Mother of Yogurt

We are blessed to live three miles from Wright's Dairy farm. I buy milk and cultivate my own yogurt overnight. The results are delicious and so simple to achieve.

Directions:
Heat milk in double boiler to 180 degrees. Use a candy thermometer if you own one otherwise just stop the cooking when lots of bubbles appear around the rim of the milk. Then cool to 110. This makes the milk receptive to the culture. After heating I like to immerse my jars of hot milk in a tub of cold water and they always cool off in ten minutes. Then add a few teaspoons of an active yogurt culture to the 110 degree (or wrist temperature) milk. The teaspoons of active yogurt serve as your starter. Place the covered glass jars of cultured milk in a warm place overnight or for about 8 hours. I use an insulated picnic cooler with a bottle of boiling hot water and two towels as insulation. It works every time. If your stove has a pilot light that environment works perfectly for incubating the jars of milk. When the yogurt sets, refrigerate it. Save some yogurt to begin your next batch.

Warning: If your local dairy uses a 'fast pasteurization' process the milk will not culture. I'm not sure why but it's true. Luckily this is not common.