Yogurt made from scratch

You need:

1-2 big screw-top jars

Milk, whole milk, the amount that fits into the jars

2-3 table spoons of starter yogurt, so you need to have some plain yogurt with live cultures, or yogurt culture purchased from a heath food store

Preparation

1. Heat the milk until it froths (185 degrees F)

This takes about 5 min. Stir the milk so it does not burn on the bottom.

2. let the milk cool down to about 100 degrees F (38 C), slightly warmer than body temperature

This may take about 1 hour

3. fill the lukewarm milk into the jars, mix 1-2 table spoons of yogurt starter into each jar and close the jars with the screw cap

4. let the jars rest for approx. 8 hours in a warm, dark place: I shortly preheat the oven to 100 F, put the jars in, close the oven door and switch the oven light on to keep a lightly warm temperature)

Tip:

You can add some spoons of cream to the milk to make the yogurt more rich and desert like.

Too-hot milk will kill the cultures; too-cold milk won’t get anything moving. While the yogurt sets the temp needs to stay between 90 and 120 degrees - over 120 and the cultures die, under 90 and it stands a risk of both not setting and also getting unfriendly bacteria in it.

Yogurt is simply fermented milk, healthy bacteria (probiotics) are introduced, which curdles the milk and releases lactic acid. From what I understand, this makes yogurt easier for many people to digest than milk.