Yogurt Maker

 In the book French Women Don't Get Fat, Mireille Guiliano encourages women to cook more and specifically to make your own yogurt.   

For some reason I really loved that suggestion.  I've always loved yogurt and the idea of making healthy yogurt at home, vegan or dairy, has captured my imagination.   I started watching YouTube videos on the best ways to make yogurt.  

The basic two ingredients are milk and live active culture. Simple.  

But the instructions looked fiddly, time consuming, and annoying.  

Basically to make yogurt you need to heat milk to 180°F and hold it there for 20 minutes (to kill bad bacteria).  

Next wait for it cool to 110F,  then you can add the live active culture. Incubate the yogurt for several hours undisturbed until it sets/thickens, but the temperature must remain 108°F to 112°F (never below 100F) for yogurt bacteria to grow properly. The longer it sits the more tart the yogurt is.

I definitely get the impression if you want the yogurt as thick as you buy it in stores then you need to refrigerate the yogurt for several hours, as the last step.

Mireille Guiliano has a video using a Donvier Yogurt Maker with eight individual glass pots that doesn't look much easier than using a Crockpot or Instapot, because you still have to boil the milk then cool to a certain number of degrees before adding the active live culture. Then you pour that in the eight little pots and keep them undisturbed as the machine keeps them at a lukewarm temperature for several hours until it sets/thickens.

I really wanted a one-stop shop because if its too fiddly I won't actually use it.  So I watched all the videos of all the available yogurt makers and the simplest and most convenient, well designed of glass and stainless steel yogurt maker for my money is the Bear Yogurt Maker. The reason is because all you have to do is make sure the glass pot is sterilized by putting boiled water in it, then adding  the milk and live active culture. 

If that turns out to be wrong, if I still have to heat the milk first to 180F for twenty minutes and then cool it to 110F before putting it in the machine then I probably will not use it very often.

I bought it.   I''m excited for it to arrive so I can try it.  Below are some pictures.  

(p.s. Another good choice might be the more expensive Luvele Yogurt Maker, which like the old plastic Williams-Sonoma Yogurt Maker ha a timer up to 24 hours, as well three specific heat settings.)

Bear makes two different yogurt makers and I'm glad I got the one I got but I wish I'd seen the other one, because its less expensive and I would have liked it just as much or more, because it makes more yogurt.

Below is a comparison of the two models.

The first makes 32 oz and has a strainer, as well as the stainless steel heater. It's compact. (To buy a yogurt strainer separately costs from $14-40)

1. Bear Yogurt Maker, Greek Yogurt Maker Machine with Strainer and Timer Control, Yogurt Maker with Stainless Steel Inner Pot, Automatic Digital Yogurt Maker with 2 Glass Jars 1 Quart/32oz for Home Organic Yogurt, Cheese Maker, Fruit Wine Maker, Black (black) $54.99

The second is the one I might prefer because it makes 40-42 oz of yogurt, but the heater is all plastic, and one person complained in the reviews that the temperature gauge stopped working after a year.

2. Bear 2-in-1 Yogurt Maker, Plant Yogurt Maker with 10 Cups (2 * 21oz Glass Jars & 8*Ceramic Cups),Yogurt Maker Machine with Timer & Temperature Control, Automatic Digital Display Yogurt Maker $34.99