Homemade Yogurt: A Tale of Eventual Success

After years of hesitancy, I decided to overcome my fear of failure and get serious about making yogurt.  So last month I bought a jug of organic milk.  Then it went sour before I did anything with it.  Strike one.

But last week, images from inspiring tutorials (including Alicia's) beckoned me to try making homemade yogurt again.  I bought a gallon of fresh local milk and finally began the yogurt making process.  After placing two empty Mason jars and lids in a pot, I began boiling away.  And though I forgot to save the web page with the instructions, I forged ahead with my plan.  Thankfully my More With Less cookbook contained an outline of the steps for me to follow.

I made do with this meat thermometer.

The biggest snag I hit was cracking a Mason jar.  I poured cold milk into a 200 degree Mason jar and...pop!  Out flowed the milk as the shards gave way.  Luckily, I had another empty jar around to serve in its place.  Lessons learned:

1. Let the sterilized jars cool before filling them with cold milk;
2. Heat jars gradually.

Hours later, my resolve paid off when I pulled these out of our big blue cooler (imagine them both full):

The following morning I spooned up thick homemade yogurt into each child's bowl, added honey, and waited for their reactions.   Everyone requested seconds, which was a good sign.  Even my husband wanted some.

I'll be heating up more Mason jars again soon I expect.  My kids have eaten many, many gallons of yogurt in their lifetimes; I only wish I had tried making it sooner.  No one in our household drinks dairy milk at home, but yogurt we down by the quart.