Making Greek Yogurt

Yogurt is a great food, it can be eaten alone, blended into a smoothie, or one of my favorites, used as a marinate for chicken. This is a beginners guide to yogurt. Although this blog is about making yogurt, I’m going to tell you how to make the chicken yogurt too, as it is not long enough for a complete blog. After you have completed making your yogurt or Greek yogurt, before flavoring, simply spoon 1 cup per chicken breast and bake. Its epic. You can flavor the yogurt with lemon and place 2-3 rosemary sticks (I don’t know what they’re called. Lol) in the yogurt just before placing it in the oven.

SO. To yogurt. I make my own, because it is cheaper than store bought, I buy lots of milk for Kiefer and smoothies, so I usually pick up an extra 2 gallons to make into yogurt. I also buy an organic, cultured, lightly or unflavored yogurt, if you don’t have them you’ll need a cooking thermometer, large mesh strainer (for Greek yogurt). I grabbed The Greek Gods because I was in a hurry, I don’t *think* its organic, but It tastes awesome and the cows have not been treated with rBST. Anyway, to begin you need a yogurt maker or an Instapot. I have a yogurt maker, ran me $20, can’t remember where though. My machine has a 5 cup capacity, so I use 4 cups whole milk and 1 cup cream. If I am dieting I use 5 cups fat free milk and add 1-2 hours to the timer (discussed later).

So put the 5 cups of milk and cream in a pot and slowly bring to about 180°F, whisking every 1-2 minutes. DO NOT BOIL. Your yogurt will be messed up. Once you reach 180°F remove from heat, and let cool to 110-100. DO NOT COOL BELOW 90°F. Heating the milk then allowing it to cool alters the structure of the milk protein casein which thickens the yogurt. When the yogurt has cooled to 110-100°F, add ½ cup yogurt, whisk until there are no lumps. Place in yogurt machine for 8-9 hours or 9-10 hours for fat free milk. For Greek yogurt, strain for 2 hours. Straining longer makes thicker, and shorter makes thinner. If you choose to use soy milk, increase the time in the machine to 11 hours.

this blog is incomplete and will be updated asap