I made my first attempt at homemade yogurt from powdered
milk. Perhaps you can tell from that sentence that it wasn't a wild success. This
is one of those experiences where I must remind myself that making something is
about the making and not always about whether it turned out exactly as I
imagined.
I don’t know exactly why this didn't work, since I have only
tried it this one time. But I will try it again, and I will be doing a few
things differently. For example: first, I am going to be much more prepared,
and second, I am going to actually follow the recipe / instructions.
I started the yogurt on Monday morning. This should have
been a fine idea, but I was gone all day Monday. The kids are off school for spring
break, so that was the day that I decided to make eye appointments for all of
them. This was not a great time to start cooking my yogurt because I wasn't here to monitor the temperature.
I didn't plan ahead in time before I began the project, and
so I didn't have any of the supplies that I was going to need. I chose to put
my yogurt into jars and then into a water bath inside my crock pot I don’t even
know where my hot pad is, so I didn't really have the other option available to
me. (Plus, I do love my Crock Pot . When I had the mixture all whipped up, I
started looking for jars (AFTER, not
before, mind you). Well I couldn't find
any jars that were the same size besides baby food jars. I had two small jelly
jars and three or four jars from spaghetti sauce, but no lids. I eventually
ended downstairs in storage and found four jars that were roughly the same
size, but they used to be pickle jars, and yes, inside they still smelled very
much like pickles. And even I am smart enough to realize if you put your yogurt
into pickle jars it is probably going to taste like pickles. So I had to use a bowl with a dinner plate
lid, because even my casserole dishes with lids wouldn't fit inside my Crock Pot.
But that’s not all! I didn't mix up the mixture right. I
bought my sample of plain yogurt at the grocery store, but it got taken in the
bag to Easter Dinner and didn't come back home. All I had here were flavored
yogurts. But I thought I would be brilliant and just use one with “fruit on the
bottom” and I would just use the top.
The recipe clearly states, “Plain yogurt – no additives.” I clearly
replied, “I KNOW you’re not talking to
me!” Surely, just using the top fruitless part of the yogurt was exactly
the same thing, right… Uh Wrong.
I finally got it all put together, set into the crock pot
and ready to cook. I checked the temperature a few times, but I was trying to get
four kids ready to see the doctor. I kept forgetting, and I know that it was
way too high. The thermometer read 133 – 135, I would take the lid off and turn
it down, then check the temperature, and it would be 112-113. It was like my
pot was purposefully avoiding my temperature window. I probably boiled all my good bacteria and
was left with nothing to grow yogurt, except for the but lemon fruit on the
bottom--that wasn't supposed to be there anyway. 
After a day of cooking, and another day in the fridge, I
checked on my pseudo yogurt. It was pretty much just cooked powdered milk with
lemon fruit on the bottom yogurt in it. I was disappointed, but also very
rational: there are many many reasons why this didn't succeed. I am going to try again, perhaps not this
week, but I am going to try again. 