Yogurt is one of the things that helps me stay on my food plan. I love it, esp with fresh fruit and raw oatmeal stirred in. I read a book called Animal, Vegetable, Miracle about a family that lived on local food for a year. They routinely made their own yogurt. So, I've decided to try it. My biggest problem is keeping it at 100F for 7 hours. Any yogurt makers out there that have mastered ths? If not, wish me luck!

I make yogurt but I use a yogurt maker. You can do an Internet search and come up with lots of information on making it without a yogurt maker. I decided to get a yogurt maker because I planned to make my own yogurt on a weekly bases and didn't want to "experiment" with trying to make it without one. I have my yogurt recipe along with my homemade granola recipe on my 3FatChicks Blog. I love mixing my yogurt with fresh or thawed frozen fruit and homemade granola. Good luck on your yogurt making adventure...it's worth it!

http://www.3fatchicks.com/diet-blogs/fjcinzion/recipes

My Squidoo page...Recipe for Homemade Yogurt
http://www.squidoo.com/everything_yogurt

I used to make yogurt... I used a yogurt maker though. I LOVE homemade yogurt!

Today I'm going to try making it without a yogurt maker; if it's a total failure I guess it's off to Amazon!

Hey, guess what? When I lived in Africa, I used to make yogurt without a yogurt maker.

Warm the milk to about baby bottle warmth-- where you can splash it on your inner forearm and it won't burn.

mix in a generous tablespoon of plain high quality yogurt.

Take a big heavy sauce pan and fill it with hot water. Pour the warm milk with the yogurt mixed in it into glasses. Place the glasses in the hot water in the sauce pan. Cover it with a thick wool blanket and leave it in a warm place.

Wait 24 hours and enjoy!

(It tastes best with unhomogenized whole milk... then the cream rises to the top when it's done... but that is probably only a 3FC recipe in very small servings...)

WOW -- you have more determination than me! lol I just buy it in the store -- good luck to ya!

Thanks so much! I was still pondering what I was going to do about keeping it warm for hours. Finding a warm place is getting harder here in Maine this time of year! I think I'll try putting the pan with the hot water in the oven on low. I have a candy thermometer so I can keep track of the temp. For some reason, even though it sounds simple, I'm a little intimidated. So, I just have to go for it and do it!

Don't be intimidated!! Just use a good quality starter, like Stonyfield Farms and you should do great...

Let me know how it turns out!

If your adding store bought yogurt to it then what's the point? I have been wondering this, becuase on my vegrecipes lj comm they talk about making their own yogurt but they all add store bought yogurt to it. *confused*

The store bought yogurt is just a starter, it's not very much. You get quite a lot of yogurt from milk and the starter.

You add about a tablespoon of yogurt as a starter to the milk. that's where the cultures come from. Once you've made your own yogurt once, then you can use your own yogurt as a culture....

There's probably another way to get yogurt cultures but the easiest way is just to mix up a spoonful of plain yogurt into about a quart of warm milk then follow instructions as above.

If the milk is too hot when you add the yogurt starter then the cultures will die and it won't yogurtize....(yog?) That's why you splash the milk on your inner arm-- then it's the perfect yogurt temperature.

Hmm... Not sure I'm making sense, though it makes perfect sense to me.