

Phyllis

CD, SCD 3 years