Source: "YOGURT COOKERY" - by Sophie Kay Half-and-Half Yogurt (great for malts, shkes and other beverages) 2 c. whole milk 2 c. half-and-half 3 T. plain yogurt, room temperature Rinse a 2-quart saucepan with water. Pour in milk and half-and-half. Mix well. Attach thermometer and heat milk over low heat to 190 to 210°F (90°-99°C). Remove from heat and cool to 110°F (43°C). Remove protein film from top of milk. In a small bowl, stir yogurt until creamy. Mix about 1/3 c. warm milk mixture into yogurt. Blend until smooth. Stir yogurt-milk mixture into remaining milk. Mix well. Pour into a 1-1/2-quart container or individual containers. Cover. Incubate 3-4 hours at a constant temperature of about 110°F (43°C). Do not disturb during incubation. After 3 hours, remove cover and gently shake mixture to see if it is firm. If not firm, let stand one more hour and check again. Refrigerate as soon as yogurt begins to set. Chill at least 6 hours before serving. Makes about 1 quart. -------------------- EVAPORATED MILK YOGURT 1-quart 2% low-fat or whole milk 1 (13-oz.) can low-fat or regular evaporated milk 1/4 c. plain yogurt, room temperature (Follow instructions above.) Variation: Substitute 3 c. water for 1 quart 2% low-fat or whole milk and use 2 (13-oz.) cans evaporated milk instead of 1 can. ------------------------------ YOGURT WITH CORNSTARCH (cornstarch makes yogurt smoother and creamier.) 1-qt. 2% or skim milk 1/3 c. instant nonfat dry milk powder 1 T. cornstarch 2 T. cold water 3 T. plain yogurt, room temperature Pour 1 cup of low-fat or skim milk in a small bowl. Add dry milk. Stir until dissolved. Rinse a 2-quart saucepan with water. Pour in remaining 3 cups milk and dissolved dry milk. Mix well. Attach thermometer and heat milk over low heat to 200°F (93°C). Dissolve cornstarch in cold water. Stir into milk. Mix well. Heat milk-cornstarch mixture over low heat to 210°F (99°C).. Remove from heat and cool to 110°F (43°C). Remove protein film from top of milk. In a small bowl, stir yogurt until creamy. Mix about 1/3 c. warm milk mixture into yogurt. Blend until smooth. Stir yogurt-milk mixture into remaining milk. Mix well. Pour into a 1-1/2-quart container or individual containers. Cover. Incubate 3-4 hours at a constant temperature of about 110°F (43°C). Do not disturb during incubation. After 3 hours, remove cover and gently shake mixture to see if it is firm. If not firm, let stand 1 more hour and check again. Refrigerate as soon as yogurt begins to set. Chill at least 6 hours before serving. Makes 1 quart. ---------------------------------- SWEET VANILLA YOGURT 3 c. warm water (120°F, 50°C) 1 c. instant nonfat dry milk 1/2 c. sweetened condensed milk 1/4 c. plain yogurt, room temperature 1/2 t. vanilla extract In small bowl, place warm water, dry milk, sweetened condensed milk and yogurt. Mix with electric mixer on low speed until blended. Pour into a 1-1/2-quart container or individual containers. Cover. Incubate 3-4 hours at a constant temperature of about 110°F (43°C). Do not disturb during incubation. After 3 hours, remove cover and gently shake mixture to see if it is firm. If not, let stand 1 more hour and check again. Refrigerate as soon as yogurt begins to set. Chill at least 6 hours before serving. Makes about 1 quart. (Note: you cannot save the sweetened yogurt to use as a starter for your next batch.)

Yogurt sieves? I'll have to look about. I'm intrigued by the yogurt cheese cheesecake. A bit off topic, but since yogurt cheese has been mentioned, I'm posting the recipe for one of my favorite party nibbles. You gotta love hors d'oeuvres that you can make days or weeks ahead of time and just whip out on 5 minutes notice and still impress people. I'm including my yogurt recipe 'cause it was attached for the sake of anyone who hasn't made it yet: Yogurt 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 whey. 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.

Or mix a little jam or jelly into it and you have fruit yogurt. I like it on baked potatoes or pretty much anywhere someone would use sour cream. And yogurt cheese can be subbed in most recipes for cream cheese. I like it on my cereal too. Especially when I have cereal and sweet fruit. I usually put in milk and yogurt because the yogurt alone is a bit stiff. Or the ultimate yogurt cereal breakfast food IMO: bircher_muesli which is oats, fruit and yogurt left overnight in the fridge to soak instead of cooking the oats - great for summertime oatmeal. It can also be used as dressing on a cucumber, onion and tomato salad - kind of close to riata except mostly vegies with a little yogurt where riata tends to be mostly yogurt with a little veggies. And one might use different herbs like dill. There also are soups with a yogurt base but you might not be in the mood for soup this time of year. There is yogurt cheese cake - you would need to strain the yogurt for that. Here is a link that might be useful: Bircher muesli recipe

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