Recipe?
Just scald some milk ( to kill the bad germs) then when it is about baby bathwater warm...no warmer, stir in some store bought yogurt with active culture. Keep it at about 110 degrees for 6 to 12 hours....chill and eat.
The trick is clean....everything must be very clean or you will get bacteria other than yogurt bacteria growing....and if it gets too hot it kills the culture....and the longer you let it sit at 110 degrees the tangier it gets.
You can vary it my using whole milk or skim fortified with some dry milk or evaporated milk....just see how you like it.
Linda C

Once in a while I find a sippy cup of milk that gone missing for a few days. Have often wondered if what looks like yogurt tastes like yogurt. Blech!

Constant 110 deg - sound like a job for your oven's proof mode. How else would you manage that without constantly checking and adjusting? (Or without a yogurt machine?)

Oh yes, I make yogurt regularly with my food dehydrator, although I started by using a cooler filled with hot water.

I use the directions from Fiasco Farms, and I just use some of my last batch of yogurt as my starter for the new batch. It gets more sour as batches go on, and the first batch I made I started with just plain vanilla Dannon because that's all I could get here. The unflavored Greek type yogurt works best, I understand.

Anyway, the directions, copied from the Fiasco Farms website:

Easy "Traditional" Yogurt:

This is one of the simplest. You can "double" this recipe. You can use a microwave*, but there is no reason you can't do it on top of the stove. Just be careful not to scorch the milk.

1) Start with 3 1/2 C. of milk in a microwave safe bowl, a 4 C. Pyrex measuring cup is perfect for this.

*Note: I have had a couple people comment that they do not approve of using the microwave for food preparation, especially with milk. If you don't like using the microwave, you can heat the milk on the stove.

2) Add some powdered milk* : Stir in 1/2-1 C. powdered milk (cow, goat or soy) if you're using goat milk or soymilk (*please see the note below about making soy milk yogurt), and 1/4-1/2 C. if you're using cow milk.

Why do you add powdered milk? Do you have to add it?

Adding powdered milk will help make the yogurt thick, like the way it is from the store. In Europe, yogurt tends to be "runny", but in the USA we seem to prefer it thicker, so do add the powdered milk it you want it not to be runny.
I do not add any powdered milk; I have found that the "ABY-2C" yogurt culture from Dairy Connection produced a thick enough curd for my liking.
*Note: Another person did not approve of adding powdered milk because it supplied oxidized cholesterol. If you are worried about this and don't want to add powdered milk, then don't add it, but you will probably want to purchase a culture that produces a thicker curd as opposed to just using purchased yogurt (such as Dannon) to make your yogurt.

3) Heat the milk: Place the milk in the microwave (or on the stove) and bring it to a boil. In my microwave this takes about 8-10 minutes depending on if it's right out of the goat or out of the fridge. Stir the milk occasionally and keep an eye on it, but just before it begins to boil, do not stir it, or it will boil over (as I well know). Remove the milk carefully from the microwave. Let it cool some before you place a thermometer in it, or it will still boil over (as, again, I well know).

Heating the milk is done for a few reasons:

To sterilize/pasteurize the milk so that the yogurt bacteria/culture as a hospitable place to grow in. It is not desirable to also incubate possible "bad" or contaminating bacteria that might be present in the unsterilized milk.
Boiling the milk helps to a smooth thick yogurt.
Boiling the milk also helps stop the whey from separating out quite as much. (The "water" you sometimes find on the top of your yogurt is whey.)

4) Let the milk cool to about 118 - 115°.

5) Add the culture.:

Place a couple of heaping Tbs. of plain "live culture" yogurt from the grocery store (i.e., Dannon, or read the carton's label to see if it's "live culture") other starter culture, in a quart mason jar and stir it until it is smooth. Remove any "skin" from the warm milk (one will have formed as it cooled) and feed it to the dog or chickens. Pour a little of the warm milk into the jar, screw the lid on tight and shake well. Now add the rest of the warm milk, replace the lid and shake well.
OR
I use a DVI yogurt culture with Acidophilus (ABY-2C) that I get from the Dairy Connection. When I use this, I use 1/16 tsp. per 1/2 gallon of milk (2 quarts). Remove any "skin" from the warm milk (one will have formed as it cooled) and feed it to the dog or chickens. Pour the warm milk into the jar, added the DVI culture and shake well.
6) Now it is time to incubate. This is not as complicated as it sounds, and can be done many ways. The key is to hold the milk at 110°-115° undisturbed for 6-8 hours (depending on the culture used). See below for various incubation methods. If your yogurt isn't thick enough in 10 hours, it isn't going to get any thicker; it's just going to get sourer. If it didn't get thick at all something happened to the starter, either it wasn't live to begin with, or somehow it got killed. Don't be discouraged- try again another day. Even if your yogurt didn't "yo" (or "gurt") you can still use the milk in cooking.

Various methods of incubation:

1) Use a commercial yogurt maker.

2) I have heard some put the yogurt in their oven with the light on (the light helps keep the correct temp). I cannot have the light on in my oven without keeping the door open (which lets the heat out), so this method does not work for me.

2) Cooler/water method: Use a small cooler with the lid removed, a larger cooler that will hold a quart jar, or a large pot (6 qt.). Place the cooler or pot in a place where it will be undisturbed. Place the jar with the yogurt milk in the cooler. Now fill the cooler with water that is 120°. Place a couple of fluffy towels over the cooler or pot and leave it undisturbed for about 6-8 hours. To check and see if the yogurt is done, tip the jar slightly and see if the milk flows or stays put. Remember that the yogurt will thicken even more as it cools in the fridge. If you see clear whey when you tilt the jar, the yogurt is as done as it's going to get, but you don't necessarily have to see the whey for the yogurt to be done. (have I confused you yet?)

3) Cooler/heating pad method (I figured this out one day and it works really well): Use a larger cooler. Place the cooler in a place where it will be undisturbed. Place the jar with the yogurt milk in the cooler. Place a heating pad over the jar (loosely). Set the pad on high (my pad needs to be set on high, yours may differ) and place the lid on the cooler. Leave it undisturbed for about 6-8 hours. Please note, that since all heating pads are different, yours may not be best set on high. The first time you use this method, put a thermometer in the cooler to see what the pad is heating the inside of the cooler up to. You want it to be at least 110 degrees and not more than 120 degrees. You may need to turn your pad to medium.

4) Food dehydrator. THis is the method I use. I have a large Excalibur Food Dehydrator and is the "Cadillac" of food dehydrators. It is very large and is perfect for incubating yogurt. I can easily incubate 3-4 2 quart jars at one time in my dehydrator.

Good luck, I really like my homemade stuff with some fresh berries, a sprinkle of granola and a drizzle of honey.

Annie

Easy!

Yogurt (From the Fannie Farmer Cookbook-with my own embellishments)

Heat 1 quart of milk to the boiling point for just 1 minute. Cool to 115 degrees (lukewarm to the touch). Pour into a heavy ceramic bowl. Mix in 2 T of fresh, plain yogurt (must have active cultures). Cover tightly with plastic wrap and set in a warm place. An oven with a pilot light is good, I use a goose-neck desk lamp bent low over the bowl. I know some people who use a heating pad set on low under the bowl. According to the recipe, 110 is the ideal temperature, but remember that people have been making yogurt for thousands of years without benefit of thermometers. Essentially, it should be warmer than youd like a bath to be if you were going to spend a half an hour in it, but as warm as youd like a bath to be if you came home on a cold winter night and wanted to warm up.

The yogurt should be ready in about 5 to 8 hours. Tilt the bowl to see if it holds together. The longer you allow the yogurt to sit, the more sour it will be.

Line a colander with a thin cloth, such as a dish towel or muslin. Pour the yogurt into the colander and allow it to drain for at least an hour. Refrigerate.

Note: It does not help speed or improve the process to add extra yogurt starterin fact, it can make for a lower quality product. The cultures have to have enough food to poop enough yogurtsorry, I couldnt help myself.

You can make yogurt with 2 % milk if you like, but it takes longer and you need to strain it more.

Yogurt Cheese in Olive Oil

Pour home made yogurt into a sieve lined with a thin cloth, such as a dish towel or muslin. Fold the ends of the cloth over the top of the yogurt, top with a plate big enough to mostly cover the yogurt but small enough that it wont get hung up on the sides of the strainer as the yogurt gets pressed down. Weigh the plate down with a large jar or lidded tupperware bowl full of water and set the sieve over a bowl to drain. Be sure and empty the bowl from time to time so that the yogurt isnt sitting in its own water.

I generally do this overnight, but times can vary depending on the weight etc.

You want a product about the texture of cream cheese.

Form the yogurt cheese into balls about 1 " in size, rolling them in your hands.

Pack the balls into sterilized jars with an herb mix sprinkled over each layer. Fill the jar with extra virgin olive oil. Store for at least 2 days to moogle the flavors, and up to about 3 weeks in the fridge.

For the herb mix, I usually use dried red chilli pepper flakes, fresh rosemary & oregano (minced), fresh garlic sliced paper thin and salt. Then I add other things to suit my fancy. Herbs, minced onions, spices etc. Get playful. I dont know how to measure amounts, but remember that only a bit of the flavored oil will make it onto the cracker or bread with the cheese, so you almost cant put too much "stuff" in the oil.

The "cheese" balls should be served with their spiced oil.

Rachel, that yogurt cheese sounds yummy! I will try that if the grandson ever slows down on his yogurt consumption.

I take a couple of shortcuts I haven't seen yet on this thread.

I want nonfat yogurt, so I pour 1 and 1/3 C. of dry milk powder into each jar and then fill with water up to within an inch of where the screw-band would sit, stirring well. Then I heat this in the microwave. You have to watch that they don't boil over. I've often thought it would work just as well to boil the water and then stirring in the milk powder, I may try that one of these days. When the milk cools enough, the space left in the jar accommodates the yogurt to be added and you end up with a full quart of finished yogurt in each jar. I make 4 quarts at a time, and I have a large food dehydrator that I can just set the jars in, with sterilized canning lids on. But this last summer, I was using my dehydrator for peaches and apples and so I just left the jars on a bench on the back porch. Oklahoma summers are pretty warm, but we didn't get up to 100 degrees, quite, on that particular day. Still, the yogurt thickened and was every bit as good as what I generally make in my dehydrator. It just had to sit for about 24 hours, though. I made some buttermilk the same way, using some buttermilk that was left in the container I had bought at the store as the starter. It worked really well. I remember my mother used to make buttermilk in a jar on her kitchen counter, years ago when I was a child.

Making yogurt in quart jars is nice because you can just pop them right in your refrigerator, ready to be used. Grandson likes to add homemade peach or strawberry jam to his, and he would eat the whole quart at one sitting if I let him.

Oh, and when I had a gas stove that had a pilot light, the pilot light was plenty of warmth to make yogurt. Now I have an 'ignition' lighter. Bummer. Hadn't thought about the light providing enough warmth, though. --Ilene

The only suggestion I would add is to use Parmalot milk in shelf stable boxes. It's pre-measured and you don't have to ask yourself how many days the gallon of milk has already been open.

I think the reason for scalding the milk to just below the boiling point is to denature enzymes that might interfere with yogurt production. Pasteurized milk should have virtually no viable organisms, at least no pathogenic bacteria.

A warming drawer is very convenient for making yogurt. I use mine on the next to the lowest setting.

I've tried not scalding the milk, and the texture of the yogurt doesn't seem quite as smooth.

Ok. I tried a recipe that WAS NOT posted here before I asked you guys. Let me tell you.... That one was sour !! Didn't get thick enough either.To day I tried one from here. OMG. Much better!! Thanx a bunch .