Making Yogurt with Mama

This yogurt making session happened this fall back in Sebastopol.

My Mama uses the Tassajara Cooking for her yogurt recipe. This fabulous old-timey cookbook has lots of great recipes, including how to fry an egg.

We used goat milk, because at this time I was helping Sarah Silva milk her two diary goats.

First you pasteurize the milk, bringing it to 161 degrees for a few minutes to kill any bad bacteria.

After pasteurization, you introduce the beneficial bacteria; we used Pavel's yogurt. Mix a few tablespoons of finished yogurt into a small amount of the cooled milk. Then pour this mixture in with the rest of the milk.

Then put the yogurt-culture and milk mixture into sterilized jars; we put these into the dehydrator on the 'yogurt' setting for 8 hours. The dehydrator will keep the milk-culture mix between 110° and 115°. Other ways to achieve this temperature are putting the yogurt in a warm oven or putting the yogurt in a portable cooler with hot water.

The finished product:

With granola! Yum!