Yogurt in a Crockpot

Hello all!  Time has been flying by fast for me.  Though I keep planning to write much more often here, I find myself keeping busy starting my business instead.   Not much has been changing around here otherwise.  We have had much snow and Spring is so far away so I will not be getting out to do much foraging for a while.  Soon I will post about some winter foraging that I have been doing.

Grizz has continued growing to be a wonderful dog. Now at 6 months old, he is a big 55 lbs of bouncing puppy joy.  Grizz just had his first snowmobile ride.  It will be good to train him to stay comfortably on a snowmobile or quad for when we take long trail trips.

I love making homemade yogurt, and found a method that uses a crockpot to heat the milk, and then turned off to cool for a bit before adding the yogurt culture.  Then, the crockpot just rests for hours while the yogurt culture works its wonders.

Homemade yogurt is a beneficial probiotic for healthy digestion, though there are many controversies involving its use in the regular diet.  I recommend using only organic, raw, grass-fed milk from local farmers, but its difficult to obtain raw.  There are many varieties available including Greek-style which has a higher protein content.  Yogurt the only dairy product that I regularly consume.  Pasteurized milk irritates my stomach, though raw feels just fine to me.   The yogurt culture I purchase currently is an organic pasteurized Greek-style.   I flavor my yogurt portions (usually with fruit and maple syrup or honey) only just before I eat it, but I also love to include yogurt in a smoothie for breakfast made with apple, oatmeal, honey and yogurt.  I also add it to soups instead of cream, or use it to make a delicious tangy cream cheese!  Do not use any yogurt culture that contains pectin.  I choose unflavored, but I have successfully used a vanilla flavored yogurt as the culture.

There are several methods of making yogurt easily found online, (or your local library), but here is the instructions I use to make it in a crock-pot:

Makes 1/2 gallon yogurt.

1.  Pour 1/2 gallon milk into a crock-pot with ceramic interior.
2.  Heat milk until thermometer reaches 175 degrees F.
3.  Meanwhile, let 1 cup yogurt set out to warm to room temperature.
4.  When crock-pot has heated to 175 degrees, unplug the crock-pot and allow it to cool until 115 degrees.  You may occasionally stir it to prevent a top-skin forming.
5.  Stir in 1 cup organic yogurt culture.
6.  Wrap the unplugged crock-pot with bath-sized towels, and let set undisturbed for 10 hours.  The resulting yogurt should be thick and delicious.

Store in the refrigerator and use as desired, saving 1 cup to use as a culture for your next batch of homemade natural goodness.  Enjoy!

Here's some more interesting and useful info on yogurt:
http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=124