Cheap Yogurt

I don’t know what percentage of the population sees milk at half-off and buys a lot like I do.

What I have personally seen as I load up my cart is somebody stop, pull out a stickered milk then look at the (next day) sell-by date and put it back.  “It’s good for at least a week after that date,” I’ll insist, not wanting to see someone miss out.

“Oh I never go through a gallon that fast,” is what I always hear.

Now you don’t have to.  You could make yogurt out of it, and then take your sweet time getting through it.

1. Pour your milk into a saucepan and cook it a while. (I set mine to simmer while I cleaned my kitchen Friday morning).
2. Run it through a mesh-type strainer (because you’ve probably cooked a layer of milk-sugars to the bottom of the pan) and set a thermometer in it to watch the temperature going down. (I will fill the sink around the bowl with cold water to make this step go faster.)
3. When the thermometer reads 110-degrees mix in some “active culture” plain yogurt and pour into final containers (I did 8-oz. sizes this time for some of mine– convenient grab-and-goes, in theory).
4. Put into a cooler (I fill the extra space with a towel) to keep the mixture at its happy temp while the yogurt culture eats its way through the new batch.

In 4-5 hours you can check it and see if the flavor is where you like it.  I like my yogurt very mild, so 4 hours is about as far as I let mine go (when I’m on top of things).  It’s very runny at first (after all, it’s little more than thick milk) but after a week in the fridge it has a more “normal” yogurt look.

When made with fat-free milk, this yogurt is 2-Points/8oz.

I made my current batch off a $1.50 gallon of milk, and I get to know what goes in it.

For example, real strawberries with no “artificial flavors.” And you control how much sugar goes in.