How to Make Yogurt (Yoghurt)
I wanted to make my own yogurt and found many sites that offered great advice but MakeYourOwnYogurt.com had very clear instructions and photographs.
My first attempt was a success!
I used my food dehydrator to keep the yogurt at the right temperature for the bacteria to grow instead of a heating pad. But I thought the heating pad was a great idea as well.
Some of the health benefits and information about the bacteria in yogurt can be found here.
Based on federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA) standards, in order for a product to be called “yogurt” it must be made by combining a dairy product with a bacteria, usually Lactobacillus bulgaricus and Streptococcus thermophilus. The National Yogurt Association (NYA) has made its own rules for yogurt. In order for a special “Live & Active Culture” seal to appear on a container of yogurt, the product must contain at least 100 million bacteria per gram of yogurt at the time it is made.
That’s a lot of bacteria.
One of the advantages of making your own yogurt is that you can choose the types of bacteria you want to put in it. For example, if you want the same cultures they use in Dannon’s Activia, you just go to the store and buy some plain Activia and use it for your starter. The same is true for DanActive or any other brand of yogurt.
The cost savings is also very substantial. A 24oz container of Activia currently costs $3.99 or $0.166/oz. A gallon of whole milk costs $2.99 and that will make a gallon of yogurt for $0.023/oz. The equivalent of a gallon (128oz) of Activia would cost $21.25.
DanActive is even more expensive. An 8-pack cost $6.49 and each container is 3.1oz which comes out to $0.261/oz. A gallon equivalent would cost $33.50, eleven times the cost of making your own.
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