3 Days of Yogurt: Day Three - The Final Product

When we last left my new batch of yogurt, it was sitting in the refrigerator chilling out.  I put it in about 6:30 yesterday morning to give it a chance to thicken a little bit before I started the final stage of the process.

Later in the morning, around 9-ish, I did the following:

I took the bowl out of the fridge, got my colander, and the crock from my slow cooker.  I use the crock from my cooker for this step because I don't have a bowl that is deep enough to keep the liquid that drips from the yogurt away from the bottom of the colander.  It's a little wonky, the colander doesn't exactly fit in it well, but it works for me.

It's not a great fit, as you can see.

I set the colander in the crock, as shown.  Then I got my flour sack towels and spread them out inside the colander, as shown.

I used two towels, but I think just one would work.

Next, I poured the yogurt from the bowl into the colander.

I have taken the corners of the towels and made a little bag.
You can't see it, but there is already whey dripping out into the crock.

The whey, which is the liquid from the yogurt, is dripping through the cloth and the colander, into the crock.

I covered the yogurt lightly with the corners of the towels and put the whole thing back into the fridge. This whole process took me about 5 minutes. Probably not that long.

Another picture of my unusually empty fridge!

Then I left it alone, again, for several hours.  I went to the grocery store, I ran errands, I ate lunch, etc., etc. I don't usually leave it for as long as I did yesterday, but I had stuff to do.  Most of the time I think I leave it to drain about 2-3 hours.  The longer you leave it, of course, the thicker it gets.

I got back to my yogurt again around 1:30. I took it out of the fridge and put it into the clean container I had ready.

I picked it up this way and sort of twisted the towels and squeezed it to get  even more liquid out.

At this point it was so thick that I just sort of rolled the yogurt off the towel and into the bowl.  I used a spoon to get the little globs off the sides.  This part can get a little messy.

Ta-Da!  Very thick, creamy yogurt!

The liquid whey that is left over can be saved and used in baking.  According to my Nourishing Traditions book the whey can be used to make sauerkraut.  I haven't done that, but I'd like to try it soon. Here's a picture of the whey I had left.

And, finally, here's what I had for a treat after all my work was done!

My homemade, full-fat, Greek-style yogurt with some frozen blueberries on top!

Making yogurt does take a while, but I have found that I can work it in to my routine very easily. Pour milk into crock pot - do other stuff- unplug crock pot- do other stuff- put towel over crock pot- go to bed, etc. As long as I remember that I'm making yogurt, there's no problem.

I love making my own yogurt! I hope these posts will inspire you to try it yourself. Like my favorite Auntie Leila says, "If I can do it so can you."