Yogurt on the brain

Simple Yogurt Recipe

1. Reconstitute 1qt of dry milk, add extra dry milk if you prefer tart and thick yogurt
2. Thoroughly mix it with 2-4T of good yogurt with live and active cultures, like plain Dannon.
3. Keep it at 90-110 degrees F for 9-18 hours depending on how tart and thick you prefer it. 

If you are starting with 1qt. fresh milk, you typically heat it to 180 to kill off bacteria, cool it to 90 degrees, then proceed from step 2. 

I get stuck on certain obsessions now and then.  This week it's yogurt. I used to make yogurt in a yogurt warmer with 5 individual cups, but it broke right before we moved. We were on WIC for many of our grad school years, and we had WAY TOO MUCH milk, and this was a good thing to do with it.  Now we're eating a tremendous amount of yogurt, and it's getting expensive since we're not on WIC.  Yogurt is about $8/gallon, and we could easily go through a gallon of it a week. 

Yesterday I cultured yogurt in an ice cream bucket yesterday and used my crock pot to warm it, but it was all manual and took frequent attention.  It turned out fine and cost $1.75 for the milk and the starter yogurt.  I drained a lot of whey from it, so it's essentially Greek yogurt.

Here's my plan for future yogurt making: 

• Our current crock pot is a small round one with a crack in it, and I need to replace it anyway. 
• http://www.amazon.com/Hamilton-Beach-Forget-6-Quart-Programmable/dp/B001AO2PXK/ref=cm_cmu_pg__header is a reasonable replacement, and it has a programmable temp control and a probe.  If the temperature setting doesn't go low enough, I can use the warm setting and glass jars in the crock pot when making yogurt. 
• Dry milk will simplify the process since it won't need to be scalded first, and I can keep plenty on hand. 
• If we slow down on our yogurt consumption, I'll only be left with a crock pot and some dry milk, both of which are useful.