I used to make yoghurt often. I used a glass preserving jar. I warmed up the milk, whether cow’s or goat, to about blood temperature, then put a couple of table spoons of old yoghurt in. Then I put a lid on the jar and wrapped a towel around it, and placed somewhere warm, like a hotwater cupboard. Left it overnight and hey presto, lovely fresh yoghurt. I know a medication centre which makes it’s own yoghurt regularly. They built a box and put a light bulb in the bottom of it. It is lined with clothe and had a lid. The yoghurt came out perfect! I really like the method of using a ceramic jug with just a plate on top. Will try it.

I was considering getting a yogurt maker but this sounds like something I could try first. Question : when you add the spoonful of yogurt from the previous batch, do you stir it in or do you just drop it on top?

I don’t own a thermos and it failed to work in a water bottle that I tried to insulate. Any other containers that might work?

Yogurt can be made with nothing else but patience.
Back in the days, people used to make yogurt in a ceramic jug, covered with a small plate. Just pour the raw milk with a spoon of yogurt, position the ceramic jug in a warm place (somewhere close to the oven) and let it sit a day or two. In the summer, one day is enough. In colder weather, let it sit a few more days.
And voila, yogurt made the traditional way!

Just reiterating Rachel’s question – anybody know whether you can use soy milk for this? I realise this is an old post, but I’m hoping somebody in the know will see…

I realize this is really about yogurt, and I may have to try the recipe. Would love a plastic free option and the reduced cost given how much we eat.

But… I am actually wondering how the whey finish turned out.

Hoping you check comments on old posts…

I love this site, its so original, helpful and considerate for humanity! thanks for what you are doing! I heard about this after I wrote a post about why we sholudnt use plastic for our jewelry (I make jewelry from natural materials most that i find walking around in nature), someone made a comment to my post that happily brought me to fake plastic fish. I love it!
My family has a long tradition of making homemade yogurt, my favorite is with homemade strwaberry syrup! Well, one good use for the whey is to use it on the face to make the skin softer and with continued use it helps to fade out the dark spots left from past blemishes or sun. You can apply a layer of whey directly, just wash your face with it, or you can mix it with other natural ingredients to make a face cream. If anyone is interested in recipes for this just email me, I know different one depending on your skin type etc.. And this are way better than store cosmetics, and one more way to consume less plastic! Kisses to you all! and thanks again!

Beth – Thank you for posting this yogurt recipe! I couldn’t find any yogurt in glass or ceramic at my Whole Foods and was disappointed because I eat it all the time (I’ve “recycled” my containers, but, knowing what I know, now, I’d rather avoid them altogether.) Luckily, I did find the milk in glass – once I get a thermometer I’ll try this! Thank you!
I’ve recently signed the “REFUSE” pledge at plasticpollutioncoalition.org — I’m on board and I’ve enjoyed reading your blog. Thank you for all your inspiration – this is do-able!

Just made this for the first time last night – it was a great success! Thank you!

I know it's an old post, but I was just looking for uses for whey…

With regards to the ceramic crock… I am absolutely enamored of Ball canning jars (or any other brand) and wish more companies would standardize to them. My vacuum sealer has an attachment to suck air out of the canning lid, and it comes in two sizes (lg. and sm.). The lids are metal, 2-piece, w/a tiny bit of rubber to form a good seal. They're excellent for keeping ants out of the pantry – superior to most mfg. packaging for ant-repellance.

By vacuum-sealing the excess, I am able to buy bulk beans, grains, etc. for my little family, reducing packaging waste enormously (and saving $$). I wish I could bring the jars right into the store and fill them directly – right now, I have to use a plastic bag to carry grains home to dump right into the canning jar.

I’ve enjoyed White Mountain’s “Bulgarian” yogurt for awhile before starting my own – and like that it comes in glass jars (not to mention that it contains no pectins or other fillers). Unfortunately it does come with a plastic lid – but Fortunately they are very nice sized jars for keeping and reusing over and over again… :-)

I’m very interested in this alternative of packaging.
Do you know more companies which use the packagin ceramic for their products?
Thanks

I tried your yogurt recipe, but, being a non-fuss (reluctant cook) type person, did not use a thermometer (do not own one, and did not see the point in buying until I knew if I needed it). I just waited until the glass jar I was using was hot to the touch but not painful to hold. Left it on the kitchen counter wrapped in a towel overnight, and stuck it in the fridge in the morning. Worked great!

And as for the whey, I had three cats and a dog fighting over it…I can’t imagine it would harm them, and it probably just saved me a few cents in pet food…

I am new to the ‘no plastic’ idea, but love it. I will be searching for more alternatives on your site, for sure…keep up the inspiration!

yogurt making tip:

freeze Tbsp sized portions of plain yogurt and drop them in at the desired time (122 degrees?) This way (whey hee hee) you will always have some on hand if hubby or kids eat all the yogurt without leaving a bit for starter.

Thanks for referring me to this recipe – I’ll definitely give it a try!

Can you make this with soy milk? I’ve seen soy yogurt at Whole Foods…

I used to make enriched yoghurt for my son when he wasn’t growing well, and that consisted of mixing a couple of tablespoons of powdered milk into wholefat milk before making a batch of yoghurt. It makes it very creamy.

I haven’t made yoghurt for a few years (I can’t think why not, it’s very little trouble), and since my husband’s heart attack we eat a diet as low as possible in saturated fat … so now, I think I’d make no-fat yoghurt creamier by doing the same thing: mix fat-free powdered milk into skimmed milk

Joanna

Beth, P at a posse ad esse uses powdered milk.

All the green bloggers are doing this. I’m going to try again this weekend. Thank you!

Whey is excellent liquid for bread, if your bread doesn’t need to be vegan.

Also, I was reading something — on AOL, I think, yeah, really authoritative — about tap water versus bottled, and it made an interesting point: you often have no idea how long bottled water has been sitting around, maybe breeding bacteria, whereas tap water may have been in some pristine Sierra reservoir only a earlier that day (not sure how fast it moves down the aqueducts, anyone know?) and has been in motion since. So I was thinking about how important the names we give to things are in our perceptions of them, how over the years various industries and their advertising and PR people have managed to rename and rebrand products to manipulate the public’s choices. So I thought, what we need to do is rebrand “tap water” as “fresh water”, and “bottled water” as “canned water”. I mean, true, “fresh water” has another meaning, as the opposite of “salt water”, and bottles and cans are different, but still, using terms like this would help illuminate the difference. “Fresh” is good; “canned” is fake and bad. If someone offers you bottled water, say, “Do you have any *fresh* water?” It will make them think. Maybe.

With apologies to Fastball:
“She heated the milk
It started fermenting
She left it in the Thermos for a day
She opened it to let it do some venting
She strained out the yogurt, but what would she do with the whey?”

So I’m looking at this pamphlet I picked up at my gym, 24-hour Fitness, about the benefits of whey protein. It’s online at http://www.wheylean.com and http://www.wheymuscle.com. (This is kind of weird. The “wheylean” site, according to the pamphlet, is for women, while the “wheymuscle” site is for men. Oh, I forgot, women are only interested in losing weight, not in being strong, whereas guys are only interested in being buff and strong, not in losing weight.) Anywhey, there’s an FAQ link on each site. But it doesn’t really explain how you go from whey to whey protein. Maybe you just consume the whey. The thing is, Little Miss Muffett was eating whey, but she was still scared off by the spider. But since she was a woman, the whey made her skinny, capable of running, instead of bulky enough to fight off the spider.

I’m a little scared of any nutritional advice I get at the gym. I’ve eaten whey protein bars after exercise, and I’m not sure they made much difference, either in bulkiness or leanness. Maybe Beth will let me eat/drink the leftover whey and see what it does for me. It doesn’t look all that appetizing. Maybe with a little chocolate syrup stirred in. Beth, I can haz weh?

Hi Sunny. I did use non-fat milk and it worked fine. Don’t know what would happen if I had used a mainstream brand of yogurt. My Saint Benoit yogurt was actually several weeks old, and apparently there were still enough nice bugs in it to make new yogurt.

Now I’m wondering if it would work and be any good with powdered milk. Anyone know?

I’m glad your yogurt making was a success. I made a list of “10 Reasons Everyone Should Make Yogurt” but reducing plastic waste was not on the list. Thanks for adding an eleventh reason.

Sunny – you can certainly use non-fat milk, that’s what I usually use. You can use natural yogurt as a starter, or you can use a little bit of your last batch (sometimes that fails if your batch is over a week old – still good to eat but not so good as a starter).

So, quick question. Is it okay to use non-fat milk? And, you should use a “natural” yogurt as starter right?, so it has the good bacteria. I’m not a huge yogurt fan but my husband likes it sometimes in smoothies and I bake with it once in a while. Thanks for the info.

Great tip about the whey (not too much info!). Yogurt cheese makes a great substitution for sour cream, so that’s more plastic you can avoid too. I’ve had really good luck with my homemade yogurt in a thermos. On a similar note, if you make your own butter, the first water you pour off is buttermilk. I use it to make scones :)