Friday, May 7, 2010

Yogurt Making

I started making my own yogurt. It's really easy, and way cheaper than buying the stuff in the store. You have to make "plain" yogurt. But homemade plain yogurt isn't nearly as gross as the store bought kind.

My first batch tasted kinda pickle-y. Mostly that's because I used a pickle jar to make the yogurt. I washed it first, but somehow it still made the yogurt pickle-y. The second batch turned out much better.

I still haven't totally figured out what to put in my yogurt. My friend, who gave me the recipe, suggested vanilla and honey. I think somehow vanilla gets stronger the longer it sits in the yogurt, because I put about a teaspoon in my bowl last night, stirred it around, and tasted it. It still tasted pretty plain to me. But when I tried it at work today, boy was it vanilla-y! I also make my own fruit sauce by blending frozen fruit with jelly in my magic bullet. Mmm! There's nothing like extra-sweet fruit to balance out the otherwise nutritious yogurt. I wouldn't want to get too carried away with the healthy food!

If you think store bought yogurt is too expensive, or if you're annoyed that you can't actually recycle those stupid #5 yogurt tubs, or both, I think you should try making your own!

2 comments:

  1. I've been buying the Greek-style yogurt at Trader Joe's and stirring in fruit preserves. Living in Egypt turned me off American yogurt forever - although I have yet to find a substitute for that phenomenal blackberry flavor! I'm eating the yogurt right now with Trappist fig preserves stirred in ... yum!

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  2. And here's my idol Harold McGee's take on making yogurt and other dairy goodies. His method is more complex, but if you want to get your geek on, there's no substitute:
    http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/15/dining/15curi.html

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