How To Make Your Own Yogurt

Yogurt is a Turkish word meaning a custard-like food with a tart flavor, prepared from milk curdled by bacteria, especially Lactobacillus bulgaricus and Streptococcus thermophilus, and often sweetened or flavored with fruit. Yogurt is not only yummy, but it has a lot of health benefits. It can replace ice cream or milkshake and added as ingredient to smoothie. It contains more calcium and protein compared to milk. It is a good source of protein, calcium, riboflavin and vitamin B12.

In Turkey, different brands of yogurt is available and they are consumed plain, used as salad dressing, mixed with salt and water to produce ayran, a kind of yogurt drink, used to marinate meat and poultry, and so on. They are sold in big buckets from 500 ml up to 5 kilos. They have a great supply of cow's milk in Turkey so I understand it's pretty cheap in there. Here in the Philippines, yogurt is expensive and comes in small cups weighing only 125 ml to, I think, 350 ml. At home, my girls love to eat yogurt with fresh fruits and drink fruit yogurt mixes and smoothies. They also love eating plain yogurt on its own just like their hubby.






My favorite plain yogurt topped with fresh strawberries and a scoop of vanilla ice cream..




Almost 10 years ago, my boyfriend (now husband) taught me how to make homemade yogurt. Since then, I would make yogurt every other week for our own consumption. I already shared this recipe in my old blog before, but sharing it here again.



Turkish Yogurt Recipe

Ingredients:
-1 liter fresh milk
-125 grams plain yogurt

Procedure:
Heat the milk. Transfer in a container. Let it stand until the temperature is a little lukewarm. Add in the creamy natural yogurt. Mix well. Cover or seal the container tightly. Place in a dark area of your kitchen either inside a cabinet or oven. Leave it for 12 hours. After incubation, put the yogurt in the refrigerator for another 12 hours. Serve.



Note:
Do not disturb the yogurt container during the entire process of incubation.