Greetings,

I'm still milking 2 does and getting more than enough milk for us to use. Normally the extra milk is given to the chickens, but we're trying to eat healthier and I'd like to add yogurt to our diets. I've never made yogurt but I've been reading several recipes for it that have been posted on the Countryside Forum. Some recipes say to pasteurize it first and let it cool down, some recipes add powdered milk, some add 2 tsp or 2 Tbl of commercial yogurt with live cultures. Others have trouble getting it to set in cold areas.

I'm just curious as to what has worked for you and what tastes best to you?

Thanks in advance

-- Charleen with Obies in WNY (harperhill@eznet.net), December 19, 2001

Answers

Recipe I use out of "Goats Produce Too'

2 quarts goat milk 2 tsp. cultured yougurt 1 cup powdered milk (optional) clean canning jars

Warm nilk to 115. Stir in powdered milk if desired. Add 2 teaspoons cultured yougurt. Mix well and pour into clean jars. Place filled jars into a roaster or kettle. Fill the roaster or pan with hot tap water, up to the neck of the jars.

Cover and set in warm place to incubate for 6-8 hours. Do not disturb during incubation. Yougurt will thicken when ready. When making plain yougurt, save some to use as a culture for your next batch. Keep refrigerated.

Homemade yougurt is not as thick as the stuff from the store but add fruit and freeze and it's the best desert ever!!

-- shari (smillers@snowcrest.net), December 19, 2001.

Charleen, Shari's recipe looks good but I make it by the gallon and omit the powdered because I like to drink it. Heat 1 gal.milk to 110 degrees, remove from heat and stir in 2T dannon (or other) live culture yogurt. Place in oven on warm, or if using a gas oven nothing is needed - overnight. After that I put in clean quart jars and refrigerate. Gloria

-- Gloria in MD (mullinaxclan@webtv.net), December 19, 2001.

Well, I made it last night and it worked!!!!

I had 3 quarts of milk that I heated to 165 and then cooled down to 110. I added about 5Tbl of Stonyfield Natural Organic yogurt. I poured it into pint jars, set them in my roasting pan full of water and set it near the wood stove overnight with a towel laying on top. This morning it was perfectly set. The grocery store in town has raspberries on sale, so I'll pick some up to add to the yogurt. Thank for your help.

-- Charleen in WNY (harperhill@eznet.net), December 20, 2001.

Charleen, Stonyfield is a really yummy yogurt. I've used it once or twice but have trouble fiding it most times. Lucky you to be able to get it. Gloria

-- Gloria in MD (mullinaxclan@webtv.net), December 20, 2001.

Charleen, Take and line a bowl with linen or case cloth. Spoon 1 quart or more of yougutr into the cloth. Tie the corners and hang to drain until bag stops dripping. Remove as much whey as possible. Scrape the bag if necessary. This makes a soft cheese that is good for dips seasoned with herbs, eat it plain or you can use it as a substitute for sour cream. Yummy.

Glad that your yougurt turned out.

-- shari - Obies in CA (smillers@snowcrest.net), December 20, 2001.

Hello Charleen,

The way I've always done it is right out of the udder, since it is a perfect temperature for the live cultures to coagulate. It's so much easier than using store bought cow milk for yogurt because with that you have to heat it up and cool it down again. But with raw goat milk, it works great straight from the udder, and since you never pasturize it, the calcium is still fully there. Here's how:

~Depending on how many goats you're milking and how far away your barn is from your house, you may want to put all the following into an insulated igloo to keep the milk warm. I have also heated it up before hand with a heating-pad...

~Get as many recently-washed, glass quart jars as you wish to make yogurt with. (I've never used a gallon jug before because I've never had enough milk at once! so that's why I suggest quart jars) ~Put about three or four heaping spoonfulls of store bought yogurt into each jar (I've used Brown Cow Organic, Trader Joe's brand, and I would think Stoneyfield would work good too--any thick, whole-milk yogurt with live cultures)

~Grab a wisk or stirring device

~Haul all this out with you to the barn

~Pour the filtered milk into the quart jars VERY soon after it has left the udder and stir it well so the yogurt starter and the milk mix. The milk will probably be a good 100 or so degrees, nice and warmish.

~Cover your jars and put them in your igloo (if you took one) and bring 'em home. A friend of mine would just wrap her "yoging" yogurt in a wool blanket; I have also placed a heating pad on top of the jars inside an igloo on medium. Whichever you use, don't check or disturb it for about 12 hours. I usually milk the does in the morning and leave my yogurt till night chores before I check it. After that, you should let it sit in the fridge for at least the same 12 hours. If you try it, hopefully you will be gifted with thick, un-pasturized, homemade yogurt!!

-- Danielle (thiessens@att.net), February 10, 2002.

I add powdered milk because my family doesn't like their yogurt thin. Later in the year when the does have been fresh along time, I can use less and less powedered milk because of the higher butterfat. I pasturise all my milk for yogurt and cheese because you get a much more consistant product with it. Vicki

-- Vicki McGaugh TX (vickilonesomedoe@hotmail.com), February 12, 2002.

Hello everyone, I don't have a response here, but I do have a cheese question. I tried some cheddar cheese made from goat milk last summer at an old country cheese store in Vermont, and was horrified at the "goaty" taste it had. I have 3 Saanen does and their milk is absolutely delicious, not a even a hint of goaty flavor, so I'm wondering if that nasty taste happens because of the aging process, or was it just bad cheese? I made some soft cheese last year that was terrific, but now I'm a little apprehensive about trying a hard cheese that has to be aged. Does anyone out there have any suggestions? Mickey

-- Michelle (mickey@fcgnetworks.net), April 09, 2002.

Hi! Goaty milk makes for goaty cheese. If you can't drink the milk raw than condensing it down into cheese makes it worse! Now even having said that, perfectly wonderful milk can be ruined by the cheese making process, by uncleanliness, or.............the gal who used to make Fetta and Mozzarella here in our area, she was muslim and her Mozzerella made from wonderful milk was strong, salty and tasted like a bucks ear............and they loved it and she had a thriving business selling it in Houston! Vicki

-- Vicki McGaugh TX (Nubians) (vickilonesomedoe@hotmail.com), April 09, 2002.

Hi Vicki, I appreciate your response, but I'm afraid that it still didn't quite answer my question:( Have you ever tasted any GOOD cheddar made from goats milk? I can't help but wonder about the whole "aging" process involved. And I read that pasturizing the milk before making cheese could help? I sterilize EVERTHING that touches my milk and I cool it while still at the barn in a bucket of cold water, and then bring it in and strain it and set the stainless steel pail into another one filled with ice and water so it is cooled very quickly. Mickey

-- Mickey (mickey@fcgnetworks.net), April 09, 2002.