DASH yogurt maker.

i have this and use it weekly. This is what i do. Plug it in to heat it up for 5 min. while this is going on I mix together first 5 cups milk, 7 tablespoons powdered milk and use generic, 1/2 cup yogurt, i have used regular and greek. the yogurt must be at room tem for about 15 min before you mx.

having mixed it all add to yogurt maker. I set it for 9 hours and no problem ever.

You may forego boiling milk if you so choose.  Yogurt can be made with regular or organic milk powder.  After mixing you only need to boil water for the outer chamber and let sit to your taste.  

 I stressed out and had trouble making yogurt with the crock pot and my results were not that great always. I have the yogurt maker, I didn’t buy it on HSN, but I like it. It pleased me that it kept it at the right temp and I did not have to keep checking on it. Usually when I did check on it the crock way, it would be at the wrong temp, so this was a good buy for me. I see lots of people have successful used other methods but for me, this was easier and more foolproof.  I think that when they say on the air that milk is only $2.00 then they must not be using organic. And a pint of yogurt is not $7 where I live. But prices vary everywhere. Just wanted to say that about the prices because it bugged me that they say that.

Thanks DubuqueRams about the story of the Greek lady…VERY interesting and yes, I have heard that the people of the Middle East also use goat’s milk to make yogurt. They might make it a bit different and I have to also remember those countries have warm weather most of the time without having freezing temps to kill the active cultures in the process of making yogurt. I love Greek yogurt myself and when I get lazy and do not want to make homemade yogurt, I too, buy **bleep**e from Costco…it’s great thick yogurt the way I like it.

I asked my grocer if he had bleep-e yogurt and he escorted me out of the store!  Now that I see the picture, perhaps I should use the name on that container!  I’ll try again when he’s not there so I can gain entrance to the store.

Actually, I’m typing this as an experiment for PIPMAN (sorry for the capitals but we can’t use bold or colors!)  I am making paragraphs by clicking on the Enter bar.  I do NOT have JavaScript enabled, which HSN said we needed.  I read more than a few months ago, to get rid of anything connected with Java because it always has a lot of security ‘holes’ in it and is the cause of bad things happening to your computer.  The articles said to delete it, not even just disable it.  If something you are doing on the computer requires it, install it for that and then get rid of it again.  Since getting rid of it, I have not run into anything that I was doing or searching for on my computer that said I needed Java.  Now maybe something needing it put it back on my computer without my knowledge (I’ll have to check that out after I post this).  Anyway, pipman, if this shows up with paragraphs, you don’t need Java. I think my system meets all of the other requirements listed except for the sound.  I always have it off unless I want to listen to something specific.  Don’t think that would be a factor in paragraphs.

By the way, the only homemade yogurt I have had was made by a Greek lady (way before these fancy contraptions–I doubt that she even used a thermometer).  She was from Greece and made it with goat’s milk–thought that was always the case for Greek yogurt or yaorti (sp?) as they called it. She made it the way she was taught in the village as a young lady in the 1920’s or earlier, that’s why I doubt that it was made ‘scientifically’.  She always kept some ‘starter’ in her refrigerator.  It was always unflavored and quite runny.  It was used as an accompaniment to the main meal.  It was many years before I made a connection between commercial yogurt and Greek yaorti.

Well, now I’m going to post and see if I have paragraphs.   I know I won’t install Java just to have them.

Well….that’s all too **bleeping** funny! 🙂 Oh and in my case…as of late I’m getting free 2%. Lady next door is getting a type of Meals on Wheels, 5 days a week. She gets an 8 ounce carton of milk with each meal…she doesn’t drink milk or do dairy…she doesn’t drink the 4 ounce juice cartons…she doesn’t eat the apples, oranges or bananas…and as of late, she’s giving me various kinds of dinner rolls that come with the meal. SO for the life of me, I’m not sure what she’s eating! Anyway, making my own yogurt has become a great way to use up all that milk!

Massha, ha!! I get the **bleep** yogurt at Costco for a good price!  Geez, when you factor in the time it takes to do the homemade concoction, plus the doctor bills if your temperature dares stray into the danger zone of 140°, plus the time it takes to beat down any curds — well, the Costco is a **bleep** deal!!!   :catlol:

That’s pretty funny about the "bleep" — the entire word is a four-letter name of a yogurt brand, #1 in Greece according to the commercial with Bobby Flay. 

I just looked at my **bleep**e Greek Strained Yogurt ingredients: Grade A Pasteurized Skimmed Milk, Live Active Yogurt Cultures (L. Bulgaricus, S. Thermophilus, L. Acidophilus, Bifidus, L. Casei) 

Does the homemade yogurt taste better than **bleep**e? With more benefits? I’m really curious, because it seems like a lot of trouble to make the yogurt.

And the Okroshka cold soup … and the Russian Royal soup …  I have no words at the moment. 😀

HSN…FYI, I’m still not getting any breaks in my posts…I type them up with a line space between some paragraphs but when they are posted, it’s the long run on block.

So I made a batch of yogurt last night/today (it cooked over night). I did my usual, heated in the microwave, let it cool, mixed in my starter and let it cook. Actually, I left it in the unit for 12 hours this time…I think I can taste the "more tart" difference…yummy! SO (incase Lindascoffee sees this…what do you think?) a review of this DASH Greek Yogurt maker, has a post that said this: "Have made about a dozen batches so far since purchasing this unit, and I have the best results with the least effort–I put 4 cups whole milk in the unit’s pot (straight from the refrigerator!), mix in a HEAPING 1/3 cup of nonfat dry powdered milk with a whisk, and then 1/2 cup plain Greek yogurt (from the store for the first batch, now I save back 1/2 cup from previous batch). Set timer to 10 hours (because everything was cold). After time is up, put in strainer in refrigerator for 2 hours for Greek yogurt or overnight for cream cheese-like substitute. Add your favorite fruit or jam or nuts to each serving as you eat it. YUM!!!" Really? Just putting it in cold? I’m just not so sure about this especially since your milk will be spending some time in that "danger temperature zone" (40 F to 140 F). I did find the below out on the Net, which makes the most sense to me and goes along with my reading, regarding making yogurt and why we should take the time to do the proper heating: "Milk doesn’t need to be "very, very hot" to make yogurt, but it does need to be a little hot (around 110-120 F) just so that the bacteria fermenting the yogurt will eat up the milk sugars *quickly enough* not to take forever to incubate to the yogurt stage… it would still happen, it would just take a lot longer (and during that time, other bacteria could be introduced from the air and change the flavor/etc. too). The main reason that milk is actually heated all the way to 185 F, is just so that the resulting yogurt will turn out thicker than if it hadn’t been heated that high. At that temperature, the whey proteins will denature and coagulate to enhance the viscosity and texture. You won’t become ill if you don’t heat the milk higher than 110 F or so, because the milk has already been pasteurized at some point to that high a temperature and you also won’t be leaving your milk out or in the "danger zone" of 40-140 F for too long. Also the fermentation will create an acidic environment which is a kind of preservative of its own. The "scalding" technique was traditionally done to kill the enzymes that caused milk to spoil before pasteurization came along (although some people do still drink "raw" milk.) So it’s a "recipe issue" that has to do with wanting thicker yogurt** since most people are used to the store-bought yogurts which have had various gums and stabilizers/etc. added to them to make them thicker (and increase unopened shelf life). **adding 1/2 c powdered milk to the liquid milk can help with that too, and not stirring the yogurt after it’s set" Food for thought!

Kind of like the "Italian Wedding Soup"! LOL

What a combination of ingredients for a recipe, Massha!!!…and have you made this??? I am curious to know how it turned out!

BTW – speaking of recipes for the strained liquid – here’s an obscure thing to make:

a tame version of Russian cold soup for Summer called Okroshka (the real version calls for relatively vile base made by putting pieces of rye bread, sugar and water into a jar and letting it all ferment)

So anyhow. cut up a lot of green onions and whatever green herbs you like (dill, parsley); proper way calls for putting salt on it and then mashing it really well with any old implement that can mash; even a large spoon, in the bowl you will be using to make the soup. Add boiled potatoes (cooled of course), cubed; add hard boiled eggs, diced up; add radishes if you like them either diced or shredded large; add cucumber especially the tasty little cucumbers not the giant tasteless wooden ones (but those will do if that’s the only option), diced; add any old cold cuts or salami or even smoked fish, cubed small. Mix it up. Pour the strained yogurt liquid. Mix it up. Add sour cream to taste, if you want, or a little of the actual white yogurt. Eat. Enjoy. 

Some people like adding a little mustard into the soup.

Some people like chiling it more in the fridge.

If you want to make it in advance, make the mix but not add the liquid.

Massha, understand your viewpoint and in the beginning I also thought the same ..lot of fuss to make yogurt, but as I learned quick little tips here and there, and I got better at it, you can make yogurt pretty fast. As the microwave milk sets to cool to room temps, I usally get other duties done around the house and keep checking the temp on the milk. The most important part of making yogurt is that the cooked milk must be at room temps, not too hot nor too cold for the active cultures to work with the cooked milk.That is the secret for making yogurt…that step alone makes good yogurt or not.

I have a  (3) Krups Yogurt makers and make enough at one time that I have yogurt for the entire week or so. Usually I make it at night before I go to bed, then the time to yogurt process is overnight and take it out in the morning before going to work. 

I hope you do try it and see the diference in homemade yogurt…and its so much better than store bought.