Homemade yogurt

Yogurt is very easy to make, and very healthy too.  It does not require any fancy stuff, just milk, a clean container and a spoonful of yogurt.  Basically, yogurt is a living bacteria, so when you mix a spoonful of bacteria with half a liter of warm milk, you get more yogurt.

• Ingredients
  • Milk (500ml) – full cream works better, but you can use powdered milk if you’re on a boat for instance.
  • A tablespoon of yogurt

• Method
  • Bring your milk to a boil in a saucepan
  • Turn the heat off and let it cool down until you can stick your finger in it (approx 40 degrees Celsius)
  • Add the existing yogurt and mix thoroughly
  • Pour the content in a container
  • Now for the tricky part, you need a closed warm place for about eight hours.  So if you’ve done your yogurt in the morning and it’s sunny, leave the container in the car parked in the sun.  What we do when we’re at home is we stick it in the microwave, and place a couple of jugs with boiled water.  Close the door and leave it for the night, usually that’s enough, but as winter comes, you might need more than eight hours so replace periodically the hot water jugs/mugs.
  • That’s it, you will have a runny yogurt for your first batch but as you keep using a spoonful from the previous batch for the next one, it will thicken.
  • Don’t forget to store it in the fridge, and keep the last spoonful for the next batch.