<p>This will be a Christmas gift for me 
Any recommendations?</p>
<p>why waste money?..You can make it the old fashioned natural way (No indian will use a yogurt maker). Wife Unit had it ages ago and she didn’t like a bit. If interested I will ask her for recipe.</p>
<p>Simba, please share your wife’s yogurt recipe. My Indian friend gave me a recipe to make yogurt but I lost it.</p>
<p>Does it involve hanging cheesecloth?</p>
<p>I’m interested in yogurt maker recs, too. We go through a lot of yogurt.</p>
<p>Here it goes…It is very simple.</p>
<p>For 1/2 gallon of milk.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Boil the milk till it is about to overflow.</p></li>
<li><p>Natural cool it till luke warm.</p></li>
<li><p>Add about 10-12 table spoons of starter yogurt culture (you have to buy regular yogurt from store and use some of it). You may have to play around with the quantity of starter yogurt depending up on the climate. </p></li>
<li><p>Mix it good. Keep it in warm place. In summer it takes about 6-7 hours. In winter months she puts it in old fashioned oven with its light own.</p></li>
<li><p>Once the yogurt is made, don’t use up all of it. Save some for the next batch. There is a saying in India that subsequent version of starter yougurt (culture) make good yogurt.</p></li>
<li><p>Also remember one thing. Indian recipes are not precise. You just have to play around till you hit the correct combination. No two batches of my wife’s yogurt taste identical.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Use clean and uncontaminated utensils. </p>
<p>We used store milk or powdered skim milk. For starter we use active, probotic, keifer style also from store, many regualr brands. Do not use yogurt starters containing starch.
Do not use starters with strawberry, vanilla, pineapple, or flavorings with alcohol, since the extracts will kill the bacteria. Peach works well. Of course plain works.</p>
<p>Yogurt will thicken in 8-12 hours. I like a firmer yogurt and culture for 16-18 hours. I also like a smoother yogurt and I add a tblsp of cooking oil to the milk, shake milk jug (5 secs) to distribute (emulsify) oil. Add the starter culture at tne same time you add the optional oil, and before shaking. Disturbing the cultured milk in the latter half of the culturing phase will cause the whey and curds to separate and you will get cottage cheese. Add flavorings, sugar, fake sugar, fruits after thickening. </p>
<p>Heat milk,
add starter, oil,
shake to emulsify and distribute starter.
culture at ~100°F, 8-18 hours.
ready to eat
add flavorings.
refrigerate after culturing, Should easily keep for 2 weeks in frig.</p>
<p>I use Salton and Donvier which have 6 oz containers. Bought from Goodwill. Simba method works too. </p>
<p>I use a microwave to heat the milk (in jug )to temperature (baby milk temp, ~90-105°). This is reverse of simba’s method. </p>
<p>My yogurt also is NTST, (no two same taste). Soy milk works but use unflavored, since the flavorings will kill the starter culture.</p>
<p>I have an Easi-Yo yogurt maker. It is from New Zealand, but is distributed in the U.S.
You buy packets to mix up, but I am going to try your recipe in it, as the packets are expensive.</p>
<p>It’s very easy to use. Fill it with hot water, put plastic container with yogurt inside , and let it sit for 12 hours.</p>
<p>Making it in the oven is inconvenient for me . I would love to be able to plug it in the evening and have an auto shut off feature.
I used something like Easi-Yo while I lived in England - can’t seem to buy it here .</p>
<p>LongPrime - do you use large Salton or the one little jars?</p>
<p>little jars of plastic, glass or ceramic. I make 8 on the Convier and 5 on the Salton on day 1 and maybe another 1 to 3 on day 2, using the excess milk mix. Too many containers clogs the refrigerator.</p>
<p>Great for buttermilk substitute for pancakes. </p>
<p>Do not use for yeast breads since the probotics will kill the yeast.</p>